East Bierley breeze into Priestley Cup semi-finals

The Division One side have produced a string of impressive displays in the competition this year and the latest saw them post a mighty 311-7 total before they bowled out their Premier Division opponents, Bradford & Bingley, for 194 to record a resounding 117-run win.

Their reward is an away tie against Premier Division title contenders Townville on Sunday, August 8 and they will be hoping that their swashbuckling batting can do the trick once again.

Acting skipper Matthew West and Danny Cross took the attack to Bradford & Bingley after coming together when Sam Gatenby was dismissed with just one run on the board.

The boundaries soon flowed as they put on 188 in 28 overs with Cross cracking 13 fours and a six in his 92 and West smashing eight fours and three sixes in his 90.

Once they were parted more wickets fell to slow the scoring rate, but Paul Martin contributed 28, Dan Abbott 26no and Ben Walter 20 to ensure it was a big score Bradford & Bingley were chasing.

They needed a good start if they were to have any chance of chasing down such a total, but were reduced to 26-3. Although Yasir Abbas (67), Matthew Duce (43) and Arjun Ramkumar (39) tried to turn the tide, the task was too great with Addison Holland taking 4-48 and Jack Hebden 3-34.