Bradford League: Graham Hilton’s half century helps Gomersal go clear at top

Gomersal are four points clear at the top of Division One of the Gordon Rigg Bradford League after a six-wicket win over Keighley made it three from three for the season.
In the runs: Gomersal's Graham Hilton.In the runs: Gomersal's Graham Hilton.
In the runs: Gomersal's Graham Hilton.

Opener Graham Hilton hit an unbeaten 60 and Andy Gorrod (45) as they chased down the Keighley total of 163. Spinner Chris Greenwood (4-48) was the pick of the Gomersal bowlers.

Birstall and East Bierley are joint second on 55 points after both recorded their third wins of the season.

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Birstall defeated Ossett by 11 runs while East Bierley squeezed home by two wickets at Lightcliffe.

Opener Josh Haynes (69) and Benedict Gundry (66) led the way in Birstall’s 232-8 against previously unbeaten Ossett.

Rain interrupted the Ossett reply and gave them a Duckworth Lewis Stern target of 230 from 42 overs. They were all out for 219 with Juned Delair taking 5-8 and Haynes 4-56.

In-form Ben Walter proved to be a match winner again for East Bierley. After taking 3-29 in helping his side bowl out Lightcliffe for 155, he made a crucial 52 to ensure they won a tight contest.

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An unbeaten 55 from Alex Kennedy plus useful contributions from Abbishek Paradkar (37), James Hardcastle (34) and Nick Ward (31) helped Hartshead Moor to 219-5 as they beat Carlton by 117 runs.

Carlton lost both their openers to ducks with only two runs on the board and never recovered as they were dismissed for 102 to lose by 117 runs. Skipper Dave McCallum (4-12) and Nick Johnson (3-19) were the key bowlers.

Hanging Heaton lost their unbeaten record in the Premier Division as they went down by three runs in a close contest against a Morley side that had not previously won.

Sri Lankan Kavindu Kulasekara produced the best Premier Division bowling performance of the season so far as he took 8-34 to play a big part in dismissing Heaton for 99.

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Few people would have bet on a Morley win when they opted to bat first and slumped to 12-5. Even their eventual total of 102 did not seem likely to pose a serious challenge to Heaton’s powerful batting line-up before Kulasekara’s big contribution.

The batting woes wrecked the earlier good work of bowlers James Byrne (3-30) and Josh Wheatley (3-8).

Methley’s 16-year-old opener Alex Cree hit his second successive century as they made 321-6 on their way to a 207-run win over Batley.

Cree (111) combined with former Batley player Gharib Razak (53) for an opening stand of 112 and it was hard work for the Batley bowlers with Mohammed Bhoola, Adal Islam and Roheil Hussain taking two wickets each. In reply, Batley were all out for 114 with Vibhor Yadav (29) top scoring.

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Woodlands made it three wins from three in the Premier by beating Cleckheaton by 109 runs.

Despite 53 from Ethan Lee and 36 by Harvey Booth Cleckheaton are still looking for their first win as they all out for 156 in reply to 265-7.

Iain Wardlaw, Amir Hussain and Harvey Booth each claimed two wickets for Cleckheaton.

Northowram Fields bowled out Hopton Mills for 114 to wrap up a 60-run win in Division Two.

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Batting first, Northowram made 174 with Umar Abbas again in the wickets with 3-40.

Spen Victoria lost by six runs to Hunslet Nelson in a rain-affected Division Two game.

After being set a revised target of 160 from 45 overs, Spen were all out for 153 with Abbas Khan (44) and Bilal Ejaz (39) top scoring. In the Nelson score of 183-9, Abid Awain took 4-52 and Mohammad Dar 3-37.

Liversedge were edged out by one wicket when they took on East Leeds in Division Three.

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At 56-9 the hopes of second-placed East Leeds extending their unbeaten start to the season seemed unlikely. The modest Liversedge score of 112 looked likely to be enough after Reuben Shuttleworth took 6-65, but Ben Wilkinson had other ideas as he put the bowlers to the sword.

He hit three sixes and the last of his big hits sealed victory at the end of an over from Will Atkin that yielded 26 runs. The unfortunate Atkin had earlier top scored with 32 for Liversedge.

Umar Qureshi hit a superb 132 as Heckmondwike & Carlinghow defeated Crossbank Methodists on a comparison of scores after rain interrupted their game.

Eleven sixes and 13 fours flowed from Qureshi’s bat while Matthew Crowther’s 52 helped Heckmondwike & Carlinghow to 289-8. James Lord made 55, Rizwan Abid (43) and Mohammad Hassan (34) in a Crossbank Methodists score of 172-7 made in 41.2 overs.

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