St Chads win the Wetherby League

Posted by Tony Hutton

Saturday 4th September, 2010 - St Chads Broomfield v Shadwell and Adel v Thackley

The end of season is almost upon us, but lots of reasons to celebrate.

The good news is led by the fact that Peter Davies is back watching cricket after a long illness. All professional cricket watchers will wish him well.

Then as Brian Sanderson reports Burley-in-Wharfedale have won the Airedale and Wharfedale league despite giving life long supporter Peter Mann a few butterflies along the way. Congratulations to Burley and to Peter !

Today I commuted the short distance between Adel and St Chads determined to see history made preferably with Adel avoiding relegation and St Chads winning the Wetherby League.

Win it indeed they did and in fine style too against Shadwell, the Fred Fleetwood cup winners, and a strong side including dynamic young West Indian Ryan Hercules.

Shadwell batted first and in no time had 60-1 on the board in only eight overs, with Hercules looking set for a big score. He hit nine fours out of 37 before being well caught on the long off boundary off spinner Dan Izzard. A vital wicket indeed.

A fifth wicket partnership of 64 put Shadwell back in the game at 131-4, but then wickets fell regularly and Izzard took three more wickets to demolish the tail and the visitors were all out for 167.

Back to Adel to find that the home side had ground their way to 185-7 in 50 overs thanks mainly to a solid 31 from Stuart Howie and some fine hitting from David Standring at the end which brough him 51. The handful of regular supporters were not unduly impressed (when are they ever !) and some had repaired to the clubhouse to watch Leeds Rhinos at Hull on the big screen.

A little later I had to wait until the celebrations which greeted Danny Maguire's try to put the Rhinos ahead had ceased to inform Reg Parker (Adel's number one supporter), that Thackley were 48-6 and Adel in sight of victory. He returned to the cricket in time to see quick bowler Mark Shires finish off Thackley for just 76 with amazing figures of 8-26.

By then I had already returned to St Chads for the coup de grace. When I left St Chads had been 60-3 chasing 168 to win and the game was in the balance. However when I got back the pendulum was swinging towards the home side with a stand of 88 between Mark Bailey and Howard Johnson.

When Bailey was out for 45 including nine fours, Stevens soon followed, but by then St Chads were in sight of a famous victory. No time for nerves as Howard Johnson continued to punish the bowlers, finishing with 67 not out, including eleven fours and one six.

However the man who brought the title to St Chads was Amraze Mahmood who finished it off in style with a huge six over long off which only just missed the two lady scorers trying desperately to keep up with the rapid scoring rate.

St Chads and their small band of supporters celebrated as well they might and scorer
Hilary Oliver just managed to stop shaking in time to join the team picture which shows a lot of very happy smiling faces. Well done St.Chads - their first ever league title.

When the dust had settled it became apparent that Adel's great win had perhaps been in vain as their relegation rivals Pool had also won and collected six points.
So the position at the bottom of the Airedale Wharfedale league table, with North Leeds already relegated, is that Adel have 41 points, as do Pool and Rawdon have 45 points.

Rawdon play Pool in the final match next week and Adel are away to league runners up Beckwithshaw. Apparently if Adel and Pool finish level Pool will stay up as they have won more games. What is clear is that a six point win for Adel means they will stay up. All will be revealed next week.