Posted by Tony Hutton
A pleasant weekend of cricket with a mixture of league cricket on Saturday and the traditional Sunday friendly cricket of the Arthington festival to follow. The weather stayed fine apart from the coolish breeze on Sunday afternoon, although at North Leeds on Saturday it was noticeable that the temperature sitting in the sun was considerable higher than the shade of the pavilion side. However full marks to the Airedale and Wharfedale league for prolonging the season, with still another Saturday to come next weekend.
North Leeds were entertaining Addingham, from just the far side of Ilkley, with nothing much at stake. The home side won the toss and decided to insert the visitors, who were already several places above them in the league table. It looked a good decision early on with three wickets down by the time thirty five runs were on the board. Indeed three of the top four made only seven runs between them. Richard Atkins, batting at number three, then took over the proceedings and played a dominant innings of 74, with seven fours and three sixes before he was bowled by Tom Hudson when the score reached 121-4.
He had received good support from Ricky Palacio, who made 32. One difficult catch on the long off boundary saw the poor fielder falling over backwards onto a bench, with the ball not only going for six but ending up in a tin of white paint. When the fielder had recovered his composure he had the task of retrieving it from the paint pot. The red ball had turned white and had to be replaced. Enter skipper Ted Haggas who set about the bowling from the word go with a belligerent innings of 82 from only 48 balls.
One of the five sixes he hit was an overhead scoop which landed with a crash on the roof of a parked car, whose owner having parked on the road immediately behind the site screen, no doubt thinking it was in a safe place, was in for a shock. Haggas also hit eight fours and propelled the score well beyond the 200 mark. The innings ended in a flurry of wickets but Addingham's total of 232-9 in fifty overs looked pretty challenging.
North Leeds started well and had reached 63-1 before the tide began to turn. Taran Chana, who had opened the bowling with an economical spell, played the major innings with a sound 61, but unfortunately got little support from his team mates as no one else reached twenty. Again the hero for Addingham was Richard Atkins with splendid figures of 12-1-32-5. So although North Leeds prolonged matters into the forty seventh over they were finally all out for 169, leaving Addingham the winners by 63 runs.
Back to the rural delights of Arthington on Sunday where the visitors were another old established wandering side, Halifax Nomads no less. Arthington were celebrating a double achievement the previous day when the first team won the Nidderdale League Division Three play off at Upper Wharfedale and the second team beat Walton Hall seconds in the Division Eight play off. The first team trophy was proudly on display and after an early wicket star batsmen Naveed Andrabi and Rafullah Khan were soon hitting boundaries all over the place. Both of them made 63 with sixteen fours and seven sixes between them.
Last week's century maker, Lawrence Barraclough, continued where he left off last week, with four more sixes in his rapid 34 and the home side soon had what appeared a match winning total of 237-7 on the board at the end of their forty overs. However the home side's bowlers could not match the batsmen's performance and the visitors, thanks to 119 from N. Smith and 72 not out from J. Lord were able to take a well earned victory by five wickets with only five balls of the game remaining.
Yet more traditional festival entertainment next weekend with games on both Saturday and Sunday.
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