Hi everyone,
This week sees the first week where all 4 of our Saturday teams take to the field after the first and seconds started their season last weekend.
It's fair to say that for the first team the opening day didn't go according to plan as we lost heavily to Carlton. Both captain and vice captain Dwayne and Kev performed well but lacked the support from the remainder of the team so we hope for a big improvement at what is always a strong Morley side.
The seconds opened with a win and will hope that they maintain their 100% start on Saturday at home to Farsley before entertaining Crossflatts in the Cup on Sunday.
Our third and fourth teams play at home to Cookridge and away at Rodley respectively which means the annual nervous moment when the flannels are pulled on only to realise you've grown several chest and waist sizes during an overindulgent winter. Either that or taken a leaf out of Paul Hannan's book and packed the Egyptian Cotton Pillowcases instead of your trousers.
Speaking of Paul, Saturday will see two father and son combinations in the thirds with Josh joining Paul and Sam Butterfield taking the field alongside dad James. Mind the expletives Paul....
2021 was a fantastic year for the thirds and in any other year two league defeats would have meant a league title but due to the strength of both Interlink and Yorkshire LPS it wasn't to be with us narrowly missing out on promotion. The squad is largely the same and we have to be hopeful of being near the top of the division.
The 4s travel to the Greyhound Pub at Tong to take on Rodley and anyone who has played there will testify it's a very small ground so if the windscreens at Jenny Lane were under threat last week they certainly will be at Tong this weekend. Again the side will have a blend of youth and experience as they look to compliment the third team squad and give opportunities to our younger players along the way.
Whilst focusing on our third and fourth teams, it would be remiss of me not to highlight and congratulate the hardwork put in by Andy Norton and Dave Hodgson, who continue to put in hour upon hour of hard graft striving to return our Belmont (Sandals) ground to the standards that Don Butterfield and Bernard Greaves upheld for many years.
On a personal note I've not paid too many visits to the club in pre season but it's great to hear that there is the same level of enthusiasm for starting the season as there has been in previous years and this year there's an added edge to the competition with the launch of our Fantasy Cricket. Thanks to Simon Bullock for setting this up (although I was disappointed to be only rated at 1 million despite my wagon wheel range!). It's a bit of fun for a fiver and entries close at midnight tonight. If you go to the fund Raising section of this website, click on the Fantasy Cricket page and everything is explained there.
Finally, a very important date for your diary is the annual Beer & Gin Festival from 1st to 3rd July at the Club. Again there will be a range of drinks alongside live music and the addition of more food vans. We are looking for sponsors (£75 for a beer barrel, £40 for a bottle of gin or £110 for one of each), in return you'll get a £20 drinks voucher, a mention in the programme and on our website/social media (please get on touch if you want to sponsor). We need volunteers to work the bar so make sure you're free to help out for a few hours over the weekend to make it another big success and not leave it to the same faces to do all the work.
Good luck to everyone who is taking the field this weekend.
Ashley Free
Chairman
Teams
1st XI 2nd XI 3rd XI 4th XI
Morley (away) Farsley (Jenny Lane) Cookridge (Sandals) Rodley (away)
Dwayne Heke (cpt) | Darren Wilson (cpt) | Dave Hodgson (cpt & wk) | Andy Norton (cpt) |
James Ford (wk) | George Barker | Tawseef Ahmed | Akeel Ahmed |
Kevin Mcdermott | Simon Mcdermott | Dan Grimmitt | Ashley Free |
Jonny Reynolds | Sam Woledge-Wilkinson | James Butterfield | Ben Fawkes (wk) |
Will Kelly | Danny Hunt | Tom Dixon | Leela Modhwadia |
Chris Reynolds | Adam Dean (wk) | Louis Turner | Leo Smalley |
Joel Newlove | Sam Holmes | Harry Brook-Dobson | Parth Sunil |
Aakash Dutta | Sam Kelly | Paul Hannan | Tim Joy |
Usman Shakir | Ben Grimmitt | Sam Butterfield | Will Baker |
Haris Hussain | Dan Metcalfe | Josh Hannan | Zeeshan Ahmed |
Umar Zahoor | Brett Kinsey | Sam Miller | Darren Barber |
2nd team Priestley Shield vs Crossflats; Dan Metcalfe, Brett Kinsey, Adam Dean are replaced by Louis Turner, Jamie Abbott and TBC