This week we have one of our hardest working volunteers, Steve Mottram, running his strimmer over Saturday's upcoming matches...
Simon Bailey; producing another chance at leg slip
Today we would like to welcome the players and spectators travelling the short distance from Keighley to Jenny Lane. In the ranks of the Keighley team will be a player well known to everyone associated with Baildon, Simon Bailey, who played for Baildon for 9 years. During this time he served as skipper for a number of years and made made many friends within the club. As I said to Simon before he left, we wish him luck in the future, but come this Saturday we hope he has an off day; as the side look to get back to winning ways after last weeks defeat to Birstall.
Besides having a former Baildon player in their team, Keighley also have many talented individuals who are capable of match-winning performances on their day. None more so than their overseas, Noah Mcfyden from Australia. So far in his short spell in the Bradford league, he has scored 2 centuries along with being a very useful bowler. Add to this the likes of Paul Quinlan, and it’s clear that Keighley are a very useful team, who should give us a hard game. Positions in the league table suggest that it should be a good game as Baildon are just above them, so we need to be focused on the job at hand.
Moving away from today’s match, I would like to mention the form of the other 3 teams besides the 1st XI. The seconds, as Daz Wilson has stated previously, are struggling to have a settled team due to injuries, holidays etc. They did however achieve a much needed win last Saturday against Lightcliffe at Jenny Lane. Daz played a captain’s innings, leading the team to victory with a hard fought 36 not out. Despite the selection issues, there have been a few encouraging signs so far. None more so than the bowling of Sam Kelly, who up to date is the leading wicket taker in their division with 19 wickets.
The knock on effect of having to constantly feed players to the teams above them has not seemed to effect the thirds and fourths so far, as they are doing well in their respective divisions. As things stand at the moment, the 3rds are currently unbeaten. This is down to a blend of experienced players, mixed with players who have come through the junior ranks at Baildon. This is also the case with the fourth team. This is very encouraging to see and hopefully the junior players can progress to a higher level given the right amount of time and support.
So special mention goes out to the junior coaches at Baildon for the running of the junior sections and bringing these players up through our pathways, to play their part in competitive adult cricket. Hopefully we will see more and more homegrown players reaching the 1st team.
Good luck to all 4 teams on Saturday and hopefully we get a clean sweep, pardon the pun!
Steven Mottram
Baildon Committee Member