A mixed weekend for our second team starting their league campaign with a win on Saturday before being knocked out of the Priestley Shield on Sunday.
Our 3rds' game was called off early due to standing water at our opponents ground so they miss out on the chance to have a look at Leeds Gladiators until later this season. While everything looked like our second team fixture would go the same way, captain Simon will be glad we managed to get the game on as we managed to overturn Yeadon in a game reduced to 42 overs a side. Yeadon's bowlers made a good start, bowling opener George Barker first ball of the game before a steadying partnership from Sam Woledge-Wilkinson (19) and Sam Holmes (17) saw off the opening bowlers first spells and gradually accumulated runs. They would surely have scored another 30-50 runs on a quicker outfield with a number of classic drives holding up before the rope. The next few wickets fell quickly before Louis Turner (25) and Harry Brook-Dobson (39*) came to the crease with the scoreline 66-7. These two ensured we batted all our overs not forcing the run rate while attacking when the bowlers strayed too short. When Turner fell in the last over selflessly going after a wideish delivery after again showing he's a great man to come in when under pressure, they had brought the score to 134. Josh Capper was unfortunate to be run out first ball attempting to take a single to the keeper to get Brook-Dobson on strike who then hooked the next ball for 6. Coming off with 143 after it looked like we could be rolled over for far less was a great relief and we were confident we could defend this score. Harry Brook-Dobson took 3-17 with the new ball while seamer Daniel Bell bowled without luck from the other end. A relatively early change from Simon McDermott to bring spinners Josh Capper and Jamie Abbott on was validated as they took the remaining 7 wickets. Capper kept attacking still as one batsman took a liking to his flatter trajectory. His rewards came as he took 4-33 including finishing Yeadon's innings at 92 by duping the batsmen into leaving a ball that turned and took his off stump. Abbott as usual was hard to get away taking his wickets as batsmen tried to attack. He ended with a very tidy 3-5 from his 9 overs. In the absence of long-time wicket keeper Darren Wilson, George Barker had a good showing behind the stumps taking two smart stumpings and a catch.
Sunday's Priestley Shield game against Pudsey Congs 2nd XI proved a tougher test. Put into bat we again found it hard to score. A tidy spell from Pudsey's opening bowler Adam Patrick made early inroads with our top order perhaps trying to score too quickly an a game shortened due to the weather forecast and with powerplays in play. George Barker (23*) had a better day, carrying his bat through Baildon's innings but with wickets falling regularly around him had to bat within himself. Eventually dismissed for 66 we remained optimistic that we could do the same to Pudsey. After making no early inroads with the ball, we at least took a couple of Congs wickets with Jamie Abbott's bowling their opening batsman and ending with 1-4. Jacob Terry took his opportunity with the ball and impressed with his seam bowling, taking an early wicket and continuing to beat the outside edge. When Will Baker found his length he too looked dangerous but couldn't strike. Pudsey eventually knocked our total off 2 down in 23 overs.
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