Woodlands record thrilling one run victory over Pudsey Congs

Mark Lawson followed up his 35 with the bat by claiming 3-61 as Woodlands earned a one-run win over Pudsey Congs in the Bradford Premier League last Saturday, a result which sees the Oakenshaw side up to third place in the table.

Batting first, Woodlands posted 201-7 which was thanks largely to the efforts of Sam Frankland and Mark Lawson.

Frankland shared an opening wicket stand of 59 with Tim Jackson (25) before Congs fought back to take six wickets for 70 runs and leave the home side struggling on 129-6 as Yorkshire’s Ryan Gibson claimed 3-54.

Lawson (35) and Scott Richardson shared a crucial 72-run stand with the latter making 29 not out off just 25 balls including a four and two sixes to boost the final total above 200.

Congs lost opener Josh Wheatley without scoring but fought back as Zahid Nissar (59), James Ford (49) and Danish Hussain (35) all made good contributions and at 164-4 Congs appeared favourites to claim victory.

Scott Richardson (3-39) and Lawson (3-61) led the fight back as the final six Congs wickets fell for 36 runs and they were bowled out for 200 despite having eight balls of their innings remaining.

Cleckheaton slipped to a seventh defeat of the season at the hands of New Farnley and are third-bottom just 11 points clear of Congs.

New Farnley were boosted by the inclusion of Yorkshire’s Andrew Hodd and county fitness coach Ian Fisher and they eased to a 146 run win.

Hodd fell for 12 but with Richard Atkins (67), Dave Cummings (51) and Simon Lambert (32) leading the way, New Farnley reached 232-7, with spinner Qaisar Ashraf again the best of the Cleckheaton bowlers with figures of 4-59.

The left-arm spin of Fisher ripped through the Cleckheaton batting line-up as he took 6-22 and the visitors were bowled out for 86.

Nick Lindley (15) and John Wood (18) were the only batsmen to reach double figures as Farnley completed an easy win.

East Bierley avenged their opening day defeat by Lightcliffe by earning a 39-run win in the return fixture.

Half centuries from Shaaiq Choudhary (81), Adam Patel (67) and Mark Gill (50) propelled East Bierley to 264-7.

Opener Alex Stead led the way for Lightcliffe with a fine innings of 82, but they were restricted to 225-9 with Umar Yaqub taking 5-77.