Consistency isn't always best

Ho hum.

Another week, another pair of defeats. We're still struggling to raise a first team, and that's weakening the second team - although to be fair the seconds are putting up a hell of a fight in the circumstances, and yet again lost narrowly despite being a man short!

So, the first team. Mick Cryer bravely opened and wore a couple on the elbow for his troubles (nice grazes - looked painful!) But I'm told he batted well against some good pace bowling. Star batting award though goes to Mohammed Zulfiqar, so often complimented for his bowling but this week scoring a good 32 runs with some powerful hits. But at 81 all out, this was never going to be Riddlesden's game. Mind you, they did pick up 4 wickets in response, and for the third week in a row Mohammed Arshad was the pick of the bowlers with 1-5 off 3 overs, though Goher Ayoub pushed him hard with 2-16 off a similar number of deliveries.

The second team made much more of a contest of things, and at one stage looked likely to creep over the line. Bingley Congs made slow work of building a total of 140-7, though some quick singles late in the innings eventually made the difference. Mohammad Qadeer (3-30) bowled well as always, backed up by another impressive display from Zain Naeem (1-21), and a mention to Darren Shields who fought on despite having, as it turns out, broken a bone in his foot early on. Get well soon Darren. Batting saw Zain open for once, and he launched a flurry of sixes in his 31 runs before a rush of blood saw him charge down the pitch and be bowled. Dale Pinkerton scored a decent 33, and Rahim Hussain batted nicely lower down the order with an equally solid looking Matthew Paton, but at one batsman short we missed out by just 18 runs.

On to this week. It's another double header with both teams playing Embsay CC. At home we have the first team, in what should be Jamie Fullwood's last outing as captain for them. The seconds travel to Embsay looking for a win, which based on recent performances is overdue if they can just bat long enough.