Saturday Gloom Gives Way to Sunday Bloom

Last weekend saw Riddlesden field their fourth Captain of the season, as club treasurer and school uniform entrepreneur Ian Brown led the troops out at Gargrave. Could he succeed where so many had failed before? Well he won the toss which was a start!

Gargrave were invited to bat first and Riddlesden had one of their better days in the field. Mohammad Qadeer bowled superbly with 2 wickets for just 17 runs from his 12 overs. He was backed up well by Bob Morrisroe who also took 2 from 12 overs, and only conceded 29 runs in the process. Danny Kernan (1-32), Steve McGarry (1-25 in a rare bowling spell for Cornelius!) and Akeel Rashid (2-30) provided the remaining wickets. I'm informed that Akeel bowled very well this week, probably his best performance of the season so well done! All in all, restricting one of the best teams in the division to only 161-8 off the 45 overs was quite an achievement. Special mention to Greg Ellis for turning out for the club in its hour of need to keep wicket, and pick up a catch in the process.

So, with a very get-able total to chase down, could we win. Well the short answer is no. Yet again, only half of the equation worked out. Time and again this season we have been able to either bat well or field well. Very rarely have we managed to do both, which is why we're in the position we are. Just a bit of consistency and we'd be three or four places higher in the table. To sum up the batting, Akeel top scored with 11.Extras were next with 9. Yes... We stumbled to 59 all out - sadly not our lowest score of the season.

Another defeat then. With Sandy Lane conceding yet again (4 times now) it still leaves us needing two wins to overtake them. We play them in the last game. They may not play again the way things are going - are we going to be relegated in favour of a team that apparently doesn't even exist?

This Saturday is a home match against Bradley CC - a generally nice bunch who beat us comfortably at their place on the hottest day of the year. Will they do us a favour and give us the points? Here's hoping so - we need them. It's a 1:30pm start now as we've moved into September - don't be late!

Finally, the fun day was a huge success. Special guest Lightning McQueen provided a flashy colourful greeting, the bouncy castle was popular with kids (large and small...), the Baileys cupcakes were popular with several of the grown ups, the raffle was popular with Paige Bishop as she won everything seemingly, and everyone had a whale of a time with the dunk tank - well done to all those who 'volunteered' to go on it- even the emptying of it for some kids was fun...

This is what the club is about - providing fun, entertainment and doing its bit for the community - thanks for helping us achieve that.

Though winning a couple of cricket matches would be great too!