How many games per week?

Two games in two days seems to be our Achilles heel. And four in 8 days? Well, that's just ridiculous. Fortunately last weekend should see the back of them for this year.

Saturday saw a big game in a top of the table clash against Skipton CI.

An overcast day greeted the teams, and winning the toss Riddlesden chose to make best use of the conditions and bowl first. Unfortunately Skipton didn't appear to have read the script and got off to a strong start, their openers making 67 before Akeel gave Jamie the first of three catches on the day. Runs continued to flow as Bob rang the changes in the bowling attack. Mohammad Shahnawaz again led the way with 3-45 from his 12 overs, and picked up a run out in the field. Biggy chipped in with a pair, but was a bit expensive (2-58), and Zain picked up a wicket in his only over. Mohammad Qadeer was miserly (0-24)as usual. Skipton ended on 235-8, certainly a challenging total, despite best efforts in the field, with an unbeaten 98 from Martin Chisnall the obvious standout performance.

Riddlesden's response began well, with Steve Kernan(26) and Qadeer (42) continuing their good partnership at the top of the order. They do seem to work well together at the crease and enjoy batting with one another. Sadly the rest of the innings failed to produce any meaningful partnerships as wickets fell at regular intervals. Jamie (20)and Danny (18 n/o) gave some hope of a repeat of the famous Embsay finish last season but it wasn't to be and Skipton eventually ran out clear winners by 75 runs.

Sunday's cup game was one we didn't really expect to win. Indeed, up until Thursday it seemed unlikely we would even be able to raise a team to take to Ingrow, so it is a source of pride that we not only fulfilled the fixture (when so many other clubs failed) but at one stage looked as though we may pull off a shock. Facing a team from Division one, our team contained three new last-minute signings of limited experience, and no wicket keeper...

And yet... Ingrow won the toss, elected to bat, and sent out their first team top order to rack up the runs. Instead, Qaddy and Bob used all their experience to restrict the home team, then Danny (3-24) and Zain produced a spell of bowling that reduced Ingrow to 55-5 off 11 overs. Suddenly things looked interesting. Could an unexpected win be on the cards. Enter big hitting Ben Pursey - we were warned that he would either be out quickly or score freely. Sadly it was the latter as he smashed an excellent 108 to lift his team to a final score of 231-8 off the 40 overs. Big shoutout to Akeel though - despite having required medical attention the previous night and advised against playing, he bowled superbly and deserved better than his 2-44 return.

Facing a big target, Bob led from the front (despite handing Zain the captaincy for this game) and opened the batting. Denied a four from the first ball, he manfully dealt with everything thrown at him until finally falling for 3. Ingrow's excellent opening bowlers then ripped through the rest of the team until late defiance from Danny (again!) and one of the newcomers (Junaid?) added an extra 30 runs to make the final score slightly more respectable at 65 all out.

So yes, a big defeat but at least we showed up, and what's more, early on we gave them a scare!

This weekend we travel to Bingley Congs - the other form team after Skipton CI. So a good performance is essential - a win really puts us back in the mix. We will also be welcoming Dale Pinkerton back into the team this week.

Finally, keep an eye out for the World Cup events we are planning. I know it's a minority sport, but some people seem to like football so we'll be holding a sweepstake, guess the goals contest, and whatever else we can think of to part you from your money - I mean give you the chance to enjoy the event even more. We may even open the club for selected England games (so a maximum of three...) More details soon!