I'm sure she was watching...

And so the big day arrived... After 70 years on the throne, the Queen celebrated her platinum jubilee glued to Play Cricket watching the score in the top of the table clash between Riddlesden and Eldwick & Gilstead rather than some stuffy star strewn celebration. Obviously!

On a blustery day, it was amusing to see some of the Ridldlesden lads confused at having to use the away changing room as it was Eldwick's home tie. But they accepted it in good humour and Gully got off to a good start by winning the toss and electing to bat. As I see as much of Eldwick as I do Riddlesden, I'm fully aware that they are a good bowling unit and so it proved to be on Saturday as Kamran was bowled for a duck in a very rare failure. This was to be the first of five wickets for AJ on the day. At the other end though, Naveed took a liking to Arnie's bowling and struck a pair of fours from his first over. In his second over, Nav plonked a couple of sixes over the net and into the river before adding a maximum to his tally from AJ for good measure. Sadly in the 9th over Nav's fun ended as he was caught of AJ for a fine 38 with 34 of them coming in boundaries. Aftab took up the mantle with a four and a six in his first three balls, then lost another of Eldwick's balls, this time in the nature reserve. But a rapid 28 off 17 deliveries came to an end with the score on 85-3 after 12 overs. A big score looked on, but we hit a sticky patch as Shanny(13) & Ehsan(1) were both out on 89. Akeel and Gully began to repair the innings, Akeel beginning to show his natural ability before being caught by Arnie for 17. Gully was joined by debutant Nasser Hussain, replacing the unwell Arshad and the pair dug in with some aplomb. The scoring rate dropped but wtih plenty of time left, the important thing was to avoid losing any more wickets and keep the score ticking over. A partnership of 17 stabilised thing and bought us a second batting point by the time Gully (11) was bowled by Sharp. Arfan, fresh from his heroics last week joined Nasser, and once again showed that he can play some classy shots. Nasser (14) was stumped on 147, and Ibrahim only managed to get the score up to 150 before he too departed, so as Zullie walked to the crease we looked a little light. But Zullie is no frightened number eleven bunny. It may not have been a long stay at the crease, but it was effective with a four and a six in his 13 runs before the innings closed with Riddlesden posting 171 all out.

Time to see what Eldwick could muster in response. AJ has hit 3 centuries at Riddlesden, Timperley has been on form with the bat this season, and Sharp & Bayliss are both big hitters so 171 is within their ability. Having said that, the first 17 deliveries only produced 2 runs as Zullie and Arfan kept things tight. Carberry rather spoilt things on the 18th ball by picking it off his legs for a boundary though, and worse was to come in Zullie's next over as he did the same again but this time lobbed it into the river in a little act of revenge against us losing so many of their balls. Zullie cleverly denied him this opportunity again by deliberately bowling just a tad wider, but the two openers continued to steadily accumulate, Finally Carberry was caught behind by Naveed off Zullie for 21 and Unsworth followed to the same pair two overs later, leaving Eldwick on 37-2 a third of the way through the innings. Aftab (4-21) entered the fray (later described by Eldwick's Dan Kilvington as 'how can somebody that good be playing in this league') and quickly bowled Timperley and Sharp before picking up another pair later - all bowled. In the meantime Hall & Child built a nice steady partnership, taking the score from 51 to 91 before Chris was run out (controversially according to the Eldwick onlookers, but it looked fine to me standing in line with the stumps) - but by this point there were only 11 overs remaining and they still needed 81 to win. With scoreboard pressure mounting, Arnie didn't last long as he went down swinging. Jordan Bayliss hit a six in a frenetic 13 before also falling to Shanny (2-22), and Hall was brilliantly caught & bowled by Arfan for 21. Eldwick closed on 113 all out and the win went to Riddlesden.

Seven wins from seven. Another 19 points in the bag. And bragging rights to boot! We remain top on 137 points. Eldwick retain second spot despite only picking up 6 points leaving them on 109, a point ahead of Glusburn who won comfortably at Skipton.

This week we are at home for the last time in a while (cup game excepted, if Gully ever gets a date for it :-) ) against Barrowford. They sit in 5th place with 4 wins from 7 and looked pretty good against Eldwick a few weeks ago. Bonus points suggest they're more of a bowling than batting team, and it was their bowlers that clinched it against Eldwick. Here's hoping for dry sunny batting weather!