RALEIGH HARGREAVES CUP FINAL [U15] DEFEAT

With the weather forecasst not good for Sunday 14th September, the Cup Final replay was brought forward to a 10;30am start. Steeton won the toss and and asked Oakworth to bat. At 11-1 Haroon [5] was first to fall for us caught behind off Archie Cox. His partner Freddie had dug in for 22 balls but managed only 3 before he too was out at 19-2 also caught behind this time off Harry Wilkinson. Harry Robinson and skipper Joe began a rebuild but Harry [9] gave Frank Binns a wicket with a third catch for Steeton at 30-3. Spencer Cup Final hero for Oakworth, Callum joined the fray and helped the score on to a much better 52 when Joe was bowled by Oliver White for 14. His fall heralded a mini-collapse with three more wickets [Callum 14, Henty Payne 2 and Beau 0] with only 9 runs added. The innings was petering out at 70-9 but a late flurry by the last pair Zak [3] and Zoraiz [13] propelled the still below par total to 88-9 after the agreed 25 overs were bowled. The Steeton attack had stuck to its strategy with 2 wickets each for Cox, White, Wilkinson and Freddie Wilkinson and a single scalp for Frank Binns.

We needed an early wicket to set our response in motion, and we got it at 5-1 with the scalp of Steeton top scorer Freddie Padgett [3] who had earlier claimed 3 catches behind the timbers. But that was the end of our wicket tumbling as Cox and Elliot Howarth combined to add 52 runs before Cox retired not out fot 37 at 57-1. Howarth went on to make 33 no and Steeton claimed the victory with almost 7 overs in hand, by 9 wickets.