Earle keen to put a dent in Lane’s hopes
Mytholmroyd will be looking to do their Foster’s Halifax League Premier Division title hopes the power of good on Saturday. ‘Royd play host to runaway leaders and current champions Jer Lane in the day’s big fixture.
This was due to have been the second meeting between the two but the first fixture, on june 7, was washed out by the weather.
It is a game ‘Royd will be desperate to win as they trail Lane by 21 points with fixtures rapidly running out.
Both sides are in good form with ‘Royd picking up their full quota of points last weekend following a resounding eight wicket success over bottom club Sowerby St Peters.
‘Royd skipper Tom Earle realises that time is running out on his side’s chances of overhauling their rivals, but will not concede the chase until the maths tell him otherwise.
“It’s going to be tough because we all know that Jer Lane are a very good side,” said Earle.
“The league table doesn’t lie and they are there because they deserve to be.
“I said that if we wanted to win the league then we would need to beat Jer Lane twice. Unfortunately, the first meeting was rained off which means we have got alot to do now.
“Twenty one points is a big lead with only three matches left but we are certainly not giving up.
“We’re going to keep trying until it is mathematically impossible to catch them.”
Earle said his side were likely to be at full strength apart from the loss of injured bowler Chris White.
“Chris got injured in the Thornton game and at the moment he is just taking his recovery week by week,” said Earle.
“He has already told me he won’t be available this weekend and it could be we have to do without Chris for the rest of the season.
“He will be a big miss as he has taken loads of wickets over the last three years. We will now need to look at the other bowlers to make up for his absence.”
While Mytholmroyd know they will need to be on top of their game to get a result against Jer Lane, they will also need to keep an eye on neighbours Booth who are in third and handily-placed to take ad- vantage of any slip ups.
“It’s going to be a really interesting end to the season,” said Earle.
“We are good friends with the Booth players and there is plenty of friendly rivalry.
“We will have to make sure we don’t slip up and give them the chance to finish higher than us.”
Sowerby’s cause was not helped by the weather last weekend as their original total of 116 was reduced to 91 following a rain break.
Gavin Clarke did his best to post a healthy target with an unbeaten 61, but too many wickets went down cheaply with Earle (three for 49), Tom Greenwood (three for 41) and Zahid Mahmood (two for 16) the men responsible.
As a result Mytholmroyd sensed blood and Earle hit six fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 48 to steer the side to victory.
“It was a good victory but to be fair to Sowerby St Peters they did have quite a few good players missing through other commitments,” said Earle.
Third- placed Booth banked eight points from a 59 run success over Copley in a game where both sides lost two overs due to the weather.
Ian Hartley proved a thorn in Booth’s side as he went on to record figures of five for 94.
However, Richard Laycock found the boundary on numerous occasions before he gave Hartley a return catch after making 80.
John Potkins then speeded things up with 47 from 23 balls as Booth totalled 253 for seven.
Copley made a decent start with Toby Thorpe (49), Chris Dennison (30) and Oliver Thorpe (40) making good contributions, but they were never able to get away as Laycock (three for 37) and Nigel Horsfall (two for 29) restricted them to 194 for six.
Booth v Blackley (M Summerscales), Copley v Northowram (R Pollard), Jer Lane v Thornton (P Halstead0, Sowerby Bridge v Triangle (A Hussain), SBCI v Warley (R Wilkinson) Sowerby v Clayton (B Tennyson. Premier Division, seconds: Booth v Blackley (M Summerscales), Copley v Northowram (R Pollard), Jer Lane v Thornton (P Halstead0, Sowerby Bridge v Triangle (A Hussain), SBCI v Warley (R Wilkinson) Sowerby v Clayton (B Tennyson. Warley 19 9 4 0 4 27 Copley 19 6 5 0 4 45 Sowerby Bridge19 6 5 0 4 41 Booth 19 5 5 0 4 40 Triangle 19 7 10 5 26 Jer Lane 19 6 3 0 4 31 S.B.C.I. 19 5 2 0 4 42 Thornton 19 4 3 0 5 42 Blackley 19 140 4 57 Northowram 19 3 1 0 4 38 Clayton 19 220 4 34 Sowerby St P 19 0 10 4 26 Division One, seconds: Low Moor v Wibsey Park (P Butterfield), Old Crocs v Stones (P Taylor), Outlane v Mytholmroyd (R Davies), Southowram v Oxenhope (S Pullen ). Southowram 18 10 3 0 4 19 Stones 18 5 2 0 4 29 Low Moor 18 3 4 0 4 42 Outlane 18 3 3 0 4 46 Mytholmroyd 18 5 10 4 27 Wibsey P.C. 18 5 0 0 4 26 Old Crossleyans18 4 2 0 4 24 Oxenhope 18 3 3 0 4 29 159 145 141 128 124 123 118 112 93 86 74 38 Division Two, seconds: Bridgeholme v Bradshaw (S Booth), Cullingworth v Luddendenfoot (G Cowgill), Greetland v Old Town (S Wyatt), Queensbury v Shelf (E Owens). Greetland 15 8 2 0 3 12 Bridgeholme 15 8 0 0 4 11 Queensbury 16 6 2 0 4 25 Bradshaw 15 5 2 0 4 23 Cullingworth 17 4 10 6 23 Denholme Cl 16 4 0 0 4 31 Luddenden Foot15 3 1 0 5 20 Shelf 15 3 10 5 19 Old Town 16 0 0 0 5 30 159 105 102 102 99 94 88 85 122 115 113 99 87 87 70 69 40