Club cricket
News, results and fixtures from the ECB Premier Leagues
Pages 30-33
WHEN two batsman put on a 268-run partnership you might assume it to be their highest ever but for Hanging Heaton’s Gary Fellows and Nick Connolly it was just another Saturday afternoon.
The pair have produced three partnerships of more than 200 runs with their most recent coming against Pudsey Congs in a convincing 234-run victory at Bennett Lane.
Fellows smashed 146 from 130 deliveries with Connolly finishing on an unbeaten 123 as they inched Hanging Heaton towards their first Bradford Premier League title in 18 years.
There is no real secret to their success, according to club captain Fellows, but he does admit the right-hand, left-hand, partnership can leave bowlers in a spin.
The 39-year-old said: “I think we’re probably two very different players. We’re a right-hand and left-hand combination and Nick is more of an accumulator of runs so we have differing styles.
“It’s one of them things that once we get ourselves in we have the potential to make top scores. We are the type of characters that we want to make the opposition pay once you’re past the new ball.
“It’s our jobs to set a platform and we want to take the game away from teams as much as possible early on. Nick will like to build an innings and I’m a bit more attacking so that mixture can make it difficult for the opposition.
“We’re getting to the point of the season where every point is essential, we’re scrapping to try and win the Bradford League so it was important.”
Another huge partnership was far from on the cards when the pair were on just 20 from seven overs as the rain started to come down.
But the duo hit the ground running following the rain delay to help Heaton to 291-1.
And the phenomenal partnership might have earned the openers the prize for the highest opening stand in the league for the third successive season.
Fellows, from Halifax, added:“At home to East Bierley we got 299 together in 2015, which is our highest. I think we’ve had three 200-plus partnerships since we’ve opened the batting.
“Opening is something I’ve done for a while, I’m used to that. We’re quite an experienced team and I guess as a captain you want to lead by example and if you can get in there and lay a marker down then that’s part of my job.”
Three more wins would seal the title for Hanging Heaton for the first time in almost 20 years but Fellows is not thinking too much about the possible success.
He said: “It would be brilliant for the club, the lads in the first team deserve this as well as everyone behind the scenes who provide us with the ground. It would be fantastic but we’re not past the finishing line yet.”