BAILEY AGREES MOVE TO CASTLE, WHILE DUO BOOST BIGNALL END
CRICKET: Newcastle & Hartshill have added another NSSCL Premier Division title winner to their squad for the 2023 season. Castle, who ply their trade in North Staffs and South Cheshire League Division One, have announced the signing of Harry Bailey from Porthill Park.
He follows in the footsteps of Staffordshire seamer Dan Gibbs after his switch from the Old County Ground to take on a player-coach role at Newcastle & Hartshill. Spinner Bailey took his first cricketing steps at Porthill Park before having spells at Silverdale and Moddershall & Oulton.
He returned to Porthill Park ahead of the 2018 season and has featured at both first and second-team level for the club.
Last season he claimed 37 wickets in all competitions, while he is also capable of chipping in with handy runs down the order. Newcastle & Hartshill finished in sixth place in Division One last summer and as well as Gibbs, have also recruited Seb Smith who has returned to the club from Checkley.
· BIGNALL End have bolstered their batting unit with the signing of Crewe’s Lewis Bacon.
Bacon, below, makes the step up from Division Four Crewe having spent his entire career at the club. The batsman has notched more than 4,700 runs for Crewe across junior and senior level, but has now decided to jump up the divisions.
He has signed for Division Two Bignall End, who have also managed to retain the services of all-rounder George Harding for 2023. Harding scored more than 1,000 runs and picked up 42 wickets with his left-arm spin in his debut season with Bignall End.
He had linked up with them after a season at Stone SP, having also spent stints at Weston, Crewe and Leek. Harding also played three first-class and eight List A matches for Durham during his time there after impressing during a trial spell which saw him taken on to the Academy. Harding was released by Durham at the end of the 2019 season and returned to the NSSCL in the summer to play for boyhood club Crewe.
He’d spent the formative stages of his career in South Cheshire before switching to Leek for the 2015 campaign.
And during his stint at Leek he was offered a trial by Durham after being recommended to them by his former Cheshire Under17s coach Karl Bamford. Harding suitably impressed and joined the Academy, before linking up with the first-team squad. However, his chances were limited in the north east and his contract wasn’t renewed for the 2020 season.
He made his first-class debut against Glamorgan at Swansea in 2017 - one of three appearances - and also earned a handful of List A appearances.
His maiden first-class wicket was South Africa international Jacques Rudolph.
Harding has also played minor counties cricket for both Staffordshire and Northumberland. Bignall End finished in seventh place in the table in 2022.
· STAFFORDSHIRE’S NCCA Twenty20 Cup double header at Cheshire will take place on May 1. Meanwhile, the venue for the Knockout Trophy clash against Wales, scheduled for Sunday, May 28, has been confirmed as Port Talbot.