Keighley 212-4

Spen Victoria 200-8

KEIGHLEY captain led by exampled with a five-wicket haul as his side remained top of All Rounder Cricket Bradford Premier League Championship Two.

Wining the toss, Keighley skipper Paul Quinlan elected to bat first on a good looking Spen wicket in a hope that in-form batsman Richard Gould could again get the team off to a good start.

He was not disappointed as Gould, backed up by several cameo performances, set about the Spen bowling attack to compile his second century of the season.

Batting their allotted 50 overs, Keighley posted 212-4 with Gould out on 100 and backed with good performances from Nathan Storton (42) and Louis Horsfield (35 not out).

Spen’s poor season so far has been primarily down to their batting performances so it was typical that they chose this game to put that right as their batsmen steadily compiled a decent total.

Fortunately for Keighley, skipper Quinlan is also in a rich vein of form with the ball and thanks to his 5-34, they managed to restrict Spen to 200-8 in their 50 overs, giving them a 12-run victory.

Keighley’s position at the top has now been reduced to 15 points thanks to Wakefield St Michaels crushing victory at East Ardsley. They entertain Birstall at Lawkholme this weekend, an important game with Birstall sitting third.

Meanwhile, Keighley seconds are now 53 points clear at the top of Championship Two after victory at Spen Victoria seconds.

Winning the toss, Spen elected to bat first and got off to an explosive start as Spen skipper Adam Keith crashed a quickfire 40 from just 24 deliveries. This was before being cleaned up by Ben Jagger with the score at 68.

Spen’s batsmen, though, were unable to capitalise on the start given to them by their skipper. Other than a solid 31 from other opener Liam Grant, they were unable to offer any resistance to the Keighley attack and were eventually bowled out for 119 in just the 28th over.

Hami Shahzad, Keighley skipper on the day in the absence of Alex Towler returned excellent figures of 6-25, backed by Jagger with 3-41.

In reply, it took just 23 overs for the Keighley batsmen to chase down the score with the loss of just three wickets.

All Keighley batsmen helped chip in for the win, Martin Walker (16), Azeem Hussain (35), Shahzad (25) and 28no from Danny Murphy saw them home.

In cup action, a much-weakened Keighley second string travelled to Premier League outfit Pudsey Congs in the quarter-finals of the Priestley Shield.

Pudsey won the toss and did not hesitate in electing to bat first.

Keighley’s bowlers got off to a good start and were able to restrict Pudsey to only 60 runs from the first 20 overs.

However, Pudsey number three Jacques Allen had other ideas as he smashed the Keighley attack, scoring a magnificent 157 off only 116 deliveries including 18 fours and six sixes. This helped his team to post a mammoth score of 305-7 in 50 overs.

This was always going to be a challenge for the Keighley batsmen to chase down and despite a battling 39 from stand-in skipper Hami Shahzad and 32 from Ash Robinson, Keighley were all out for 155, losing the game by 150 runs.