KEIGHLEY’S hopes of promotion from Division Two of the Bradford Premier League are surely over now.
Four straight league wins had put them in the hunt, but a disappointing defeat to Northowram Fields at the end of July was a setback.
And it got no better at the weekend, as their cancelled game with Liversedge on Saturday was followed up by a surprise four-wicket defeat against Buttershaw St Paul’s.
Hosts Buttershaw put Keighley into bat, and they were going along nicely at 61-0.
But the wicket of Mohammad Shahnawaz for 22 sparked a dramatic collapse and they slipped to 65-5.
Numbers three through to six all made ducks, but fortunately, Louie Wilkinson (35) and Jamie Wilmshurst (30) helped them recover by putting on 60 for the seventh wicket.
Keighley eventually made it to 173 all out, at least giving themselves something to defend.
Wilkinson and Amjid Hussain took three wickets apiece in Buttershaw’s chase, and though the home side wobbled from 116-2 to 116-5, they regained their composure to win by four wickets.
Keighley are now down in sixth, and at 44 points off the promotion spots, with only five games to go, their hopes of going back up to Division One at the first attempt have surely disappeared.
In the Reserves Division Two competition, Keighley beat Liversedge by five wickets on the Saturday, before their Sunday clash with fellow high-fliers East Leeds was called off.
The second sit fourth and are just 13 points off the promotion spots.
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