ON a glorious day down at Lawkholme, Keighley’s first eleven started their Bradford Premier League Division One campaign hosting much-fancied Pudsey Congs.

The home team had several debutants in skipper Scott Etherington, Billy Whitford, Ijaz Ahmed and the returning Simon Bailey.

Etherington won the toss and invited Pudsey to bat first on what was thought to be a wicket that would give some assistance to seam bowling.

However, they did not reckon upon Pudsey’s first three batsman of Callum Oliver, Sabir Mahmood and Richard Jubb, who all played very sensible cricket, giving nothing away but punishing the bad ball.

When Jubb was dismissed, Pudsey had amassed 124-2 and even though the Keighley attack started to make inroads into the batting line up, Oliver did not give in until he was eventually dismissed for 71.

With Oliver gone and the visitors on 163-6, Keighley had a chance of keeping the score below 200 but were thwarted by an unbroken seventh wicket stand of 71 between Joshua Bennett (22) and Vinit Patel, who hit a brutal 46 off just 25 balls.

That took Pudsey to a very challenging 234-6 at the break.

Pick of the Keighley bowlers was veteran Paul Quinlan, who took 4-61.

Keighley’s reply never really got going and other than a gritty 23 from opener Whitford and a fluid 40 from Quinlan in the middle order, the home team were dismissed for just 122, some 112 runs short.

This was not the start that a new look Keighley wanted or were expecting but with the addition of soon to be arriving overseas player Noah McFadyen, they hope to make amends quickly at Carlton this coming weekend.

A very strong Keighley second string travelled to Buttershaw at the weekend in the Bradford Premier League's Division Two reserves league, having been relegated the previous season.

Keighley skipper Jamie Wilmshurst won the toss and was more than happy to ask Buttershaw to bat first on a very green wicket.

It did not take long for the first wicket to fall, with Ben Helmsley in a particular vicious mood as he tore through the Buttershaw batting line up with 5-12 runs in his eight overs, four of those wickets being clean bowled.

This allowed Wilmshurst to blood some of his younger bowlers on the middle and lower order and he was pleased to see both of his young spinners, Mohammed Abbas and Louie Wilkinson, take two wickets each with the home team being bowled out for a paltry 58 in the 22nd over.

In reply, young Bradford & Bingley loanees Noah Thirkill and Awais Khan opened the batting with Thirkill being particularly impressive scoring 14 runs.

But the main plaudits went to the returning Humayan Shahzad, who missed the 2021 season because of a cruciate ligament operation.

Not taking long to get himself in, Shahzad confidently smashed 31 not out in just 20 deliveries, including three sixes, to get Keighley over the line with a six-wicket victory.

The seconds entertain Sandal at Lawkholme this coming weekend.