Pontefract Cricket League: Townsend is five star for leaders Ackworth

A five-wicket haul from Luke Townsend helped Ackworth to come out on top against Streethouse as they held onto top spot in Division One of the Pontefract League.
Six wickets: Frickley Colliery's Kieran Mcintyre.Six wickets: Frickley Colliery's Kieran Mcintyre.
Six wickets: Frickley Colliery's Kieran Mcintyre.

Ackworth remain eight points clear of Fairburn with four games remaining and the two clubs having already met twice.

They did their bit to keep the pressure on their rivals with a solid all-round display highlighted by Townsend’s 5-53 as Streethouse were dismissed for 146 in reply to 258-8.

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Streethouse fell 112 runs short despite an unbeaten 70 from Dylan Bowles, who hit 10 fours and a six.

After being put in, Ackworth had responded by putting together a good batting display, led by Lovepreet Singh, who hit 86no from 77 balls, with eight fours and a six, John Wood (68, including 12 fours) and Bailey Matthews (34).

Amjad Hussain was the pick of Streethouse’s bowlers with 3-44 while Craig Bryant and Craig Ellison took two wickets each.

Elsewhere in the top division, Kieran Mcintyre’s 6-43 paved the way for Frickley Colliery’s seven-wicket success against Darton.

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After bowling their opponents out for 151, sixth-placed Frickley comfortably reached their target with Lewis Binns hitting an unbeaten 50 and support coming from Akash Rawal (28) and Ashley Vickers (22).

Despite an unbeaten 41 from Gavin Stevens, Hemsworth MW fell 135 runs short of Hatfield Main’s 299-6 total.

Hemsworth were all out for 164 with Tom Hemingway also scoring 29 and Andy Briggs 23.

Hatfield’s innings owed much to an unbeaten 131 from Mark Best while Max and Jack Heritage took two wickets each.

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Hundhill Hall were skittled for 99 on their way to a 10-wicket defeat to Fairburn with only Jed Wilkinson (23) making any sort of impact.

Kippax boosted hopes of promotion from Division Two as they began catching up games and enjoyed a double success.

Victories over Old Sharlston and Hensall moved them up to second place with a number of games in hand on all the teams round them.

Saturday’s 41-run success against Old Sharlston came after they went in first and posted a 212-9 total with leading contributions from Mahmadsoyeb Gheewala (65), Zubair Badat (36) and Zuber Patel (33).

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Sharlston were then bowled out for 171 as Shakil Khan (3-36) and Zuber Patel (3-41) led the attack well.

Kippax played one of their games in hand against Hensall and were winners again, by a big 152-run margin.

A terrific knock of 90 from Yunus Valimulla helped them pile up 330-6, with contributions also from Munawar Chariwala (51no), Zubair Badat (48) and Vasimraja Truckwala (47).

Hensall never got close to chasing the big target despite Chris Thornton’s 100 as they were all out for 178. Kippax used seven bowlers and all of them had wicket success.

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Jack Pugh’s 47 helped Knottingley Town get home for a seven-wicket success in their Division Two match against Pollington.

They were replying to Pollington’s innings of 107, which had been restricted by a strong Town attack led by Craig Larrington (3-36).

Skipper Lewis Longstaff led from the front as Whitley Bridge beat Streethouse seconds by four wickets.

Opening batsman Longstaff was unlucky not to get a century when falling four short after cracking 13 fours and a six.

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But his team did well to pass Streethouse’s 247-7 total with further valuable contributions coming from James Pearson (42no) and Mathew Daniel (28).

In Streethouse’s innings, Jacob Tucker hit 55 and captain Johnathan Nickerson (45) while Pearson (3-73) was the most successful Bridge bowler.

Bottom of the table Featherstone Town were shot out for 81 as they went down by 223 runs to Horbury Bridge in Division Three.

Richard Whiting did hit 47, but Town never threatened to chase down their opponents’ big 304-6 total. Richard Colley took 3-94.

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Ferrybridge Power Station were back to winning ways in Division Four when they beat Bullcroft Main by 106 runs.

Three-wicket hauls from Jack Hart, Adam Briddon and Neil Tucker completed the job after Ferrybridge had batted well to make 261-4.

Andrew Adams top scored with 89, including 13 fours and a six, while Hart cracked 14 boundaries in a knock of 75 and Marc Lumb hit 35.

Allerton Bywater did a good job in the field to keep Denby Grange to 151-9, but could not follow it up with their batting.

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Despite 56 from Antony Muscroft and 34 by Michael Sunderland they were all out for 121.

Nick Finnigan’s unbeaten 96 for Grange proved decisive as the rest of the their batting struggled against an attack led by Matt Weaver (3-31) and Richard Lamb (3-39).