Mighty Methley are West Yorkshire Champions!!

West Yorkshire Kwik Cricket Champions 2012 - Methley Primary School

On Tuesday 26^th June, the Methley Cricket Team (Josh Neal, Harvey Walker, Liam Birrell, Luke Phillips, Ross Carrington, Joe Oliver, Finlay Rooke and Daniel Ford) travelled to Weetwood Playing fields to represent Leeds in the West Yorkshire School Game Kwik Cricket finals. After finishing runners up in the previous stage and with key player Euan Cowan missing, the team were slightly apprehensive about the challenge that lay ahead of them. Upon arriving the team were drawn in Pool 1 alongside Bankfoot Primary School, Northawram Primary School, Cawley Lane J, I and N School and Stanley St. Peters.

Game 1 – Methley 258 beat Cawley Lane J, I & N School 204

The first game saw Methley produce a brilliant fielding and bowling performance. Three wickets in the first over from Josh Neal set the tone for the rest of the team to follow. 2 wickets for Luke Phillips and 1 a piece from Joe Oliver, Finlay Rooke and Ross Carrington meant that Cawley were only able to muster 204 runs. Baring in mind that each innings started on 200 runs this was some achievement. Buoyed by their brilliant bowling performance the Methley batsmen set about chasing the total. All of the pairs batted with excellent style but the final pair of Daniel Ford and Liam Birrell played some devastating shots, dispatching the bowlers all over the field to record 30 runs from their 12 balls.

Game 2 - Methley 301 beat Stanley St. Peters 214

The second game followed a very similar pattern to the first. Fantastic fielding and bowling from Methley restricted the Stanley team to 214. The wickets were again shared between the team with Josh, Ross, Joe and Daniel all grabbing a wicket each. The batsmen again set about destroying the bowling of the opposition. An opening stance of 42, including six sixes from Josh Neal, set the platform for the rest of the team. In addition to this 21 from Harvey and Ross and 29 from Liam and Daniel made for a comfortable victory.

Game 3 – Methley 297 beat Bankfoot 197

With their confidence now growing the Methley boys were becoming more ruthless in the quest for glory! Bowling first the team were able to keep Bankfoot to a mere 197 runs. This was in no small part down to the wickets taken by Josh (2), Daniel (2), Finlay (2), Harvey (2), Luke (1) and Ross (1). A fantastic achievement from the boys meant that they could go and enjoy batting and they duly racked up a large amount of runs. All of the team scored freely and the innings saw them only lose 1 wicket! Josh and Joe (26), Harvey and Ross (29), Finlay and Luke (18), and Daniel and Liam (31) made for a comfortable victory and meant that Methley now had 3 wins from 3 games! They knew that if they won their final game they would top their group!

Game 4 – Methley 286 beat Northawram 254

Game 4 saw the Methley team much more sluggish in the field. Some poorer bowling and fielding allowed the opposition to build an imposing total. But as heads started to drop an unlikely hero emerged! Coming in as a replacement to the team Joe Oliver took two vital wickets and halted the score this was then followed by a good over from Finlay and when Harvey took a wicket with the final ball of the innings the Northawram score of 254 didn’t look quite as imposing as it could have been. In reply, Methley got off to a slow start. The Northawram opening bowlers frustrated Methley and Josh and Joe had to work hard for their 9 runs. Another tight over began to frustrate Harvey and Ross. However, instead of letting their heads drop this seemed to inspire Harvey who set about annihilating the next bowler – 29 runs from 6 balls seemed to install some belief in the team. A further 22 from Finlay and Luke coupled with 25 from Daniel and Liam meant that Methley eased home unbeaten in their league.

Semi-final – Methley 257 beat Bell Lane 250

The semi final was a nervous affair with Bell Lane batting first. With the Methley team playing slightly over confidently they managed to pose a testing score of 250. In response Methley batted well and were able to make a total of 287 however with the loss of some silly wickets near the end the total was rounded down to 257. Thankfully this meant that Methley were through to the final where they would play against Northawram, from their original group.

Final – Methley 268 beat Northawram 197

The final saw Methley play some breathtaking cricket with all members of the team doing their part to ensure that they went home victorious. Whilst batting the Methley boys played some brilliant shots all around the ground with both Daniel Ford and Harvey Walker in particular showing some nice touches. Special mentions must also go to Joe Oliver, Ross Carrington and Luke Phillips who kept the runs ticking over. With a score of 268 Methley were confident that they could win however they knew, from their group game, that Northawram were a good batting team. The first over came from Josh Neal and set the tone for the rest of the team. Four wickets including a superb diving catch from Harvey meant that straight away Northawram had lost 20 runs. The wickets continued to fall, the catches got better, run outs were accurate and the team even managed a couple of stumpings. A shell shocked Northawram had no answer to the Mighty Methley fielders and as a result Methley were rightly crowned the champions of the West Yorkshire district!

A great performance from all members of the team and they should be extremely proud of their achievements. The performance seeming even more impressive considering this was a year six tournament and Methley only had two year six players in the team! The rest made up of year 5 and year 4! At the end of the tournament the Yorkshire coaches commented on the impressive fielding and bowling of the Methley team and it was most definitely this side of the game which won the tournament for the team. Next up for Methley is a trip to Headingley, home of Yorkshire CCC, to see if they can become county champions!! I am sure you will all wish the team luck as they try to achieve this. Finally, a massive thank you to all the parents who stayed for the full day to support the team, without you to get the children there none of this would be possible!