York Win Sixth Premier League Title In A Row

York Win Sixth Premier League Title In A Row

©Cricket World

York have won the Yorkshire ECB League championship for the sixth year in a row, pipping Harrogate for the title after Harrogate had led the table for most of the season.

They made sure of the title by beating their rivals by 140 runs at Clifton Park after making a formidable 289-5. Ryan McKendry scored an outstanding 140 and shared a fifth wicket partnership with Nick Kay, who who was undefeated on 57. York then bowled out Harrogate for 149 with Kay taking 4-37, McKendry 3-36 and Dan Woods 3-40.

York then thrashed Sheffield Collegiate the following day by ten wickets. McKendry and Woods were again in good form with the ball, McKendry taking 5-49 and Woods 4-34 as Collegiate were dismissed for 132. Duncan Snell then hit 91 and McKendry completed a successful weekend by making 40 as York cruised to their second victory in two days.

In contrast, Harrogate’s misery at missing out on the title was compounded when they went down by five wickets at Barnsley and have to be content with runners-up spot.

Pakistan A batsman Aamir Sajjad set a new league record in Driffield’s seven wicket home defeat against Cleethorpes, an innings of 96 taking him to 1,565. The following day he scored a mere five runs in another seven wicket defeat at Castleford the following day, taking his total for the season to 1,570. The previous league record was held by Dan Wilson, who scored 1,452 for York in 2009.

Scarborough totalled a massive 377-2 in their 103-run win at home to Hull with Andy Simpson and Samrat Sharma amassing 330 for the second wicket. It as the second highest partnership in the league’s history, 36 runs short of the record set by Shaun Beck and Alexis Twigg for Sheffield United against Barnsley. Simpson’s unbeaten 161 included 22 fours and two sixes while Sharma hit 26 fours in his innings of 154.

Best bowling of the weekend was Alex Leyshon’s 8-56 for Yorkshire Academy in their 118-run home win over Sheffield Collegiate. W Rhodes scored 131 in Academy’s total of 287-6. Then Leyshon got to work to dismiss Collegiate for 140.
Rory Osmond scored 128 not out, but was on the losing side for Castleford at Scarborough. Osmond helped Castleford to reach 264-4, but Scarborough continued their fine batting form of the previous day as they won by four wickets, K Bansil scoring 75 and Ashley Lyth 61 not out.

David Markham

© Cricket World 2012