It is with deep regret that we must advise that Trevor sadly passed away last week after a brave battle with his illness.
Trevor served as a committee member at the cricket club for a great many years and became a life member of our club when leaving the committee. Trevor continued to do a massive amount to help the club, not least in servicing & repairing all of our cricket machinery. In conjunction with his wife June and their family, he was the most loyal supporter that any sporting organisation could hope to have. In short, Trevor was a lovely man who will be very sadly missed, by his family & friends including all associated with our cricket club.
Trevor's funeral will take place on Wednesday 10th October at 1230pm at South Chapel, Grenoside Crematorium, 5 Skew Lane, Sheffield, S35 8RZ before we return to the club to raise a glass in his memory.
The first team finished level on points with Honley & Broad Oak in joint second place (officially designated in 3rd place), albeit, a considerable way behind runaway winners Hoylandswaine. The success of the Premiership winners made it all the more satisfying that we were able to beat them on their own ground in the Sykes Cup semi final although in the final itself, we were soundly beaten by Delph & Dobcross at Honley on 12th August, this proving to be our last defeat of the season, duly completing our league programme very strongly.
New captain Greg Wood led by example scoring over 1000 runs in league & cup competitions. Brother Dan followed suit with 1000+, sharing in many valuable opening partnerships with Aussie John Anderson who amassed over 900 runs in his own right.
Our very capable wicketkeeper, Shahban Raheem, has again won the Premier League trophy for the most league dismissals & his cause was helped by a bowling attack led by the ever consistent Nasir Jamal who was ably supported by Nadim Hussain, Danny Glover, Oliver Davidson & Abbas Ahmed. We also had some very encouraging performances by teenagers Archie Greaves & Ed Booth.
Turning to our second team, they finished in 10th place out of the 12 teams in Championship 2 without ever being in significant danger of relegation. In fact, if they had achieved just one more victory, they would in fact have finished in 5th place in the league which would surely have been possible if availability had allowed them to play a relatively unchanged side.
Captain Phil Marsh led the way with the bat, being well supported by solid & consistent efforts from both Jake Lynn & Nigel Hoyle. With the ball, Jake & Nigel again showed up prominently as did extremely promising youngsters George Booth & Ben Morris. Phil (father of George) & Danny Netherwood also took their share of wickets & the future for the team looks very promising with numerous junior players continuing to improve with each season that goes by.
The above popular event will be held at the clubhouse on Sunday 21st October at 6pm although we plan to open the bar beforehand (4pm ish).
The inimitable Pete Gorman will once again be our accomplished auctioneer, together with assistant Vivienne. All our welcome, including children with their parents & we desperately need your help with donations please. We are seeking fruit, vegetables, flowers, plants, home baked confectionary, bottles of spirits, wine etc & any unwanted/unused gifts that you might be able to donate.
Please try to support this enjoyable function.
This year, the cricket club will be breaking from it's usual tradition, by holding the above event on Sunday 4th November as distinct from the 5th as in previous years. The change has been introduced to avoid a clash with a Huddersfield Town Premier game on the Monday evening, that game also being shown live on Sky.
As in previous years, we urge people to buy their entrance tickets in advance of the 4th, to reduce the delay & queueing on the night. As usual, tickets can be purchased nearer the time from any of Shepley Newsagents, Black Bull & Farmer's Boy public houses. Despite an increase in the cost of purchasing fireworks, cost of entry to this popular event will remain unaltered. Advance purchase prices are £4 per adult & £2 for children under the age of 14 - these prices increase to £5 & £2.50 respectively on the day itself.
The gates & bar will open at 530pm on Sunday the 4th, the bonfire will be lit at 630pm & the firework display will commence at 7pm or shortly thereafter. Both food & bar facilities will be available as usual.
For obvious reasons, cars will not be admitted to the cricket ground on the evening, unless catering for the disabled who please need to seek advance permission from a committee member & to arrive no later than 5:30pm.
Please note: Due to public event health and saftey regulations no fireworks or sparklers can be brought on the night.
Our second team were drawn away at Broad Oak from the Premiership & the home team, assisted by a partnership of 115 for the second wicket, posted a more than respectable total of 218 for 9 in their allotted 45 overs. Our two young opening bowlers were very impressive, Ed Booth having no luck whatsoever in taking 1 for 24 in his 9 overs & Jake Lynn bowling well for his haul of 4 wickets for 31 runs.
In the Shepley reply, we had a solid start with Sam Haigh 20, captain Phil Marsh 43 & Jake Lynn 25 providing a platform, although falling a little behind the required run rate. The middle & lower order all contributed valuable runs, led by Dominic Lynn 26 & Steve Sullivan 19 not out, but we fell agonisingly short in our quest for victory by 13 runs. The game was played in an excellent spirit by both teams & Shepley could hold their heads up high for a gallant performance.
The following weekend saw our first team facing a visit to the ever powerful Hoylandswaine, the runaway unbeaten league leaders. Shepley batted first & we were quickly reduced to 11 for 2 following excellent bowling by Adnan Ghani who took both wickets. Gradually, the Wood brothers, opener Dan & captain Greg, started to bring some respectability to the score & Dan in particular looked in fine form. They took the score to 136 before Dan was dismissed for an excellent 71. Whilst wickets then fell at regular intervals for the remainder of the innings Greg Wood was in imperious form attacking all bowlers alike & when he was dismissed with a couple of the allotted 50 overs remaining, he had reached a magnificent 145, including 14 fours & 8 sixes. We were all out for 269 in the 49th over with Ghani returning the excellent figures of 5 for 31.
The Shepley supporters, of whom there were many, wondered if we had enough runs to combat the strong Swaine batting line-up on their relatively small ground. We were given the best possible start when Yorkshire batsman Alex Lees surprisingly gave young Archie Greaves "the charge" & was comprehensively bowled for 9. The ever reliable Nasir Jamal at the other end then took over dismissing three of the Swaine batsmen, reducing the home side to 40 odd for 4 & then 5 to put Shepley into a strong position. Swaine then mounted a revival, but were always behind the run rate & they were dismissed for a total of 174 in the 41st over to give Shepley a much deserved victory by 95 runs. The Shepley team fielded superbly & Nasir 3 for 15, Nadim Hussain 3 for 31 & Abbas Ahmed 2 for 29 were the pick of our bowlers.
Shepley now play Delph & Dobcross in the Sykes Cup Final at Honley, on 12th August, hoping to gain revenge for the defeat in the final against the same opponents, a couple of years ago.
Since our status report a few weeks ago, both of our senior teams have played their respective cup semi finals, brief details below.
On Sunday 17th June, the first X1 entertained near neighbours Clayton West (victors over cup holders Scholes in previous round) from the Championship. The weather was kind on the day & a very decent crowd assembled, including an extremely good following from Clayton West. Shepley vice chair had something of a dilemma, Sue Glover's son Craig being captain of Clayton West & other son Danny being vice captain & stalwart of the home team.
Clayton West batted first & set a challenging total of 227, losing their final wicket in the last over. Thanks to excellent knocks by Philip Tunnicliffe & Corey Bullock, 63 and 64 respectively, they were at one time 180 for 3, but excellent pace bowling by Nadim Hussain, 6 for 29 in his allotted overs, kept Shepley in the hunt. Despite losing a couple of early wickets, a solid 65 from Tom Denton & a typical hard hitting 98 from captain Greg Wood, saw the home side achieve victory by 6 wickets with a dozen overs to spare.
Our second X1 had a formidable task, being drawn away to Premiership side Scholes. On the day however, Shepley excelled themselves, dismissing the home team for 85. Phil Booth often takes a backseat on the bowling front when his sons Ed & George are in action for Shepley, but this was Dad's day, Phil taking 5 wickets for 26 in his 7 overs. Opener Sam Haigh led Shepley home to a great victory, by 8 wickets, finishing unbeaten on 38.
Our rewards for reaching the semi finals are two away ties. The second X1 visit Premier side Broad Oak on 8th July & then the first team travel to the all conquering Hoylandswaine ground a week later. Come & support our boys please.
We are conscious of the fact that many of our supporters like to see up to date scorecards etc for our two senior sides & we apologise for the lack of information on our website at the current time. We are working on this problem.
The Huddersfield League have devised a new score-recording system utilising the play.cricket.com app & both this app & the information on the huddersfieldcricketleague.co.uk website are excellent alternatives to our own website at this time.
In summary, our first X1 are in 4th place in the Premiership with a home quarter final draw this Sunday against Clayton West. Our progress in the Heavy Woollen Cup was halted at the quarter final stage by an extremely strong New Farnley side. Our second team have struggled to consistently turn out a settled eleven amp;& this has resulted in the side currently being closer to the bottom of the Championship 2 competition than is ideal. They have progressed well in the Paddock Shield Cup competition & face an away trip to near neighbours Scholes this coming Sunday.
Further updates will follow.
We are delighted to announce our 1st team shirt sponsor for the 2018 season is the Dr David Stuart Hill Chartered Consultancy of Huddersfield, Building & Civil Engineering Consultants undertaking all engineering design services (design calculations for Building Regulations etc) and property surveys and reports including structural reports and combined building and engineering surveys and reports for properties prior to purchase and redevelopment of properties after purchase.
With something like 6 weeks to go to the start of the new season on 21st April, things are coming together well for our two senior teams.
The first X1 will be led by Greg Wood who returns to the club after a few successful seasons back at his home club of Wrenthorpe in Central Yorkshire. Greg mixes his cricket with playing Rugby Union for the Sandal first XV and we are delighted to have him back on board as captain, given the desire of outgoing captain Danny Glover who wanted a break from such duties after leading the team for many years with great success. Danny will be Greg’s vice captain for the coming season.
The club is also delighted to welcome John Anderson who joins us as an opening batsman from the successful Sydney grade cricket team of Northern Districts. John has enjoyed an excellent season opening in their 2nd grade team and has also played a number of first grade games in recent weeks. John is the younger brother of Daniel who played with Shepley, with great success, two seasons ago and we look forward to his arrival. The addition of Greg and John will strengthen our batting lineup and we also hope to shortly confirm the signing of a slow bowler to complete the line up, all other first team squad members from last year remaining with the club, other than Danny Wood and Brenton Thompson.
Our second X1 will again be led by Phil Marsh where we believe we will have an excellent blend of experience and very promising teenagers to provide us with a balanced squad. A number of players have expressed a desire to join/rejoin the club and we are hoping that Phil’s team will have a successful season.
On Sunday 28th January, commencing 10:30am in the new clubhouse building, the club will be holding it's AGM relative to the financial year ended 30th September 2017. All paid-up members of the club are cordially invited to attend, should they so wish.
CONTACTS
SENIOR CRICKET
Jamie Dearnley
7 Parkhead, Birdsedge
Huddersfield
HD8 8XW
07718337487
JUNIOR CRICKET
Nigel Hoyle
(07486) 014100
DOCUMENTS