13th September 2025 - HBCC 2nd XI vs Garforth CC (A)

History at the Bridge

It was a cold and wet day at Garforth and the 2nd’s were travelling light with only 9 players available for the away journey. 

1st Innings

Captain Allatt walked out for the toss and lost but was fortunately put into bat by the opposing skipper. Out walked Alex and Dan to open the batting on at best a ropey looking track. 

In the cold and wet conditions the opening bowlers were finding demons with almost every ball. Only one run was scored off the bat in the first 8 overs and eventually the skipper departed for the longest duck of his career, 23 balls in total. A tough start to an even tougher day. 

As conditions improved slightly so did the chances of the second team when the first team game was abandoned without a ball being bowled so Dan Smales and Leo Marshall raced to the match to make us whole with 11 players. Unfortunately the umpiring duo of Ebeneezer Scrooge and Severus Snape decided that it wouldn’t be fair to play 11v11 and prevented the boys from taking to the field. 

After a short delay the game restarted and Andy Simpson battled well for his 12 before departing. This brought Al Grogan to the middle who was still recovering from a broken finger and had a wedding to look forward to at 4pm. Al made a lovely 22 including a lusty blow over the leg side for a big mixer. George added a lovely 20 with some beautiful leg side boundaries. 

Mick was the next man up and batted superbly for a well made 10, again including a couple of glorious boundaries. Tim made a lovely 10 not out whilst Ryan fell for an unlucky duck, in slightly less time than his captain. 

Tim and Gribble put on a lovely final stand that took us to 123-7 off of our allotted 40 overs with Grib finishing on 9 not out with a couple of delightful scoops that found the boundary. 

Unfortunately the innings finished at 3:40pm which meant that Al had to depart without a ball being bowled in the second innings. This left the Bridge fielding with 8 men but spirits were high after such a fantastic battling display.

 2nd Innings

In the team huddle before the innings began the boys spoke about working hard for each other and finding the line and length. We were then joined by one of the Garforth lads who offered to help out in the field which was a lovely gesture. The pitch was tricky to bat on and we knew if we found the right areas anything could happen.

The tone was set early in the first over when the Garforth openers looked to take a quick single. Unluckily for them they tried to take it against Tim “the howitzer” Heald who threw down all 3 stumps from mid on and left Garforth 0-1. It was a wonderful first over and Alex hit the perfect area every ball, keeping it tight and building the pressure. 

Unfortunately he was not backed up at the other end by his captain who bowled a couple of loose deliveries that were given the appropriate treatment. Luckily one of the final balls of the over popped up and Allatt was able to take a comfortable caught and bowled to leave Garforth 2 down after two overs. 

Alex continued with his spell and bowled arguably one of the tightest spells the 2nd team has seen. Consistently finding a wonderful line and length and bringing the ball back into the right handers. Allatt found his rhythm from the other end and before we knew it Garforth were 15-4 after seeing Allatt sneak one through the defences and Alex having the dangerous Appleyard caught without troubling the scorers. 

Alex finished his first spell with figures of 4-4 and it was exactly what the bridge needed and after 10 overs Garforth found themselves 6 down. At this point the Garforth boys tried to dig in and frustrate the Horbury Bridge attack by dead batting the ball and for the next 7 overs there were to be no more wickets.

Ryan Joyce bowled from the top end and received a large amount of chirp from the opposing batsmen which was odd as they were clearly on the wrong end of the match. Clearly there are less brain cells than runs scored in Garforth. Andy Simpson then took over from the top end to bridge the gap until Alex H could return.

With Allatt struggling to make a breakthrough with his 7th over he turned to the magician, the ace up his sleeve. Gribble. Gribble took over from the bottom end and bowled with some lovely flight and gile and was able to find the oh so important break through. Gribble bowled the frustrating number 9 batsmen in his second over and and got the wicket of the Garforth talisman in his third over, finishing with excellent figures of 2-11. 

With only the 4th ball of Alex’s second spell he wrapped up his fivefor and the match for the Bridge and finished with figures of 5.4-5-4. A truly special spell in a truly special match. 

Against all odds the Horbury Bridge 8.5 took the victory and it was one that will be remembered for many years. The lads show grit and determination and a heck of a lot of talent on what should have been a very tough afternoon. But most pleasing for the captain was the way that every single player that afternoon was able to make a positive contribution whether that be with bat, ball or in the field. 

A truly special win and one that will be remembered by those that took part for many many years. UBB.