23rd August 2025 - HBCC 1st XI vs Glasshoughton CC (A)

1st Innings

HBCC win the toss and choose to bat

Josh and Ben opened up, with the former looking stylish as ever for his 12. Unfortunately both got caught behind which meant K Baig and stand in skipper A Waterson had to re build. After nicking singles early on, Glasshoughton packed their offside with men to stop that from happening and it resulted in the scoring rate falling below 3 an over. Balls that were too full, were put away by Baig through the covers, and anything wide was dabbed through 3rd man by Waterson, although he too played a lovely drive, which surprisingly made it to the fence quite comfortably. There were some awful cross batted hoiks from Baig, and he was lucky to survive both. He soon departed to a ball he should have gone forward to, and that bought Boom Boom Shahid to the crease. The game was in the perfect position for Arslan to take it away from the opposition and he did just that by taking the attack to all parts of the ground. He bought up his 50 in no time and as the field was now set on the boundary, it was a tough task to clear them as he picked mid wicket out trying to get us over 200. Chris and Fiz tried to up the ante, however with the relatively large boundaries, it was tough to find them. Both went playing the big shot, and it was the Smales duo, with senior getting funky with his new CA willow and junior almost running both of them out who provided a valuable 20 runs at the end to get us over 200. 

2nd Innings 

Their opener Speight came out swinging, however we knew chances were coming. J Waring continued his superb season with yet another fifer, catching the opening pair off his own bowling. Their number 3 was run out from a great tactical throw from Big Josh H which was wayward, tempting him to take an overthrow. Unfortunately for them, it was Waterson’s arm which they were taking on and he was run out. Their number 4, J Ward who had a failed transfer to HBCC earlier in the season looked good for his 20 odd but a bad decision not to join promotion chasers Horbury, was followed up by another bad decision, dangling his bat outside off for Waterson to nick him off behind. After that, it was only a matter of time until we finished the innings off, but the game slowly fizzled out with low energy due to an acceptance from both teams the game was finished. Their lower order got more than they should have, but Ben’s slower off spin finished the innings off. 2 wickets for him, and 2 for Waterson, along with a fifer from Waring, rounded off an important win. 

Some dropped catches (again) from fiz who ‘lost the ball in the trees’ & MH who had a nice trip to A&E for his ring finger after the game on a flying carpet. Credit to him for soldiering on and putting the team first. Good luck putting that ring on mate. 

We look forward to another comfortable win next week as long as the rain stays away, which potentially could confirm our promotion to the championship next season.