Cleckheaton climbed to second place in the JCT600 Bradford League First Division table after an astute bowling change by skipper John Wood sealed a 14-run home win over Pudsey St Lawrence yesterday.

St Lawrence were cruising towards victory, needing 81 from 15 overs with seven wickets in hand when Wood brought on his slow left-arm bowler Mark Cummins.

He changed the game dramatically, taking two wickets in his first over and another in his second over as Cleckheaton took charge.

Cummins went on to take two more wickets to finish with 5-18 in 6.3 overs, fittingly taking the last wicket by trapping No 11 batsman Craig Wiseman lbw as St Lawrence were all out 246 all out, having lost their last their last seven wickets for 66.

Wood said: “The game was slipping away from us. We needed to take the pace off the ball. They looked very comfortable against the seamers, but Mark bowled beautifully, taking some big wickets, although I thought Pudsey threw it away more than we won it. It was a super game of cricket played in a good spirit.”

Opening the innings, Wood gave Cleckheaton a positive start, sharing a first-wicket stand of 108 with Cummins before his partner was caught behind for 38. Cleckheaton also lost Tim Jackson and Marcus Walmsley cheaply, but with Wood going well they looked likely to reach 300.

However, Wood was bowled by St Lawrence skipper James Smith three runs short of a deserved century, his 97 containing four sixes and 12 fours, and his dismissal at 172-4 left the innings in danger of losing momentum.

Fortunately for Cleckheaton, James Lee, recently released by Yorkshire, picked up the tempo with 54 in 39 balls, including three sixes and five fours, to enable the home side to set a competitive target at 260-8.

St Lawrence, without key batsman Mark Robertshaw, lost stand-in opener Steve Watts and Smith cheaply, but 21-year-old opener Adam Waite and all-rounder Chris Marsden put them back on course with a third- wicket stand of 65.

Although Marsden was out for 33 at 99, St Lawrence batted themselves into a winning position during a fourth-wicket stand of 81 between Waite and David Hester before Cummins’ dramatic entry into the attack.

First, he bowled Hester 41 at 180 and then had Gareth Clough caught at slip by Wood for nought in the same over, and when he bowled David Stiff ten runs later, the initiative had swung Cleckheaton’s way.

Waite cruised to his second century of the season as wickets fell around him before he was ninth out, caught in the deep in pursuit of quick runs off pace bowler Iain Wardlaw, recently handed a Yorkshire contract. His impressive innings contained three sixes and 13 fours.

Disappointed Smith said: “We had it won two or three times and then lost it. We didn’t have the mental toughness to get over the line.

"The spinners were harder to play and it was easier to play shots off the pace bowlers. Mark Cummins bowled it well and his five wickets have won the game.

“We played some schoolboy cricket at times – that’s what cost us – but Adam Waite played fantastically well. It is a pity we couldn’t support him to the end.”