SCOTT Richardson, prevented from bowling earlier in the season by a shoulder injury, took 5-43 to help Woodlands win the Solly Sports Heavy Woollen Cup final at Ossett.

Pressed into action because skipper Pieter Swanepoel had gone to South Africa for a long-arranged school reunion, the Cumberland player stepped up to the plate with a man-of-the-match performance in their 34-run victory over Hoylandswaine.

It looked as if the Drakes Huddersfield League champions were romping to victory but Richardson, backed up superbly by left-arm spinner Chris Brice (10-2-14-3) and Sarfraz Ahmed (8-3-8-0), ripped the heart out of Hoylandswaine's middle order after Woodlands had made a testing 182.

The Huddersfield League side were cruising when former Hanging Heaton player Alex Morris and Gharib Nawaz, who numbers Keighley, Spen Victoria, Saltaire, East Bierley and Baildon among his old clubs, put on 81 for the first wicket.

Brice made the initial leg-before breakthrough to dismiss Nawaz, who hammered 60 in 57 balls, including two sixes and 11 fours, and played with a freedom nobody else matched on a wet wicket which resulted in the start being delayed.

That dismissal proved the start of a momentum shift and Richardson accelerated that by ripping out five middle-order batsmen to leave Hoylandswaine's hopes in tatters at 124-8.

Woodlands were not going to let their opponents off the hook and, after Keswick Williams was trapped lbw to give Brice his third wicket, Elliot Richardson – younger brother of Scott – gained consolation for the earlier punishment he had been subjected to by Nawaz by bowling last man Javed Iqbal with 4.2 overs remaining.

While the bowlers will rightly get the credit for Woodlands' win, it would be wrong to under-value the important part that Cumberland batsman Logan Weston played in their success.

Woodlands found batting extremely difficult as the ball seamed around and Weston showed great maturity as he made 59 from 106 balls, an innings that contained one six and nine fours.

He ensured that Woodlands didn't capitulate after finding themselves in trouble at 89-6 as Iqbal took 4-29.

Skipper Sam Frankland (25) was the next highest scorer, while there were useful runs from the tail which pushed the score from a modest one to a challenging one.

Hoylandswaine, who had put Woodlands in, bowled well but grit, determination and some inspired bowling earned Woodlands the cup for the second time.

They also won it in 2004 by defeating Spen Victoria by 36 runs at Liversedge.