PUDSEY St Lawrence may have won the All Rounder Cricket Bradford Premier league title and featured in two cup finals, but they hope they will have two more big games to come before the end of the season.

Winning the West Yorkshire area’s top championship has given the Saints a Yorkshire Premier League play-off semi-final tomorrow against Great Ayton at Headingley, with the carrot of a final in Abu Dhabi next month.

Pudsey St Lawrence’s opponents finished second in the North Yorkshire & South Durham ECB Premier League but qualified for Headingley because champions Barnard Castle, who finished 43 points ahead, are ineligible as they are from Durham, rather than Yorkshire.

Saints skipper James Smith said: “It isn’t a game that we have thought about much until the past two or three days as we have had other big matches to concentrate on.

“It was great to achieve our ambition of retaining the Bradford League title, but we lost both cup finals.

“Losing the Priestley Cup final (to Woodlands) hurt more because we didn’t do ourselves justice, but we were also outplayed in the Black Sheep final (by York) on the back of a ton by a Yorkshire player (Jack Leaning), but getting to that final was a bonus game for us really.

“However, the losses haven’t affected our confidence, luckily we are at full strength and we know a little about Great Ayton because some of our lads have played with and against some of their players.”

Smith added: “We haven’t thought about Abu Dhabi until this week, but it is a fantastic concept and a fantastic opportunity, and playing at Headingley will also bring back memories for some of us who played there as youngsters.”

The other semi-final tomorrow, which also starts at 11am and has free admission, is between Wakefield Thornes (the champions of All Rounder Cricket Yorkshire Premier League South) and Harrogate (champions of Hunters Yorkshire Premier League North) at Scarborough.

The final will be a day-night match at the Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, October 27 (1pm start local time), two days after the scheduled final day of a Pakistan v West Indies Test match.

There has already been strong interest in a special package for spectators via SportArabia.

To book, contact supporters@sportarabia.co.uk or call Shelley on 07903-95276.