The last time Lightcliffe were in the top flight of the JCT600 Bradford League, they were relegated.

Having won the short-lived Verity Section in Division Two in 2001, they finished bottom of Division One the following season, winning only four matches.

Cricket chairman Chris Taylor may have signed some exciting talent in Yorkshire players Moin Ashraf, Alex Lees and Charles Roebuck, overseas player Suleman Khan from Great Horton and opening batsman Andy Gorrod from Gomersal, but there is no shouting from the rooftops as to how Lightcliffe will do.

The former Yorkshire and Derbyshire opening bat said: “There is no expectation and no pressure on the lads.

"We have a very young team and we will just see where the season takes us.”

Nevertheless, Lightcliffe who finished third from bottom of Division Two as recently as 2008, have a solid look about them.

Taylor said: “I hope Alex and Moin don’t play for us much as it means they will be furthering their Yorkshire careers.

"I will liase with the Yorkshire coaching staff over Moin but I expect him to play 12 to 18 games for us this season.

"Also I am looking forward to opening the batting with Andy. I can teach him things and I am sure that I will learn things off him.

“He has scored 600 to 700 runs in each of the past two seasons in Division One, and if all your batsmen do that you will be pretty high up the table.

"Suleman has probably been playing a division below where he should have been, and that is no disrespect to Great Horton.

"He is one of the best spinners I have faced in the Bradford League in the last ten years and he will be batting at No 5.

"Suleman has also been playing in the Bangladesh Premier league, which is their equivalent of the Indian Premier League”

As for who will be at the top of the table this season, Taylor said: “Woodlands are favourites but if you take them away any one of seven or eight teams could win it.”