7:20pm Friday 4th December 2009
By Bill Marshall
Clayton were spurred on to becoming Terry Wynne (Third Division) champions by both their batsmen and bowlers in the Towergate Halifax League.
They might not have bettered Andy Dimbleby (Shelf), who averaged 56.50 at the top of the batting charts after scoring 678 runs, but they did post four in the leading 12.
Paul Ascough was third with 50.22, Gurden Singh fourth on 49.71, Howard Stead ninth with 37.75 and Sam Wilson 12th on 34.82.
Damian Weston led the Queensbury contingent in eighth place with 40.82, while Mark Smirthwaite was lucky 13th as Wibsey Park Chapel’s top batsman with an average of 33.75.
Clayton also had three bowlers in the top eight – spearheaded by first-placed Amjad Ali, whose 47 wickets came at a miserly 9.76 runs apiece.
All-rounder Singh was seventh at 14.68 and Steve Elphee eighth on 16.32, Jack Wilson (third) and Dave Maloney (fifth) leading the Shelf bowlers with averages of 13.00 and 13.98 respectively.
Stuart Fenton was Wibsey Park Chapel’s chief threat in sixth with 14.55, while Mark Clayton and Ben Waterworth were destroyers in chief for relegated Denholme Clough in 11th and 12th.
Queensbury’s Matthew Johnson was the leading fielder with 5.50 marks. He edged out Chris Wolfenden (Shelf) and Richard Hassall (Wibsey Park Chapel), both on five.
However, Clayton will not be facing Thornton in the Roy Smith Division next season as the latter club went up as runners-up, having three batsmen in the top ten of their section’s averages.
They were Nicky Hutchinson (sixth on 45.50), Ben King (ninth on 39.45) and Michael Shanks (tenth on 37.84).
However, that trio were headed by Oxenhope’s leading duo of Shaun Humphreys (third on 55.00) and Darren Hopkinson (fourth on 50.50).
Low Moor did not qualify any batsmen for the averages but they did have the fourth-best bowler in Martin Riley (19.23), who was ahead of Oxenhope’s Tony Ousey (fifth on 19.49) and Thornton’s Ben Harris (seventh in 21.05).
Ross Soames (Thornton) was far and away the leading wicketkeeper with 30 victims, Richard Speight (Low Moor) coming fourth with 21 and Oxenhope’s Humphreys seventh with 13.
Jer Lane’s Johnny Lister put forward a good case to be the Premier Division’s leading all-rounder by coming second in the bowling (18.97) and eighth in the batting (51.64).
They also had Chris Ramsden (7.50) as joint-third best fielder and Graham Sivyer (19) as joint-fifth best wicketkeeper.
The Laban family were prominent for Jer Lane in the Premier Division second teams, with Jordan seventh in the batting (50.56) and dad Karl 18th and last to qualify among the bowlers.
Martin Sheehan, also of Jer Lane, was the third-best keeper with 20 victims.
In the Roy Smith First Division for second teams, Peter Galey (Clayton) and Leigh Butterfield (Shelf) were second and third batsmen with averages of 77.43 and 65.00 respectively, while Gavin Watmough (Shelf) was second-best bowler on 13.13, Danny Roddis (Clayton) coming fifth on 14.36.
Chris Coates (Shelf) was second in the fielding awards on five and Martin Hodgson (Clayton) was second among the keepers with nine victims.
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