IT was a weekend full of achievements for Buttershaw St Paul’s CC, with three impressive feats across three separate teams.
Brothers Ben and Alex Maddison put on a stunning double-century partnership for the Sunday first team in the Halifax League, two bowlers with the same first name took all 10 wickets in the second team’s big win, while there was a first-team batting masterclass in the Bradford League from a precocious teenager.
Taking up the stories, all-rounder Pritesh Mistry, who was involved in one of those achievements, said: “The Sunday first team in the Halifax League is a good way of really bringing youngsters through to our senior sides, as a lot of junior sides, at U17 and U19 level, have now been abolished.
“We’ve got a lot of fans, and we entered a team in there to encourage juniors to come through with us.
“Ben and Alex showed what can be done, putting on 210, with both scoring just over 100, and there was even a third hundred through Luke Barker.
“The players have to retire when they pass 100 at that level, but we still scored 393 off 40 overs and won easily against SBCI.”
Mistry himself helped the second team turn around a tough situation at the weekend, alongside another Pritesh, Pritesh Lad.
Mistry explained: “We got 289 all out but then Heckmondwike & Carlinghow were 61-0 off five overs in their reply.
“But myself and Pritesh Lad came on. I took 4-51 and he took 6-17 to leave them 122 all out.
“It’s our second win from two now in the Bradford League this season.”
Sadly the firsts could not win, going down by four wickets to Hopton Mills in Division Two of the Bradford League.
But despite that disappointment, Mistry enthused: “They did lose, but Matthew Long, who’s new to the first team, top scored with 68 not out at the age of 15.
“It will give him a real confidence boost to have that mentioned.”
And despite those wider concerns about junior cricket that Mistry mentioned earlier, the set up at Buttershaw St Paul’s is allowing youngsters like Long to thrive.
Mistry said: “We run All Stars cricket and have got a junior set up from U5s level. We have U9, U11, U13 and U16 teams too. They don’t start their season for a while just yet though.
“All the teams played last year, even though Covid made it a shorter season. We want to promote the juniors and the club as a whole, just to have that recognition that we’re out there and people can join us.”
As for the club’s principal goals, Mistry said: “Certainly the main goals for this season would be to have the firsts and seconds promoted from their respective divisions in the Bradford League.
“We want to get as many new kids through the ranks as possible too and up to senior level.
“As for a more long-term goal, we just want to entice people to play for us from a young age.”
Buttershaw's head of public relations and the sponsorship committee, Steve Brooke, said the club are always looking for new sponsors to come on board, and asked anyone interested to contact him on sbrooke@maduck.co.uk or 07769 678490.
For anyone looking to play for the club, you can contact them on buttershawstpauls@bradfordcl.com
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