THERE are only three clubs above Bradford & Bingley in the Bradford Premier League Premier Division – Woodlands, New Farnley and Townville.

Also, there are only three other clubs in the semi-final draw for the Priestley Cup – Woodlands, New Farnley and Townville.

The question now is can Ed Brown’s Bingley side defeat one of the big three in the 50-over format of the game - either in league action (they play all of them once before August 6) or in a semi-final of the cup on Sunday, July 16.

After defeating Methley in a rain-affected Priestley Cup quarter-final at Wagon Lane, in-form Bingley have won their last nine matches – six in the league and two in the cup, plus a T20 victory over Woodlands last Thursday.

Brown said: “We had a tough start to the season – we didn’t play well and, looking back, we probably didn’t know what our best XI was as we had a lot of options.

“We should have played Methley and Bankfoot, who are not poor sides, but due to the weather and Eid we started against Townville (on April 29) and lost by 15 runs and didn’t deserve anything other than to lose as we didn’t bat well.

“We didn’t score enough runs and should have bowled better against Woodlands (May 27), and the New Farnley game (May 20) was a tie, when we nearly knocked off 260, which we got 16 points out of, which was like a win.

Brown added: “Our target at the start of the season was to finish above Woodlands or New Farnley. You are going to do very well if you do.

“New Farnley probably have six former or current first-class cricketers in their team, while Woodlands have been winning leagues and cups for years, and Townville are just dangerous.

“They are similar to us in that they have a lot of bases covered, they are a good group, they play for each other and they win games, and then you have us and we are where we want to be – challenging the big three.

“But Townville are the only ones that we haven’t beaten in the last couple of years as they are such a good side when they have runs on the board. They squeeze you and do the basics really well.

“We have had a couple of not-so-good years where we have been churning players, but now we have a group of Bingley lads coming through and a good Aussie coming in (Cory Miller) and we are playing well with a settled team.

“We don’t know how our results are going to be when we play those three, but we fancy our chances against most people. That is the next step on our journey – winning a semi-final, as well as beating one of the big three in the league.”

As for what has changed since the start of the season, Brown said: “Now we have had one departure (Lachlan Doidge), we have had someone slide down into the second team and now our side is really well balanced.

“We had spinners in Bradley (Reeve), who is our No 1 and a banker; Lachlan, who is a very good spinner; Reece (Cockshott), who has had a couple of good years in the second team, and myself, but I didn’t need to worry about bowling myself.

“Lachlan, who still plays for our juniors, did a great job but ultimately they felt that he needed to go elsewhere (he has moved to Cleckheaton) for his development.”

Brown added: “We have three seamers and three spinners and bat pretty deep, and the wickets have got better for us, so it is better for our batters, and we are bowling pretty well too.

“Bradley is bowling pretty smartly. He might not get wickets, but he is not going for a load of runs, and we are batting first, getting runs on the board and just squeezing opponents.

“Reece is 6ft 1in or 6ft 2in and has a very high arm action so he gets drop on the ball, bowls it more slowly and spins it a lot, while I am a bit more round arm and a bit quicker and it doesn’t always spin so I am more beating the outside edge but Reece beats both edges.”

Methley won the toss and batted and made 242, which was credit to No 3 Jordan Laban (61) and influential skipper Tom Chippendale (65) but was 30 or 40 more than Brown wanted considering they had been 117-5.

Brown and Reeve bowled their 20 overs for a cost of just 57 runs and three wickets, but rain fell during the tea interval and Bingley were set a DLS target of 149 from 21 overs.

After digesting the shock of needing seven runs an over, the home side lost Jacob Slator, caught behind first ball, while Miller made only 12, but Will Luxton and Billy Whitford added 74 for the third wicket and got them ahead of the run rate.

Brown made 20 and Yasir Abbas 22 and they were still in front of the asking rate before being seen home in style by a four and a six by Jack Luxton, winning by four wickets with nine balls to spare.