Barkisland’s Under 11 side completed a trophy double in the Huddersfield Junior League Champion of Champions final.
They faced Almondbury Wesleyans in the final showdown at Lepton Highlanders after they had battled through too highly competitive semi-finals.
The first semi was between the league’s Area B winners Denby Dale against the Wesleyans, who had claimed their finals day place as best runner-up from the three areas.
Denby Dale batted first and reached a net score of 236, but Almondbury turned out to be the stronger batting side, and with the loss of only one wicket going down they had a net score of 286 to secure their place in the final.
The second semi was between Barkisland and Skelmanthorpe, who put up a valiant display were beaten on the day by a much stronger side.
The final was the icing on the cake with as Barkisland batted first and the Wesleyans’ bowlers restricted them to a net total of 219, with Aavid Riaz claiming the man-of-the-match performance taking three for 16.
The Wesleyans innings started tentatively with the Barkisland bowlers chipping away and taking the occasional wicket.
Almondbury came fighting back to put themselves in a winning position at the start of the last over.
With the scores evenly balanced it was still not certain who the winners would be, though the situation favoured the batting side, but it was the Barkisland team who claimed two wickets in the over giving Barkisland victory as they achieved the double of Champion of Champions and Dawson Cup winners.
The Area Winners Shields and the individual prize winners trophies were presented at the interval by Yorkshire and England player Hollie Armitage, who started her cricket at Meltham as a junior.
The Under 11 chairman, on behalf of the Huddersfield Junior Cricket League thanked all those that had attended for their support, Sellers International for sponsoring the league, Lepton Highlanders for the use of their ground, Armitage for giving up her time to present the prizes, but most of all to the people behind the scenes who give up their time to enable both girls and boys to play cricket – the team managers, coaches and particularly the parents for all the taxi-ing they do.
