FOR a man who was not looking forward to taking over the reins of skipper, Carl Jump seems to be coping with the responsibility pretty well, as his Holmfirth side continue their surge towards the Premiership.
Eleven outright victories (remarkably they haven’t won a single five-pointer) from 14 games has put the Bridge Fold side firmly in the driving seat in the Cedar Court Conference, with an 18-point lead over the chasing pack, led by Marsden.
Their only two losses have come against the top two sides in the opposite conference, Barkisland and Broad Oak, although they will admit to being lucky with the weather, having so far had just one solitary game (against Kirkheaton) rained off.
“We certainly made a good start (eight consecutive six-point wins), and the weather has been very kind to us,” admitted Jump, who is midway through his second season with Holmfirth after joining with Paul Jewitt from Delph & Dobcross at the beginning of last season.
“Obviously there is still a long way to go, but I’m pleased with the way things have gone so far.
“It was definitely a blow to lose Paul, who had persuaded me to come with him last year, particularly as he only decided late in the day that he wasn’t going to play at Holmfirth again this season and instead return to Delph.
“The club had already asked me to take over as captain, which I agreed to do, but as the season approached I have to confess I wasn’t really looking forward to the job. But now I am really enjoying it.
“It’s not the first time I’ve captained a side, having done it for a couple of years at Oldham, when I had Neil Holt and Stuart Moore playing for me, before they later went to join Skelmanthorpe, and they seemed happy enough about the way I skippered the side.”
A couple of huge plusses, which no doubt have improved Jump’s general frame of mind since the season got under way, has been the form of the two Javed Iqbal’s, the senior having moved from Rastrick as their overseas professional all-rounder, and the junior, a brilliant new recruit from Batley.
Javed senior is now in his eighth season in the Drakes League, having previously played for Lascelles Hall (2000), Primrose Hill (2001), Almondbury (2002), Skelmanthorpe (2003/04), Kirkheaton (2005) and Rastrick (2006) and has impressed wherever he has played.
Only three of his seasons have been in the Premiership, but while at Skelmanthorpe for two of them he won the League’s non-EU Player of the Year and scored 1,124 in 03 when he finished fourth overall in the League’s averages (51.09) and also picked up 44 wickets.
His best year for runs was in 2002 when he smashed 1,515 while at Almondbury, putting him second in the League averages. And indeed since coming to Huddersfield he is now closing in on 7,500 runs in total.
And this year he has already accrued 689 with two centuries and won the race to 500 League runs in the Conference.
“Jav’s having a great season, and so is the younger Javed (no relation) who is doing a fantastic job for us with the ball,” added Jump.
“He’s taken a lot of wickets (48) and is also very economical, and it’s very easy to set a field to his bowling.”
Holmfirth treasurer Bruce Jakeman added: “When he first came to us from Batley he admitted to me: ‘I may look like a strange bowler, and if you are not happy with me after half-a-dozen games, I will go back to Batley.’
“Then he took seven for 30 against Clayton West in his first game for us, and I said: ‘you aren’t going anywhere Javed!”
Certainly, it’s been the massive contributions of those two which has hoisted Holmfirth into such a strong position in the Cedar Court, although there have been other bonuses, not least the form of veteran opener Mike Bocarro, who despite being the wrong side of 60, has already fired one ton and four half-centuries, and is rapidly approaching 500 for the season.
“Mike is something of a legend, on both sides of the Pennines. My dad used to play against him in the Central Lancashire League and told me all about him.
“He still plays his cricket hard, and he is really good to have in the team. If I’m struggling for ideas, I can turn to Mike and his wealth of experience.
“We also have some good young players, like all-rounder Matt Gummerson, Ibrar Hussain and leg-spinner Tom Craddock who is definitely going to be a good player, and is being widely tipped to succeed.
“I know Pushy rates him at Shelley, after we played them in the first round of the Sykes Cup, and when we played against Sponden in the Village Knockout, two of their players who have played for Derbyshire, came up and said how impressed they were with him.
“He just needs the wickets to harden up now.”
Not every team who find themselves flirting with promotion actually want to go up into the Premiership, as they may not have the infrastructure or financial clout to compete at the top level, but Holmfirth certainly have the ambition, and they were also the first (and prior to last night’s semi-final) the first team in the League to wear coloured clothing in the Examiner Twenty20 Trophy.
“Make no mistake, we definitely want to go up!”
“Paul (Jewitt) and I came here last year with the intention of getting Holmfirth back into the top flight, and we should have gone up, but let it slip,” said Jump, who still lives in Oldham and trains there with his former teammates.
“Javed has already promised that if we go up this season, he would like to stay, and I’ve also had a word with my former Delph teammate Darren Shadford, who said he too, would like to come over and play with us next season if we get into the Premiership.”
They still have some tough games ahead, principally against the five teams immediately below them in their own Conference, some of whom are likely to give them a hard time before the title and play-off spots are settled.
But after such a great first half of the season and building up a such commanding lead, you have to feel that it really is theirs to lose!
