Hoylandswaine are celebrating their second Drakes Huddersfield League title in three years.
The Haigh Lane club crushed Golcar by eight wickets to regain the Byrom Shield – a success dedicated to skipper Michael Cranmer and his family in Australia.
All-rounder Richard Wilkinson, who has led the side since Cranmer returned to Adelaide after the Sykes Cup final to rest his injured right knee, said: “It means an awful lot to the club to be champions again, and especially to win it for Michael.
“We knew what we had to do, while keeping one eye on what Shepley were doing, and we handled the pressure of maintaining our form to see it through.
“It’s been a long season and there are a lot of tired bodies, but it means a heck of a lot to take the title.
“I joined the club just after they had won it before and there was as real buzz about retaining it. We should have done that last year but a really poor start cost us dearly.
“The club do an awful lot for us as a team and a unit, there’s a hell of a lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes from our team manager, Tony Harrison, which people don’t see, and the committee, groundsman and supporters also do loads for the club, so this is for them.
“More so, as well though, it’s for Mikey back home in Australia and for his family with all they’ve been through with his brother passing away. It means a lot to win it for him.”
Cranmer was keeping in touch with events from the other side of the world and Tweeted: “Brilliant effort boys at Hoylandswaine CC.
“Proud skipper watching via Twitter!”
The win completes the treble of league, arrowselfdrive Sykes Cup and allroundercricket.com T20 Trophy and means Swaine have landed 10 trophies in six years.
They will also carry the flag for the Drakes League into next season’s Black Sheep Yorkshire Champions Trophy.
The win against Golcar included a nice bonus for opening batsman Gharib Nawaz, too, as he followed Kirkburton’s Ibrar Latif to 1,000 runs for the season with 70 not out.
Ryan Robinson had 36 not out as Swaine – who were denied by the weather at Meltham the previous day – went to 118-2 in reply to Golcar’s 113 all out in which Wilkinson claimed six for 22 and Yasir Abbas four for 43.
Jake Lockwood with 26 and Steve Whitwam with 25 were the best of the visiting batsmen.
While Swaine are celebrating, Meltham have gone down from the top flight alongside Holmfirth.
Meltham played host to third-bottom Slaithwaite with survival chances on the line and lost by 24 runs.
Slaithwaite totalled 186 with Abdul Wahid hitting 67, Mohammad Kashif taking five for 45 and Ibrar Hussain four for 38 for Simon Kenworthy’s side.
Kashif then hit 61 and talented teenage all-rounder Alex Clegg 59 but it wasn’t quite enough for Meltham, who were pegged at 162 by Aussie Nathan Freitag with four for 52 and Chris Kilner with three for 32.
Holmfirth, who were already down after failing to complete against Honley the previous day, lost by two wickets to Barkisland after posting 174, in which Sam Denton hit 60.
Barkisland – who can still catch Shepley for second place – got home in the 39th over with solid contributions down the order led by Alex Scholefield with 24, Luke Bridges 34 and Set Oddy 34 at No7.
There was a thriller at Chapelgate as Kirkburton – who had lost with only two deliveries to go the previous day – this time got home in the final over against Scholes, who had posted 193-8 with Tom Chadwick hitting 65 and Luke Leonard 31.
Andy Smith took four for 28 to wrap up the Scholes innings and then played his part in giving Burton a solid start in reply, with Iqbal Khan hitting 50 before a mid-innings shutter in which Tom Brook, who claimed a hat trick at Elland the previous day, found himself on another.
It looked as though Scholes had it in the bag despite a solid 56 from Johnny Butterfield, with 60 still needed and only two Burton wickets to fall, but No9 Tom Burkinshaw and No10 Shaun Woodhams did a brilliant job and, after Burkinshaw had gone for 36, Woodhams took them to a one-wicket victory when caught off a no-ball in the final over.
Shepley took five points off Skelmanthorpe after defending a total of 208 all out in which Liam Wiles hit 84 and Tom Denton 50. Yasir Imtiaz took five for 28 and Tuseif Arshad three for 39
Bjorn Taylor hit 42 and Irfan Amjad 28 but Skelmanthorpe were held at 164-9 in reply thanks to Oli Davidson returning five for 50 and Wiles three for 60.
Elland went down again, this time to Delph, but only by two wickets and only after young Siraj Sajid hit 35 not out at No10 for the visitors to Hullen Edge.
Only Fahid Rehman with 28 and Daniel Arms with 20 really made any headway for Elland as Lancashire’s Arron Lilley took three for 40 and Greg Buckley four for 28 and they were bowled out for 133.
Delph had 27 from opener Graeme Simpson and 30 from Lilley, but they looked in trouble until Andrew Cadd with 14 not out and young Sajid steered them home.
Bilal Khiljee ended Honley’s hopes of chasing down 140 at Shelley by taking seven for 45 to dismiss the visitors for 98.
Paul Winrow top scored for Shelley while young Tommy Woodhead took five for 36.
Skipper Simon Kelly replied with 33 and Martin Green 29, but no-one else could contribute as Honley’s innings folded.
