THE only Drakes issue still to be resolved is who will finish runners-up to champions Scholes and claim the Hopkinson Trophy.
That goes to the side accruing the most points from the final six League matches, and currently Skelmanthorpe, who are second, and Shepley (third) both have 24 Hopkinson points.
Skelmanthorpe stretched their League points to 108 following Sunday’s maximum over Barkisland, putting them seven clear of Shepley, who took five off Scholes.
However, with the Drakes Executive still to make a ruling on Shepley’s points award from their rained-off game against Clayton West, they could still overtake Skelmanthorpe into second spot.
Scholes’ 1,000-run man Iqbal Khan again anchored their innings with an unbeaten 79, but on this occasion the Chapelgaters were happy to settle for a point, which was all they required to wrap up the title from their penultimate game at Shepley.
Marsh Lane opener SP Singh carried his bat for 69 as Shepley were 146-9, before Romain Grenville’s five for 53 had Scholes’ top order in bother, but they couldn’t budge Khan.
James Crossland continued his best ever season for Skelmanthorpe, taking his sixth five-wicket or better return as Barkisland were bowled out for 123. But it needed a late unbeaten 27 from the evergreen Richard Cocking to edge them to victory with eight wicket down.
With nothing else to decide, it was very much a case of some teams going through the motions, but there were a number of good individual displays, Nick Sharpe the only player to notch a ton.
