THE fortunes have not favoured the once-mighty MELTHAM in recent years.

But after coming so close to the promotion frame last season, when they finished third behind champions Clayton West and Hall Bower, 2012 may just be the season the Mean Laners re-join the Drakes League’s top flight.

Lee Storey has taken over as skipper with last year’s leader David Bebb unsure as to his exact availability, but elsewhere with very much the same sort of team.

Meltham have recruited one player, young all-rounder Rohan Randhawa (younger brother of Yorkshire’s Gurman) who is an early order batsman and spinner, while at the other end of the age spectrum, they are welcoming back Darren Hinchliffe.

The hugely experienced ‘Deadly’ (Hinchliffe, inset) is likely to open the batting with the prodigiously talented Will Fraine, who last year notched his maiden senior century and is expected to really push on with some big numbers this season.

With back-up batting provided by Abdul Hamid, Randhawa, Nadeem Ashraf and Ibrar Hussain, runs shouldn’t be a problem.

And again spearheaded by 73-wicket taker Jon Storey, neither should the wickets, although they have still to redress the problem of losing their wicketkeeper/batsman Luke Kenworthy, who is now at University in New Zealand.

At least one of the two relegated clubs from the previous season are generally considered a safe bet to make an immediate return and BARKISLAND’S new skipper is confident it is within his team’s reach to do just that.

Darren Robinson has taken over from the departed Simon Wheelwright, who has moved to Elland, while he will also be without Andrew Gleave who has returned ‘over the tops’ into Lancashire and overseas player Kimeshin Chetty.

However, opening batsman Dave Weston has thrown his considerable experience into the bid to bounce straight back up, and the club have also signed Armghan Javed, who last season took 80 wickets in just 15 games with Stainland.

Although he lives locally at the moment he is still officially classed as an overseas player, and although playing at a lower level last year, I would expect him to pose a few problems for Championship batsmen this summer.

Elsewhere, Robinson will be looking to bring on some of the club’s promising younger players, like Isaac Pollitt, Seth Oddy, Ben Westbrook and Charlie Cocking, while again relying on the experienced shoulders of Gary Colman, Matt Steers and James Taylor.

ARMITAGE BRIDGE ran away with the Conference title last season, setting an historic record en route by going through the entire season unbeaten.

They are certainly unlikely to do the same this season, especially after losing their leading run scorer, Australian Hayden Jones, who topped 1,000 runs last summer.

However, they have acquired another Australian replacement in the shape of Dean Wolf, who is a wicketkeeper/batsman from Canberra, although that may be the only change in the first team squad.

Skipper Paul Hamer is determined to keep faith with the majority of the squad who took the Conference division by storm in 2011, and that means he will again be looking to leading wicket-takers Carl Jump – who lifted the Conference bowling award – and Rick Lunn to repeat last season’s heroics, backed up by up-and-coming youngsters Jordan Williamson, Faheem Hussain and Joel Harrison.

Fellow Holme Valley side THONGSBRIDGE went up with Armitage Bridge and they too will be almost unchanged from last season, where 17 of the 22 players involved, had all come up through their own juniors.

Captain Ben Raven-Hill led from the front last year with 814 runs, and many of their hopes will again rest on his young shoulders, although he should have Oliver Webster back in tandem, after he recovered from a dislocated shoulder which robbed the Miry Lane side of his ability for more than half the season.

Alex Kemp is currently at University in America but should return in May, while Raven-Hill will be urging a repeat from his two main strike bowlers, Ijaz Shah and Zafar Iqbal, along with his own brother Tom if they want to remain competitive.

EMLEY CLARENCE had a very up-and-down season in 2011, starting and finishing well but suffering a barren spell two-thirds of the way through the season which effectively ended their promotion hopes.

Jon Lee shouldered much of their bowling responsibility last term, but should have plenty of support at the other end this year after Emley recruited Mirza Mobeen from Almondbury (via Lepton).

Having initially signed for the Highlanders, Mobeen quickly changed his mind when his close friend Atif Kamran went to Emley, and he quickly upped sticks to join him at the Welfare Ground.

Former player Steve Scott has returned following a spell at South Kirby, and new skipper Richard Haynes will be hoping his side can find some consistency this season, which could see them up there at the business end of the table come September.

LEPTON HIGHLANDERS had a similar roller-coaster season to Emley, and skipper Steve Brown will be hoping his team can mirror the sort of consistency he showed himself last year when he led from the front with both bat (885 runs) and ball (44 wickets).

The Wakefield Road club will have been delighted to keep hold of the talented all-rounder, who has also helped strengthen the club by recruiting two fellow students from Leeds University.

Joe Cuthbert is a bowler, and Alex Hislop an all-rounder.

Lepton have also signed Naeem Ashraf, a top four batsman who also bowls, and last season skippered at Clitheroe in Lancashire.

Brown will be without Dale Winterbottom this year however.

A great servant to the Highlanders, Winterbottom has decided to step down and help some of the club’s young players, including his own son Dane, by skippering the Seconds this season.

Another long-time servant is Max Freeland who has taken over as skipper at BROAD OAK, where there has been a mini clear-out since being relegated at the end of last season.

Jack Hargreaves and Adam France have both gone to Premier clubs, while the club’s top batsman and wicketkeeper last year, Chris Gill, has gone back into Lancashire to play with Greenfield.

Freeland will be hoping this year’s overseas player is a marked improvement on last year’s (Yogi Golwalker) as he will shoulder a lot of responsibility.

Reece Phillips is a 21-year-old leg spinner from Carrisbrook in Dunedin and has played for Otago B, and has come to the Colne Valley club following a recommendation from New Zealand’s Mark Bracewell.

Phillips will be joined at the Oak by ex-Elland/Ossett player Jack Pulley, Bryn Jenkins from Almondbury Wesleyans and Ian Walker from Honley, but the club will be looking to their own youngsters like Danny Rushworth and Alex Walker to step up to the mark this season.

HOLMFIRTH just escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth last year – although they would have been nearer to promotion had they not been rather harshly deducted 12 points by the League for playing a ‘de-registered’ player last year. They will be without their leading batsman Javed Iqbal (the ‘guilty’ party in the registration case) and leg spinner Max Morley who has moved down the road to Honley, but welcome back bowler Greg Alexander after a spell at Slaithwaite, Paddock’s Anees Rawat, and more importantly, a new skipper in the form of Rob Denton.

The former Shepley stalwart has left Marsh Lane to captain Holmfirth, and play alongside his younger son Sam who acquitted himself very well last year in his first season at the Holme Valley club.

James Sykes has also joined the Bridge Fold outfit from Golcar after moving into the area, and his experience should provide the stability they sometimes lacked at the top of the order last season.