Bradford Cricket League: James Van Der Merwe leads way as East Ardsley break their duck

After seven league games without a win there was joy for Ardsley as opener James Van Der Merwe led the way with a knock of 85 that included 15 fours and a six.

With support from Louie Hurley (21) and Dan McTernan (18) they posted a 188 score then bowled Birstall out for 163 as Ashley Pearson (4-26) led the attack and Josh Wild chipped in with 3-11.

East Ardsley remain second from bottom, but they are only behind Baildon on net run rate after their rivals suffered a 29-run defeat at Carlton.

The home side piled up a 321-9 score as Dan White hit 15 boundaries in his 87 and Farrukh Alam blasted five sixes and eight fours in a 56-ball knock of 80.

There were other valuable contributions from Dan Ford (35), Kian Wade (22) and last man William Hayton who smashed an unbeaten 26 off just seven balls.

Baildon made a spirited reply of 292-7 with Jonny Reynolds scoring 98no and James Ford 62, but their efforts were not quite enough with Kieron Holliday (3-90) doing most to restrict them.

Bottom of the table Sandal were unable to prevent Batley from going top of Division One as they were all out for 148 in reply to 246-7.

Sohail Hussain top scored with 31 and Karl Hewitt contributed 22, but they fell well short of the target set after Aadam Hussain (94) led the way for Batley and there were two wickets each for Sandal’s Sam Noden, Kasun Madushanka and Michael Carroll.

Ossett went down to an eight-wicket defeat when they took on title hopefuls New Farnley in the Premier Division.

After electing to bat first, they started well enough with skipper William Wade making 55 and putting on 56 for the first wicket with Rohan Mehmi (23) then a further 49 for the second wicket with Matty Race (29).

But when Wade was out with the score on 129-4, the innings went into decline and Ossett were all out for 171.

New Farnley then eased past the target set in 24.1 overs with Lee Goddard (74no) and Steve Bullen (53) sharing a stand of 118 for the second wicket. Junaid Khan took the only two wickets to fall.

Wrenthorpe lost a high scoring Division Two match by 92 runs at Buttershaw St Paul’s when the home side piled up 379-5 as Amer Ayoub led the way with an unbeaten 121.

Wrenthorpe’s valiant chase ended with them all out for 287 despite 85 from Billal Shahid, who hit 10 fours and three sixes and 71 by Muhammad Aldas, who struck nine fours and a six.

Altofts ran into a team on the up in Great Preston in Division Three as they went down by 25 runs.

Despite Jacques Porter taking 4-85 and Saif Tahir 3-42, Preston were able to post a 212 score.

They then bowled Altofts out for 187 with Chris Aplin (6-54) doing much of the damage.

Porter followed up his bowling effort with a knock of 36 and Joe Plater hit 44, but Altofts fell short and dropped down to fifth place.

Improving Wakefield St Michael’s are up to third after a 65-run win over Scholes, who started the day on top of the table.

James Chapple (58) and Syed Bukhari (43) helped St Michael’s to make 224-9 before they dismissed Scholes for 159 with Kashif Najam (5-22) and Nazakat Hussain (3-53) leading their bowling attack.