Spirited comeback pushes Adwalton above East Leeds in Division Four

After a fine performance the week before, albeit in defeat, the second team’s away trip to East Leeds was bolstered by a strengthened squad with the return of a number of key players. In fact it was perhaps the strongest side fielded this season, with James Emmott returning from first team duty, Chris Davey recovering from his crippling knee injury and Jonathan Banks, a close season signing from Wakefield St Michaels, looking for a confident innings.

And a confident innings what exactly what he provided, scoring 47 runs and offering an anchor to those around him. Tom Leeming continued his fine form from the 79 scored in his previous outing with 25 before unnecessarily hurrying to be out caught off the bowling of Oliver Broome. But Chris Davey quickly remembered his game in only his second innings of the year and looked in fine form as he moved onto 60 before eventually being bowled. Encouragingly, each batsman chipped in as the next four batsmen all reached double figures taking the total to 262 and importantly meaning that the side had batted their full allocation of overs.

It was something of a rarity to be able to defend such a large total, but nevertheless Adwalton initially managed to make it look difficult. Captain Aaron Pearce skied his way to fifty runs, feeding off the luck handed to him by numerous Adwalton fielders as they dropped no less than six catches. And while it seemed as if the game was quickly slipping away, it was Sam Harrison who turned the tide, diving to eventually dismiss Pearce and restoring confidence to a despondent team. As often happens, the first wicket brought another as Martin Kent edged the ball high off Chris Smiths and was caught behind.
Following a brief cameo from Snehal Patel, a small amount of resistance was presented by Oliver Broome and Abid Tarvaz, hitting the ball hard and clean on occasion, but one too many swings by Broome led to Banks avenging a previous drop with a fine catch. It was Harrison who again excelled to squash the innings of Tarvaz. A mis-timed cut looped awkwardly over Harrison at point, who took a superb catch over his shoulder.

With the major threat subdued, Adwaltons attack then gradually worked its way through the order, Chris Smith picking up four wickets in a tidy spell of bowling, and Tom Leeming and Ben Allinson providing more aggression from the other end finishing with two wickets each.
Elliott Jennings was left to complete the innings, bowling nine and jack for ducks meaning both he and Chris Smith go into their next match on a hat trick!

A fine performance and one in which every single team member played their part, hopefully a sign of good things to come from a side gradually becoming harder to beat and growing in confidence and experience.