Ackworth reach Vitality Club T20 Plate Final at Derby

Ackworth Cricket Club are quietly confident that they have what it takes to lift the Vitality Club T20 Plate after reaching the final of the national knockout competition, inked in for Sunday 22 September.

I caught up with Jono Gillespie to discuss how the push for national club honours has materialised.

Shifting priorities

I’m curious how Ackworth plan their season and choose competitions to enter at the start of the season?

In their case, there’s all of this…league, league cup, midweek T20 league and cup, Sunday league, National Village Cup and ECB T20 Plate.

“The YCSPL is our priority, but we try to enter as many cups as we can to give the squad as many playing opportunities as possible.

Jono told me about one fixture clash where some serious juggling was required: “In an early round of the T20 Plate, we were hosting two matches at home and had a Village Cup match on the same day! We put out strongest team out in the first T20 and got a good win and a great net run rate.”

“We then had nine of the lads leave to play in the Village Cup (which we narrowly lost) and nine of our 2nd XI stepped up to play in the final T20. They did their job and got us through to the next round. The whole squad are therefore very much part of our T20 Plate journey.”

Surprised to be going national

Did Ackworth identify the ECB competition specifically as an opportunity or just prioritise it as the season went on?

Apparently, they only realised on the day of the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League’s T20 Plate Final at Cawthorne that the winners went on to further national rounds.

Having won the Doncaster Infirmary Midweek T20 league for the last two seasons, there was appetite for the format with the carrot of the final scheduled for Derbyshire County Cricket Club’s home ground.

Points of difference in 2024

Ackworth aren’t half doing badly – as it’s the first time they’ve entered the ECB Club T20 Plate competition. They became eligible following promotion to the YCSPL Championship this season.

Jono is quick to reel off a host of contributors whose impact in T20 has got them to the brink of a national title.

“Shingi Masakadza has been immense in the competition this season, bowling well, but also simply taking the game away from opponents with his batting.”

The former Zimbabwe Test cricketer has 1,102 runs and 44 wickets across all competitions, having played for Ackworth since 2022. The squad has also benefitted from new recruits such as Yorkshire CCC 2nd XI player Josh Hen-Boisen.

Mohammad “Zimmy” Khan has racked up 851 runs in his debut season with some stand-out performances in the T20 Plate competition but as Jono points out, it’s not all about the new names.

“Our squad, led by captain Luke Townsend and Vice Captain Andrew Joburns, benefits from the experience of perennial run score Amit Kundra, and features a majority of ACC players who’ve come up through the junior ranks, such as Dale Longfield and Josh Wood who bowl lots of dots, Dan Malyan and Bailey Matthews who can hit the ball miles, and George Gillespie who bats, bowls and is a gun fielder – crucial for T20s!”

New chapter

Down the years, Ackworth Cricket Club has a proud cricketing backstory with luminaries including Geoff Boycott, Graham Stevenson, Peter Hepworth, Dougie Lloyd and Neil Lloyd.

For the current 1st XI squad, their move to the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League for the 2022 season has seen back-to-back promotions, before finishing third in the Championship in 2024.

The National Club T20 Final would be the icing on the cake after a transformational couple of years at Ackworth.

For Junior Chairman and Head Coach Jono, the fruits of that labour are being seen in success across the age groups that will filter into their adult league sides in time.

In fact, that has already happened with a player from the very first All Stars intake (Rehan Kiriella) scoring their debut hundred in the Sunday league senior team, while other successes include the launch of two new girls teams at the club.

I’m sure there will be strong Yorkshire support for Ackworth as they travel to The County Ground, Derby and the final and we wish them the best of luck.

👀 Watch Club T20 Finals Day at County Ground, Derby – Sunday 22 September

Entry is free for National Club T20 Finals Day, the Falcons Bar will be open for refreshments at The County Ground. Both fixtures will be live streamed via Derbyshire’s official YouTube channel.

Ackworth are up first at 11am against Old Elizabethans CC, followed by Northern taking on Oundle Town in the ECB National Club T20 final.