Around the Leagues: Pre-season news (West)

Record-breaking New Zealander Brett Randell is back with top-flight Honley for the 2026 Huddersfield Premier League season.

Auckland-born Randell last played for the Far End Lane club in 2017 and 2018, during which he scored more than a thousand runs and took almost a century of wickets.

Since then, back home, Randell, a right-arm seam bowler, has switched from Northern Districts to Central Districts, piling up, as a professional, 1,100-plus runs and collecting 260 wickets.

Randell’s scintillating form led to a 2023 Australia tour with New Zealand ‘A’ and three 2024 County Championship Division One call-ups from Somerset.

Topping all that, on March 8, Randell, playing for Central Districts against Northern Districts, at McLean Park, Napier, took five wickets in five balls during a Plunket Shield match, becoming the first player in first-class cricket to achieve the feat.

Randell told stuff.co.nz: “It was a pinch-me moment. I had no idea it was the first time it had happened. Seriously cool.”

In addition to their Randell signing coup, Honley welcome opening bowler Ed Booth, from the Yorkshire Premier League North’s York, while Charlie Jakeman and Blair McKenzie come in from HPL Premiership rivals Armitage Bridge.

Booth, at York the last three seasons, is regarded by Honley as an exciting signing, whom they feel will strengthen the bowling attack and add power to the lower order.

Honley are looking to improve on a disappointing inaugural HPL season, which saw them finish immediately above the Premiership’s two relegation places.

Hoylandswaine, the HPL’s defending champions, have strengthened their ranks with a clutch of impressive winter signings.

Incomers include Jamal Adil, from the Liverpool & District Cricket Competition’s Prescot & Odyssey; ex-Durham all-rounder Usman Arshad, from the Bradford Premier League’s New Farnley; Adil Ali and Kamran Basharat, both from the Greater Manchester League’s Egerton; and Castleford pair Chris Holliday and Liam Hyde.

Bullish batsman Holliday previously spent several seasons with Swaine, whom he has captained in the past.

Swaine have picked up three players from the HPL: Adnan Ghani (Thongsbridge), Asad Ali Rizvi (Mirfield) and Chavez Younes (Moorlands).

Rastrick, pipped narrowly by Swaine to the Premiership title last season, have signed Danish Hussain, a talented opening bat most recently on the books of Bradford Premier League clubs Farsley and Undercliffe.

Joining Hussain at Rastrick will be Moaaz Ajaz, who spent 2025 playing for Burnham in the Thames Valley League, hitting 625 runs in 15 league games, at an average of 41.67, and ex-Scholes player Wasim Javed.

All-rounder Pragam Sharma, twice voted the league’s Overseas Player of the Season, has been re-signed by divisional rivals Almondbury Wesleyan.

The upper-order bat and spinner’s previous experience in the HPL includes spells with Thongsbridge and Hoylandswaine.

Last season, for Wes, Sharma scored 634 runs in 24 league games at an average of 31.70. He added 44 wickets at 21.48 apiece.

Shepley have been busy recruiting, with Ghulam Hussain (Rastrick), Richard Marshall (Thongsbridge) and Clayton Taylor, formerly with the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League’s Worsbrough Bridge, heading to Marsh Lane.

Two former Bradford Premier League players – Sam Johnson (Jer Lane) and Moiz Naveed (Pudsey Congs) – have moved to Mirfield-based Moorlands, who have also recruited Danyaal Khalid, from the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League’s Tickhill.

Opening bat Khalid, who has more than 5,000 career runs to his credit, plays for the NCCA’s Bedfordshire and can draw on previous experience with Middlesex’s Second XI and Leeds Bradford MCCU.

Further boosting Moorlands’ options, Stephen Brown joins from the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior League’s Otley, while reliable all-rounder Nadim Hussain returns to the club after a spell with Hoylandswaine.

Last August, Brown, consistent and dedicated, passed the 400-wicket mark for Otley’s First XI.

Moorlands are confident Hussain, a former club junior, will prove an asset because of his ability to take wickets at big moments and pile up lower-order runs.

The overseas professional at Moorlands will be Shayan Sheikh, who in his native Pakistan plays first-class cricket for Islamabad & Khan Research Laboratories (KRL).

Moorlands have retained Derbyshire wicketkeeper/batsman Brooke Guest, who in just five innings last season for the Mirfield side scored 358 runs at 119.33.

Like Moorlands, Kirkburton have plundered the Bradford Premier League, for Rishi Chopra (Bradford & Bingley) and Yorkshire wicketkeeper Harry Duke (Farsley). Former Skelmanthorpe man Alfie Simpson will join the pair at Riley Lane.

Golcar have landed two players from the Halifax League’s Copley: Woody Webster, a right-hand bat and wicketkeeper, and Gavin Whipp, a top-order bat and leg-spin bowler.

During his time in Copley’s First XI, all-rounder Whipp scored almost 4,000 runs and took 236 wickets.

Ben Balmforth (Thongsbridge) and Jack Mulhall (Shepley) have also joined Golcar.

All-rounder Joe Senior makes the short move to Scholes from the Championship’s Cumberworth United, for whom he scored 519 runs and took 32 wickets last season. 

2026 marks the 150th season of cricket at Scholes, who have secured the return, after a season’s absence, of all-rounder Paul Nasser.

Mirfield Parish Cavaliers, the 2025 Championship title-winners, have signed Reece Drake from the Bradford Premier League’s Scholes, together with Islam Hayyat (Marsden) and Ibrahim Muhammad Sajid (Birkby Rose Hill, above).

Down the HPL, Broad Oak, who have lost several players to Marsden over the winter, have been given a relegation reprieve and will stay in the second tier Championship.

Linthwaite’s lack of junior teams prevents them, owing to ECB compliance regulations, from featuring in the top two tiers. They have been demoted to the third tier Conference.

Bradford Premier League title-winners New Farnley, unbeaten in the league in 2025 and this year the defending ECB National T20 champions, have Indian import Abhay Negi returning as their overseas player.

The Premier Division club consider Negi, an opening bowler, integral to last year’s success and regard his presence, on and off the field, as a significant boost.

Alex Lilley has stepped down as New Farnley captain. His spell at the Lawns Lane helm featured, amongst other things, two league titles and a Heavy Woollen Cup triumph.

Filling Lilley’s boots, left-handed opener Aidan Langley will skipper New Farnley this season.

Pudsey Congs, the 2025 Division One champions, have brought in Ibrahim Ahmed, from Premier Division rivals Woodlands, and Max Berry, from the Huddersfield Premier League’s Slaithwaite.

In 2025, batsman Ahmed averaged 37.78 in contributing 340 runs for Woodlands.

Last year, in the Huddersfield competition’s second tier, all-rounder Berry hit 276 runs, at an average of 36.90, and took 45 wickets, at 15.18 apiece.

Sri Lankan batsman and captain Yohan Mendis, a key performer last season (1,088 runs at 64.00), is unable to spend a fifth season with Congs.

Run machine Aqib Shah has re-signed with Carlton after a stellar 2025 campaign that saw the Rawalpindi-born master batsman pile up 1,101 runs in 23 games at 55.05.

Shah’s heroics helped the Rhubarb Triangle club retain Premier Division status comfortably, finishing sixth, after promotion the year before.

Sri Lankan Sanoj Dharshika joins Townville, who this year aim to improve on their best season in the BPL. 

In 2025, the Castleford club were runners-up to New Farnley and lifted the Priestley Cup, beating Pudsey St Lawrence, by 87 runs, in the New Farnley-staged final. 

Dharshika, who plays first-class cricket in his homeland, is a leg spinner. He will bat at three for Townville.

Divisional rivals Pudsey St Lawrence have unveiled Indian Ankit Sharma as their overseas professional.

The 34-year-old, a left-arm spinner and middle-order bat, plays for Kerala in India’s premier first-class competition.

Joining Sharma at Saints will be left-arm seamer Ollie Stace, who arrives from the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior League’s Kirkstall Educational, for whom his century of wickets helped to secure back-to-back promotions.

Woodlands, this year to be under the captaincy of former skipper Cieran Garner, have signed quick bowler Noah Priestley from the Lancashire League’s Todmorden.

In a further boost, prolific batsman Tim Jackson has come out of retirement to return to the Oakenshaw club, whose 2025 campaign was sabotaged by injuries.

Reliable batters Kyle Welsh and Bailey Worcester link up with Methley having been part of Undercliffe’s relegated top-flight team in 2025. The former has wintered in Australia.

Both Welsh and Worcester can keep wicket, thereby providing useful back-up for regular glovesman Liam Thomas.

Bradford & Bingley are buoyed by the return, for a consecutive season, of overseas seam bowler Udith Patabadige.

Big things are expected of another seamer, the highly-rated Archie Barraclough, who was sidelined for most of 2025 with a back issue.

Morley, promoted to the Premier Division after a timely surge of form towards the end of 2025, have added four players to their squad.

Heading the quartet is Pakistani overseas professional Muhammad Junaid, who shone last season with the Bolton Premier League’s Little Lever.

Junaid, a left-hander who back home has played List A cricket, hits the ball hard (almost a thousand runs in 2025) and bowls spin. Regarded as a cracking all-round option.

Also joining Morley are Cleckheaton top-order bat Waleed Akhtar, Undercliffe all-rounder Jude Roberts (a left-arm spinner) and Crossflatts batsman Sajid Azeem (above).

Park Avenue-based Jer Lane, generally looking to field a younger team than last year, have added to their squad experienced seam bowlers Mustafa Rafique (East Bierley) and Umar Yacoob (Hoylandswaine).

Other new faces include former Bankfoot pair Bilal Hamid (above), a wicketkeeper/batsman, and opening bat Mohammed Abbas, together with former Rastrick all-rounder Kaleel Ahmed, who bowls left-arm spin.

Visa issues mean left-arm spinner Mohammed Aamir is unable to return, although the Yasir Ali-captained Jer Lane do hope to bring in a replacement professional, possibly from abroad.

Former Yorkshire Second XI left-arm seamer Joe Davies has signed for Farsley. A local lad, Davies spent our winter playing grade cricket for Sydney Cricket Club.

Farsley have brought in, from Jer Lane, top-order batsman Miraj Khan, an experienced player with a fine pedigree, and batsman Sabir Mahmood, a dynamic young prospect.

Pakistan Under-19 international Tahir Hussain, a right-handed batsman and a left-arm seam bowler, will be the Rams’ 2026 overseas professional.

Cleckheaton, Farsley’s Premier Division rivals, also looked to Pakistan for their overseas pro: Mohammad Ammar, a 22-year-old left-handed batter, who averages 46 in his homeland’s first-class game. Ammar replaces free-scoring countryman Yousaf Baber.

Other incomers include former Yorkshire leg-spinner Josh Sullivan; Jack Luxton, an opening bowler and a middle-order bat; and wicketkeeper/batsman Toby Cliff.

Seamer Brad Sylvester, another promising young prospect, will be available all season, after Yorkshire commitments restricted his 2025 BPL outings.

Extended and refurbished changing rooms, revamped at a cost of £550,000, were unveiled in March at a facility Cleckheaton share with the town’s rugby union club.

First Division Bankfoot, last in the top-flight in 2023, have unveiled an interesting recruit: Jeevan Kathuria, an upper-order bat and an off-spin bowler, who has played Second XI cricket with Essex.

The Airedale & Wharfedale Senior League is looking to fill two vacancies for the 2027 season. Deadline for applying clubs is May 31.

Rawdon will host, on Sunday, August 2, the league’s showpiece Waddilove Cup final. Reserve date is August 9.

Todmorden (above) and Walsden, Lancashire League members, have qualified to contest the 2026 Lancashire Cricket Foundation Knockout Cup, which has a 32-strong entry.

Each has a home tie in round one, scheduled for Sunday, May 17 (1pm): Todmorden entertain Horwich RMI (Greater Manchester League) while Walsden receive Little Lever (North West League).

Eggborough Power Station, of the Pontefract & District League’s fourth tier Division Two, move into a new ground, at Hazel Old Lane, for 2026.

Eggborough’s relocation leaves vacant the Back Lane facilities at Hirst Courtney. They will be used by Batley’s Third XI, new entrants in the PDCL’s Division One.

Owing to Bradford Premier League rules, Batley are unable to field the Third XI, comprising mostly teenagers, in their ‘own’ competition.

The Halifax League’s successful Sunday competition welcomes four new members for 2026: Birstall, Farsley, Hall Bower, and Outlane II.