This weekend produced an extraordinary Dales Council Cricket League match the likes of which you’ll never have seen before.
It poses so many questions. One team in Bradford hit over 500 in 45 overs. Yes, you did read that right.
It’s the first instance I’ve ever seen of a triple hundred scored in a limited-overs club match. The frazzled opposition folded cheaply and were beaten by a chastening amount.
Fair? Should they have declared? Just not cricket? It reminds me of my feature on the Pudsey St Lawrence batting stand that caused a stir.
I’ll let Cricket Yorkshire’s roving reporter Bill Marshall fill you in on individual and collective performances, together with interviews from both Dales Council Cricket League teams. Thanks to Bill for leaping on the story so quickly for this website.
Have a read then have your say by leaving a comment below, tweeting @cricketyorks on Twitter or posting on the Cricket Yorkshire Facebook page.
Records went tumbling in the Dales Council League on Saturday, writes Bill Marshall.
New boys Interlink made an eye-watering 559-6 in their 45 overs at Muff Field in a clash between top and bottom, with opener Mohammed Memi hitting an incredible 310 not out.
Both were league records, as was the unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 218 between Memi, who hit 33 fours and 23 sixes in his 132-ball knock, and Ebrahim Bismillah (97 not out off 47 balls, including nine fours and seven sixes).
Four Muff Field bowlers conceded over 100 runs in their spells of 11 or 12 overs, while the other shipped 63 runs in just four overs!
Muff Field seconds were then dismissed for 123 in 23.5 overs, but that was part of two more records.
The aggregate score of 682 was a best as was the margin of victory (436 runs) and, to make matters worse, Memi and Bismillah are former Muff Field players!
“It was a brilliant innings,” said Mohammed Pandoor, vice-captain of Interlink, who are a first XI.
“It is not the biggest of grounds, with trees and houses on one side and a garden centre on the other, and he was helped by some misfields, but some of the sixes went out of the ground – we lost 10 balls – and to have the concentration to bat for 45 overs was superb.
“Ironically the other opener, Irfan Jamadar, is probably having a more consistent season.”
Muff Field skipper Stephen Broadbent said: “Interlink were second in Group A of the Bradford Mutual Sunday School League last season and won the first teams’ Sir James Roberts Cup, but Dales Council League rules state that new clubs have to start in Division C.
“The tone was set from the first ball which was line and length on off stump and disappeared out of the ground.”
“They started at 10 an over and went up from there, but I don’t see the point of a club like Interlink starting in the bottom division. When we played them earlier in the season we won the toss and batted and were out for 36!”
“I am just glad that it happened to us and not Pudsey St Lawrence Fourths or Baildon Fourths, who would have had a lot of kids playing. Mind you, we had one 15-year-old but our oldest players were me at 57 and my brother at 59.”
Interlink are Division C leaders with 198 points – 31 points ahead of Shipley Providence – winning nine of their 12 matches on the field, having two more conceded and being rained off in the other one.
Muff Field seconds are bottom, having lost eight of their 12 matches, winning three, two of which were conceded, and also having one abandoned due to weather.
Memi, who is averaging an astonishing 329.5 in the league this season (but only 225.33 if you count the Cawthorne Cup), said of his knock against Muff Field: “I was middling everything.”
“The first ball went for four, the second ball went for four, I got a few singles and then I went for it.
“That is the way that I bat – I got 203 against Cookridge on May 4 – but it was a long day for me against Muff Field and I was tired afterwards.”
The individual Dales Council scores this season for Memi, who also plays for Asian Tigers in the West Riding Sunday Council, are: 203, 18 (against Baildon Fourths), 55 not out, 17 (Cawthorne Cup), 6 not out (it rained!), 67 not out and 310 not out.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAVE YOUR SAY!
Interlink are clearly working their way up the divisions. Yes, they should have declared earlier (some of you will disagree with that as they were entitled to bat for 45 overs) but what a feat of endurance from Memi.
I once played in the Dales Council Cricket League and we went for 400 in 45 overs which was brutal enough so my thoughts are mainly with the Muff Field bowlers!
Leave a comment below, tweet @cricketyorks on Twitter or post your thoughts on the Cricket Yorkshire Facebook page. Thanks for reading.
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Some people like to be big fish in little ponds. There is plenty of better standards of cricket in the region where individuals or even the team could play and have competitive games. The Dales Council also need to look at their rules for new teams joining and re balance the divisions at the end of the season. If not you will end up youngsters that are bedding into senior cricket leaving the game for other sports.
Thanks for the comment Nick, I guess I’d say that they’re legitimately moving up the divisions and you’ll see plenty of teams roll oppo over (albeit not on this scale) in other parts of Yorkshire. I imagine they want to play local to Bradford so Dales Council made sense and they prob wouldn’t have chosen Division C. Agree with your point about youngsters leaving if they experience games like that. Imagine change will come of this result.
Firstly congrats on the triple hundred, many of us would be happy with that many in a season!
My club, Baildon are playing Interlink a week on Saturday and will be hoping the toss goes our way!
It’s a difficult one as declaring would have prevented an opportunity for the lad to get a score he is unlikely (but not impossible) to repeat. On the flip side how many of the Muff Field players will now question playing again after being made to chase leather all afternoon.
Had Interlink brought in 2 teams their first team would have started in Division B (both Mayfield and Muff Field did this last season) which is quite a big step in standard from Division C. I suppose the question back to Interlink is are they planning on running a second team next year to help develop cricket further in the area and give opportunities to the guys who haven’t played much/at all?
I’m sure league rules will change to allow new clubs to come in at a relevant level rather than hammering teams for a season or two!
We want to develop cricket at a lower level and introduce youngsters into the game, we have approximately 8 juniors playing every week in the Dales in our third and fourth teams so we need to keep sight of what the league is all about whilst balancing the ambition of new clubs coming in.
Well said Ashley and whoever bowls Memi for a duck on Saturday probably deserves a pint!
Great article well pounced on. For me, the problem lies with the league rules. Interlink should never have started in the C division, they are obviously way too good and it can’t be much fun for them either. Hopefully lessons will be learned and common sense applied for the future.
Muff Field CC are a good set of lads who play with enthusiasm and fun, I’m sure they’ll bounce back just fine.
We (Rodley cc 3rd XI) play Interlink in a fortnight, we will have 4 or 5 juniors playing. Wish us luck at the coin toss…
Thanks Dan…win that coin toss!! Not sure how different leagues operate in terms of which division new teams go into but it doesn’t help anyone to have these mismatches. Astonishing batting all the same.
Im vice captain of muffield 1st team and when we was playing on saturday and heard then score of the seconds i thought no give over, the first team captain for interlink sent someone else out for the coin toss because we all know him and said look come on if you win put us in but nope he chickened out and sent someone else out ? and well we all know what happened from there. In my eyes this is a fake score its not a true reflection of and relevant game, people play saturdays to enjoy cricket and have a laugh and stuff like this dampens peoples spirit’s
Thanks Karl, good to get your view as Muff Field 1s skipper. Good point too about making a game of it from the coin toss. Go well the rest of the season.
As Secretary and scorer for Interlink the weekend achievements of Memi and Our captain Ebrahim Bismillah who scored 97 not out as a number 8 batsman are of course fabulous.
As a club we have had a fine balancing act to perform this season also. We changed League and knew we had to start from the bottom Division, this gave us an opportunity to blood New players and also let players have different batting positions in order to build for the future of our club, all whilst ensuring we get the results we need to gain promotion.
Most of our players are part of the same community in BD7 and have played together for a number of years- Saturday alone we played 3 new players with no prior cricket pedigree all great for building our squad. All players are working guys and pay their subs week in week out, when we lose the toss we inevitably field first which limits batting opportunity for our players as we need to focus on the victory first.
This week we had an opportunity to bat and the guys who may spend most Saturdays fielding alone got a chance to have a bat.
We need to keep these players engaged too.
Hi Sara, good to hear from you, been a while. As you say, from a club perspective, you need to keep everyone involved. Playing devil’s advocate, I’d like the skipper to have said enough’s enough once Memi got 200. ironically, by continuing to bat, he stopped others having a knock! Taking nothing away from the kind of feat can even wrap their head round, it is phenomenal stamina and concentration. As other comments have noted, it might be time to review forcing all clubs, regardless of past exploits, to start from the very bottom. Best wishes, John.
Apart from the two lads getting runs and improving their averages there’s nothing good about this at all!
Big fish in a small pond comes to mind…
I hope the bowlers aren’t too distressed about it and can continue to play! Games like that only put people off playing (which is happening. Lots of Clubs in the Nidderdale league are folding/losing their 2nds etc). After all it’s a long day on a Saturday playing cricket, giving up your free time to play when you could be with the family etc and to face that is just ridiculous.
Dave, I see it from all sides, or at least try to, and I’ve said I’d have declared a lot earlier but your point (well made) is my main concern, games like this don’t encourage someone to stick their hand up the following week – I could be wrong!
As a member of interlink cc , well done to Memi on scoring 310 not out it’s not easy batting 45 overs for a 42 year old ! great clean hitting , I wasn’t playing on Saturday I personally rested my shelf to give sum players a chance to get involved In cricket 3 out 5 players that played on Saturday Neva played cricket , I went to the game whilst Memi was at the crease heard he was on about 200 and interlink was going to declare wants MEMI GOT OUT , THIS season IN one match especially whilst we playing in GROUP C we wanted to break sum records a player getting 300 and a team total off 500 unfortunately it’ was MUFF FIELD CC we had similar Pattern away to cookridge cc Memi was on 200 and he got out and a few overs later we declare ,
Thanks Bismaillah – it was an incredible batting effort, sure no-one’s disputing that. As I say in the article, I once played in a side that went for 400 in a Dales Council game and it was tough, tough afternoon that no-one really enjoyed. I know it happens though. You’ll get promoted (perhaps more than once) and things will settle down. I hope Muff Field get a win after this game.
Definitely agree pal ! I know muffield will bounce back ,I played up ther for a good 10 years we had a lot up and downs best off luck to them for rest off season !
Complete rhubarb.
Interlink are obviously waltzing through the Division and clearly would have won the game with a score of 250+. Maybe the captain declares on 300 just to be safe, for that 1 percent change of the oppo knocking off.
But to continue batting is shameful.
My club played a weaker team a couple of weeks ago. They were short by a player or 2 so we helped them out in the field through the match. Our Captain declared for about 200 once our highest scoring batsman got to 100.
Reasoning was he didn’t want to completely demoralise them, so in the spirit of the game he set a target he thought we could defend and let them have a go at it. We won, the opposition Captain stayed for a drink and thanked us for the sportsmanship
Love it Rob. A different approach…not for everyone but one to be commended.
As a member of Interlink CC, I would like to congratulate M.Memi for his individual performance and the whole Interlink team.
I played all the games apart from last 5 games as I am currently unfit to play.
Moving on, I completely agree with the point being made; teams and players, specially juniors come to enjoy cricket as a sports. However, doesn’t the same apply to us? When we as individual don’t get chance to bat if the total we are chasing is 35 runs or if the opponent is bowled out on 36 runs. (I don’t mean to point on any team performances) We come to play and enjoy too? However, due to league rules we are in Division C. Despite the fact, we came from another league with the history of league winners, cup holders, batting average winners all of those in Division A… I mean surely this could have been considered to reshuffle the Divisions as per previous records. However, this wasn’t the case hence we had to start from the bottom and we thought why not make some records whilst at it so that this is not easily forgotten even when we move on.
I completely agree that it is unfair for juniors and others playing to enjoy the sport my full sympathy and support goes out to them. But, I guess this should at least make the league re-consider some of the rules when a new team joins the team with such history full of achievements and records.
All the best to everyone.
Thanks for the comment Rayyan. It’s a fair point from the Interlink perspective. Good luck for the rest of the season – and in Division B!
As a member of interlink cc I would say it was a brilliant from mohammed memi whether he hit triple century in C division triple Century is Triple Century I was batting along side him and the amount of shots he played it would if clear any ground in the league people could tok by saying it’s bloddy Group C but not our fault that the league put us in Group C also people are saying that we should always put out oppent in to bat why we be wating all week for cricket so we can have a bat why wasting time putting oppents team in to bat end of the day it was a brillinat knock by my team mate mohammed memi broke all records thats all I would like to say
Thanks Mohammed – he’s having an incredible season and has played his way into the record books. It’s not Memi’s fault the circumstances Interlink find themselves.
Will be interesting to see how he goes up a Division in 2020. That was a lot of sixes!
Muffield cc left the league with a years notice, interlink cc did not im not taking anything away from memi hes a good player it was just the spirit of the game was not to be accounted for end of the day it was a good batting performance which could of been handled differently
Thanks Karl, important to congratulate Mohammed Memi on something he’ll probably not get the chance to do again. As you say, could have been handled differently but I understand their desire to bat and not just stick in the oppo because they’re too strong.
Walton Park will be entering the Nidderdale League next year, and their 1st team will come into Division 3. The downside of that is that at the end of this season 3 teams will be relegated from that division and each lower one to make a place for them.
Thanks Duncan…I don’t envy leagues trying to please everyone…looks like some leagues choose where to place a new club side but inevitably that can cause its own problems.
Dont no what to say but records have to be brocken .
No great knowledge of the workings of the Dales Council, but to stick rigidly to rules, rather than apply common sense, is the cause of this problem. No problem with Interlink taking Muff Fields to the cleaners. Why should Interlink field first and bowl the opposition out for 50 and the match finishes at 4.30 or less? Interlink need to enjoy their season and are completely innocent in this alleged anomaly. One comparison I can think of is if Hoylandswaine applied to join the Bradford league they would be put in the Conference. But, no it wouldn’t happen- there would be a contingent plan- leagues need to be flexible.
Always good to get your view Reg as a seasoned club cricket watcher…if Hoylandswaine did go into the Conference, we really would have interesting scorecards.
Agree mate well said ???
Hi an individual score of over 300 was scored in the nidderdale league last season by Richard Symmonds for burnt Yates so hold on the record books
A fine effort Steve, thanks for that stat. I did interview another Nidderdale batsman about a record at Ouseburn – https://cricketyorkshire.com/is-this-the-most-incredible-scorecard-of-the-cricket-season/
329 was scored in 2010 by Oliver Hardaker for Horsforth at Upper Wharfedale in the Ian Chappell Cup (3rd XI Cup Competition in Airedale & Wharfedale Senior Cricket League).
Made the national press – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/7682115/Schoolboy-cricketer-scores-world-record-329-in-40-over-cup-match.html
Upper Wharfedale (167) lost to Horsforth (419-5) by 252 Runs