North Leeds Women grab points to take it to the final game

This time of year is rather strange regarding the recreational game. On one hand, there’s still quite a lot of cricket to be played as the various cups and league competitions come to a grand finale.

However, the actual number of games needing to be played has reduced massively – given that a lot of the earlier rounds of cup competitions have now been played.

Some leagues have completed their fixtures, whilst others may have up to three games left. That all means the list of fixtures in Play-Cricket has become much easier to navigate. I did have a few games to choose from on Sunday, but in reality there was a standout.

The West Yorkshire Women and Girls Cricket League (and in particular Division One)
is shaping up to be such an intriguing competition.

St. Chad’s Broomfield currently sit at the top of the league, having completed all their fixtures…a few points above Crossflatts who are in second place and who are in turn just a few points above Bradford Park Avenue in third.

All the top three teams have completed their league campaigns, but there is still a team that can overhaul all of them – fourth-placed North Leeds. 

Anyone following Cricket Yorkshire will know that I’d covered North Leeds playing Pudsey St Lawrence last week, a game that could have seen the North Leeds team put themselves just about one win away from winning the title.

However, they were playing a very good Pudsey team (who have finished in the top half of the table), and on the day showed what a great set of competitors they are – beating their visitors with an impressive display of power-batting.

Despite missing out on the full 20 points, it was vital that North Leeds took some points from that game. The six that they did earn set up an stellar finish to the season.

The equation is simple…North Leeds essentially need to win their remaining two fixtures, obtaining maximum points to sit top of the Division One table by just three points and win the title by the narrowest of margins.

Standing in North Leeds’ way are Harrogate Cricket Club and Holmfirth.

Last week, Holmfirth hosted Harrogate, with the home team surprisingly winning the game…showing that they are a capable side despite their lowly league position.

This Sunday’s visitors to North Leeds were Harrogate; a team that features the Metcalfe sisters (Tia and Caitlin) and have had players like Amelia Oliver and Holly Garton play for them in the early part of the season (both have gone on to play for Yorkshire County Cricket Club).

Harrogate have had a mixed set of results this season; but they are a very young team, and as I’ve written before, this was never going to be a season where Harrogate challenged for the title. Having said that, they are a team that are capable of picking up the odd win and influencing the destination of the league crown.

There is undoubtedly some great talent within the Harrogate team and if they can keep the core of the squad together over the coming few seasons, then I predict that they will be making a title push at some point.

Sunday travels

Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve been spending more and more time visiting clubs in and around Leeds – a conscious decision based on either trying to visit new grounds or more to the point revisiting grounds that I haven’t been to in quite a while.

North Leeds is one of those clubs that I hadn’t been to in a long time, and my trip earlier this season saw me watching their women’s team playing. Having been there in June, I must admit, I wasn’t expecting to be heading back to North Leeds again this season.

However, looking at the fixtures on Sunday, there were very few women and girls fixtures scheduled, and with the Division One title race turning into an epic, I felt as though I had no choice but to go back and see if today was the day that St. Chad’s would be crowned champions, or if the destination of the title would go down to the final day.

I got to the ground just about an hour before first ball, rather surprisingly finding a parking spot in the car park to the rear of the pavilion.

I could see that both sets of players were out on the grass, warming up and as I rounded the side of the building, a good number of spectators had turned up to support both teams.

The weather was a little mixed, with the sky shrouded in grey clouds that ran from horizon to horizon, looking quite menacing in reality. My weather app of choice said that there was only a low chance that rain could fall at our location, however, what rain was forecast…if it hit us…would be reasonably heavy.

The game got underway on time with the home team winning the toss and electing to put Harrogate into bat first. The Harrogate openers, Tia and Caitlin Metcalfe, strode confidently to the centre, seemingly ready for the challenge.

Tia and Caitlin have been in some great form this season, both having shown previously that they can amass a lot of runs to form the backbone of a Harrogate innings. However, this Sunday was to prove a little uncharacteristic, as both were dismissed cheaply.

In reality, Harrogate were coming up against a North Leeds team that are on a charge; albeit one that was temporarily interrupted last week.

When I have seen North Leeds play, I have been impressed with the intensity and accuracy of their bowling along with their savvy field positions and ability to get the ball from around the boundary into the wickets quickly…preventing a lot of fours being scored.

Sunday was another superb fielding performance, with the bowlers putting almost a blanket over the Harrogate batters to stifle runs and finding pads and edges to force the umpires into making decisions.

It seemed like the only thing that was likely to stop North Leeds in this particular match…was the weather.

Over the course of this season, we’ve had exemplary conditions to play cricket, with perhaps the weather being a little too dry and grounds becoming rock hard. As we’ve reached autumn, we’ve had a change with most grounds welcoming the rainfall we’ve had. 

The North Leeds ground soaked up the rain that fell Sunday for the twenty minutes or so as forecast. It started reasonably light but then forced the players off as it became a little heavier with everyone retreating to the pavilion. 

When the players returned, it was three o’clock, and as I took my seat on the boundary rope, the shrill alarm on my phone suddenly broke the relative silence. All heads turned towards me.

After about a second, other phones around the ground started to make the same annoyingly obnoxious sound…and then I remembered that the government were testing out the national alert system. With the alarm successfully silenced, my attention turned back to cricket.

It appeared that the enforced break had broken Harrogate’s concentration as they immediately lost another wicket. Over the course of the final six or so overs, North Leeds needed to get the remaining wickets to claim maximum bowling points. 

With a couple of overs left of the Harrogate innings, they were to successfully do that, Harrogate had been dismissed for 75.

It was now a question if North Leeds could complete their objective, overhaul their visitor’s score, and in doing so, pick up all twenty points.

After a very welcome cup of coffee, I returned to the boundary rope. 

Dismissals were shared with seven bowlers used – Elizabeth Pickles (1-9), Imaan Effendi (2-14), Lauren Hewitt (2-5) and Megan Berry (1-7) amongst the wicket-takers.

I’d watched Aliyah Khan bat superbly last week, putting in an impressive display of hitting against Pudsey, scoring 75 – and I was expecting her to repeat that against Harrogate. 

Aliyah did manage to score 13 from 13 deliveries, but I was surprised when she was dismissed for such a low number of runs. Despite Khan walking early, 75 was never going to be a difficult total for North Leeds to reach given their hugely impressive batting depth.

On their way to a match-winning total of 76 for five, Zainab Patel’s unbeaten 21 and Imaan Effendi’s 11 were to steady any nerves.

Shots like a huge six hoisted over the hedge down one side of the ground into a neighbour’s garden were to make huge inroads to the total required. 

The win by five wickets meant the team from North Leeds collected all twenty points and take the title chase to the final day with a trip to Holmfirth next Sunday. 

Again, wickets were shared with Holly Thompson (1-20), Immy Hartley (2-16), Lois Turner (2-16) all in the action.

🏏 Scorecard: https://nleeds.play-cricket.com/website/results/6911641

Reflections

The Division One title race has been an absolute delight to cover. I’ve written this before, but it does need restating…there is a depth of talent within all the clubs in the leagues in Yorkshire that simply wasn’t there five years ago. 

The investment of time, training, money, and the organisation of competitions is now being reflected on the pitch. What’s not happening is that there isn’t just one team that is known for being the best team in the area and therefore all the best players go to play for them, and in doing so create a huge imbalance.

What we are seeing is a depth of competitive teams that [on their day] are capable of beating each other and that is good for the game overall.

It’s also been reflected within this Division One title chase as St Chad’s are having to look over their shoulders at another team who could still win the title by three points next week…potentially with the very last ball of both an innings and the season.

And let’s be honest, next week’s fixture against Holmfirth isn’t a given. You cannot, hand on heart, say that North Leeds will win the game easily. That is how good this competition has been this year!

So, as we head into the second week of September, the West Yorkshire Women and Girls Cricket League Division One round of fixtures come to a finale; and the destination of the title hangs in the balance. 

I’m hoping for two main things: First is that the weather holds up and that the result isn’t decided based on teams being unable to take to the pitch; and secondly, that it boils down to an on-the-pitch competition between two sets of players. 

For their part, North Leeds, whether they take the title next weekend or not, have had a superb campaign in the summer of 2025. But I would like to add my congratulations to every single team that have played for making it the best league campaign ever.

Want to read more?

Here are all of Mark’s articles and photos on Cricket Yorkshire.

To see more of his photography, you can visit caughtlight.com or he’s @caughtlight on Twitter/X.

There’s also the Caught Light Photography Facebook page.

I also highly recommend his blog called Leica Moments which includes days out at grounds around Yorkshire.