Richmondshire win NYSD Premier Division (three weeks early)

Richmondshire Cricket Club are celebrating after the first team won the North Yorkshire & South Durham Cricket League’s Premier Division – with three weeks to play.

At the time of writing, they sit at the summit on 383 points with Hartlepool second on 297 points. As it’s a maximum of 25 points for a win with all of the trimmings, this is mighty emphatic by any calculation.

Fourth title in six years

They can reflect on a job extremely well done as the 1st XI have won the NYSD’s top flight for the fourth time in six years. A presentation event is due for the home game with Barnard Castle on Saturday 7 September.

The Dalesmen gathered the 25 points to become champions after defeating Middlesbrough at home on 24 August. The visitors chose to field first and Richmondshire scored 235-8 off 50 overs, courtesy of captain Rob Carr’s 87 at the top of the order and useful contributions further down.

It is perhaps a reflection of their stellar season that Richmondshire’s star overseas signing, Shafiqullah Ghafari (1-15), only bowled four overs. A return of 5-50 from Harvey Websdale and 3-41 by Sam Wood did the business this time.

Nonetheless, the 22-year-old Afghan leg-spinner has been in scintillating form in his second stint in North Yorkshire; his 60 league wickets at an average of 10 have bamboozled and rushed out teams.

Richmondshire’s title credentials were ably assisted by Josh Dowson (29 wickets), Caleb Bradford (22 wickets) and Harvey Websdale (22 wickets).

As for batting, you can probably bet your house on Gary Pratt after decades and nearly 30,000 runs. His 604 runs in the league at an average of 54 places him in the top six but Rob Carr (465) and Dan Hodgson (447) were also key contributors.

While the NYSD have one of the more complex league tables on Play-Cricket to wrap your head around (same points system for all Premier Leagues, anyone?), one thing is clear.

One league defeat

Richmondshire have dominated and won most of their matches comfortably or emphatically. In fact, things got better and better.

They’ve only lost once so far in the league this season – Marton walloped them in an eye-catching away win by nine wickets in May.

Otherwise, a draw when Middlesbrough clung on in June and an early rain-affected no result against Stockton then a draw at home to Darlington in August are the only other times without a W.

Richmondshire 1st XI captain Rob Carr Interview

To find out more, I caught up with Robert Carr, Richmondshire 1st XI captain – I was curious to know what the difference has been since finishing second in 2023?

“We had an excellent pre-season with some very specific winter training, a proper team meeting for the first time and some targeted recruitment in the signings of our overseas from 2022 Shafiqullah Ghafari, and a young left-arm spinner Caleb Bradford, that saw us go into the season confident that this was the most balanced side we’ve had in a long time.”

Player targets

Rob told me that players were set targets in terms of how each made a winning contribution in matches that gave the squad a focus and were executed well to support Shafiqullah and their key batsmen Gary Pratt and Dan Hodgson better this season.

Speaking of which, Shafiqullah Ghafari has been incredible again for Richmondshire Cricket Club – what’s it like facing him in the nets and captaining him in the middle?

Ghafari got 100 wickets for the club in 2022 but was unable to return in 2023 after the transfer was blocked by the Afghanistan Cricket Board but 2024 has been no less impressive.

Rob said: “He’s been even better this year, with eight five-wicket hauls and a lower average, but also better supported by the rest of our bowling lineup.”

Facing him in the nets is challenging every week, our lads still struggle to pick his googly from his leg spinner, so it’s no wonder most of the NYSD can’t do that when they only face him a couple of times a season!”

He added: “The amount of LBWs and bowled dismissals he gets makes that clear; captaining him is easy with the fields specifically to set batsmen up. He’s also a dangerous batsman (28 sixes this year) which gives our lower order more firepower than last season.

I’ve got no doubt that Shaf could – and probably should – be representing his country and playing franchise cricket but their loss is our gain and we hope to see him returning again next season.”

Regrouping after setbacks

As for key moments in the season, Rob reckons that a cluster of early setbacks galvanised the first team. That Marton league defeat, allied with being knocked out by Tickhill in the National Club Championship, losing in the Kerridge Cup and having injuries to key personnel could have derailed belief and momentum.

Instead, the league became the mission – duly accomplished with time to spare.

A homegrown win against Barney stood out too: “Our 25-point victory against Barnard Castle at roughly the halfway mark was another key moment. We were in trouble early in the game but a brilliant knock from Matthew Price and fine spell of bowling from Sam Wood won us that game against a competitive rival. It showed the strength in depth from two of our local players in a match where our professionals didn’t contribute significantly.”

Who will be Yorkshire’s top Premier League club?

Richmondshire will now progress to face the Premier League North champions – likely Clifton Alliance or Castleford – in the White Rose Trophy semi-finals on 21 September.

In the other Premier Leagues, New Farnley (298) and Woodlands (293) are locked in a tussle at the top of the Bradford Premier League while in the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League, Cleethorpes (186) lead from Tickhill (170) and Wakefield Thornes (166).