Heavy Woollen Cup Final: Shepley relish underdog tag

Shepley Cricket Club might be heading into Bank Holiday Monday’s Solly Sports Heavy Woollen Challenge Cup final as underdogs but they’re ready to scrap.

Talking to 1st XI captain Danny Glover, there’s a steeliness in knowing they’ve already dumped a number of quality sides out of the competition. The Bradford Premier League’s New Farnley, one defeat in all competitions at the time of writing, represent another mountain and the final frontier.

Heavy Woollen heritage

The Heavy Woollen Cup can reasonably claim to be the Champions League of Yorkshire club cricket. Or as close as these things currently get. There are others like the K3 Dental Cup (YPL North vs YCSPL) or the White Rose Trophy (winners of Yorkshire’s five Premier Leagues) but none compare to the history and breadth of teams who enter the Heavy Woollen.

By way of an intro, Shepley are a village club to the South of Huddersfield that can be proud of their work developing facilities and teams in the last decade.

Danny tells me they’re up to 120 juniors, two sides for most age groups, a women’s softball team as well as three XIs in the Huddersfield Premier Cricket League, including a Sunday squad:

“It’s a bit of a hub that’s starting to thrive and that’s down to a lot of volunteers putting in a lot of time and effort. We’ve grown really from a club that had a tiny clubhouse…it’s a proper family feel where everyone goes Friday nights.”

League rollercoaster

By his own admission, Shepley (currently 9th in the 12-team ECB Premiership of the Huddersfield Premier Cricket League) are not where they feel they should be in the table.

“A mixed season, to be honest. It’s probably, during my time at Shepley which is over 20 years, the most injuries we’ve had.”

From torn groins (ouch) to their overseas signing Akhil returning to India for a T20 tournament (back now) to a top six batting unit held together by Deep Heat and grimaces, Danny’s roll call of ill fortune is shared as a matter-of-fact rather than someone searching for excuses.

Heading towards 40 years young, the seamer has 43 wickets at an average of 20.2 across formats but has been managing shoulder and achilles problems:

“We’ve stuck together and as the season’s gone on, we’ve back fit and we’re firing a little bit more now.”

Cup heroics

For a side whose league form has been inconsistent, Danny reckons his team has galvanised around the inter-league challenge.

“As far as the Heavy Woollen Cup, we’ve absolutely smashed it. If you look at the fixtures, you’d put us down as underdogs in every round really!”

He acknowledges that they got away with one against Castleford, beating them in a bowl-out 2-1, but next came a statement with a seven-wicket win over Wakefield Thornes after dismissing them for 78.

Defeating Hoylandswaine by four wickets in the quarter-final will have raised some eyebrows (Swaine are top in the Huddersfield Prem). Akhil’s 64 from 34 balls ultimately got them over the line.

The 16-run semi-final win away at Townville was further sign of a side who digs in and refuses to buckle. Glover (4-27) was at the heart of the home side’s final rites from 173-8 to 176 all out.

Shepley’s strength, though they’ve had success with both, might be more as a side with a stronger bowling threat. They’re missing Tom Sanders’ rockets as a tall strike bowler but Glover and Jack Mulhall’s boomerangs have been a handful.

Spin threat

In the spin department, Akhil Kohar (who was previously with the Yorkshire Cricket Southern Premier League outfit Sprotborough) has been a revelation.

He will be a key wicket for New Farnley to hunt in the final and while they have their own spin threats in Gurman Randhawa and Adam Ahmed, Akhil has done the business this season with the ball.

The Glover verdict? “One of the best slow left-arm bowlers I’ve ever seen in my time at Shepley. His precision and accuracy is second to none. He’s very clever, very subtle with his changes. A definite weapon.”

Since Sanders’ injury stopped him opening the bowling from June, Akhil has been utilised to great effect as his 55 wickets illustrate but with an economy rate of under 3.

Meanwhile, young offspinner Noah Wood has stepped up and taken regular wickets – including an eye-catching 4-13 against Wakefield Thornes.

Photo: David Major

Shepley form

You might not know that Shepley have had success in the Heavy Woollen Cup having won it in 2011 & 2019. For Glover, there’s definitely magic to this cup with its backstory dating back to 1883 when Heckmondwike (136) beat Dewsbury & Savile (71), with £82 raised in receipts.

“I think there’s something a bit more special about winning a cup. We had a conversation about it the other day: Which would you rather win? The cup or the league? You get that one-off, special occasion, don’t you? That’s something our club has definitely relished.”

It’s not what I usually hear with sides honing in on league first then cups then nationals. If Shepley were tussling with Rastrick and Hoylandswaine at the summit, maybe that would be different but there’s a definite love affair with the Heavy Woollen Cup.

Give it everything

It’s partly about stepping outside your league bubble. A chance to really test yourselves against some of the top Premier League sides in the region. Danny is keen that his team-mates savour the occasion:

“It’s a special moment when you get to a final. Days like this don’t come around very often so you’ve got to embrace them and give it everything you’ve got.”

Shepley’s togetherness on and off the pitch should stand them in good stead for this final hurdle at Hanging Heaton CC. It would be a headline-grabbing performance to upset the side who’ve already retained the Bradford Premier League – but you just never know.