Throughout the 2021 season, we will be featuring a weekly round-up of the best games in club cricket, with a look at the four men’s premier leagues and the Yorkshire Women and Girls Cricket League. We want to hear from you, so if you see or are part of a great game of club cricket in Yorkshire, send us the details to [email protected] and we will include the best games each week.
Yorkshire Premier League South, 2021
Through the eyes of: Josh Varley, Sheffield Collegiate captain
What happened in 2020: The teams were split into two groups of six for the Jack Bland Trophy, playing each other twice in 40-overs fixtures. The winners of the East (Doncaster Town) and West (Whitley Hall) groups would meet in the final. Whitley Hall won that by four wickets chasing 168. Collegiate finished second in the West.
2019 champions (last full season): Doncaster Town
2019 top run-scorer: Muhammad Saeed Anwar – Elsecar; 810, ave 40.5, best 125
2019 top wicket-taker: Satyajeet Bachhav – Wakefield Thornes; 51, ave 14.98, best 7-44
Collegiate hopes: “Our hopes are always trophies. We always aim to challenge the league and some cups. That’s a minimum for us given the players we have. We’ve managed to compete at the top of the league for quite a long time, but haven’t made that extra step. We always start really well, are top – or close to it – at midway and then drop off.”
2021 title challengers: “Alongside ourselves, I expect Doncaster Town, Whitley Hall, Wakefield Thornes and Treeton to be up there. I know that’s a decent number of teams, but it’s normally tight every season.”
Your professional: Shaaiq Choudhry – former Worcestershire spinner.
Best professional elsewhere: Harpreet Singh Bhatia (India), Barnsley Woolley Miners
Best amateur: Steve Foster, Treeton
The Yorkshire connection: Joe Root – “Both Joe and Billy (brother) are still members, but they don’t play for us much given their obvious commitments elsewhere. They are involved in everything at the club except playing really. But if Joe needed a club game for any reason, we would love to have him.”
Future Yorkshire star from YPL South: “We have two young lads. Samuel Meadows (batsmen) isn’t connected with Yorkshire anymore, but was. There is also Isaac Parkin (all-rounder), who is connected with Notts. They are our 16 or 17-years-olds who are likely to have very good Premier League careers and could have a future even higher up.”
The YPL final will be between?: If it’s not Collegiate, York (YPL North) v Hanging Heaton (Bradford League)
Season start date: Saturday April 17
