Struggling Clifton Alliance were the visitors to Weetwood on Saturday.
Captain Will Luxton won the toss and the Academy elected to bat. They were soon struggling at 44 for 4 in the 18th over. Matthew Weston and James Mukherjee put together a stand of 66 from 98 balls for the 5th wicket before Mukherjee fell for 29. Weston made an impressive 71 from 112 balls with 5 fours as he was dismissed with the total on 139. From 139 for 5 the Academy lost their last 5 wickets for the addition of only 11 more runs which was disappointing. Yorkshire Academy were 150 all out from 48.1 overs.
Left arm opening bowler Sam Grant 4 for 21 and Scott Hopkinson 4 for 42 were the chief wicket takers for the visitors.
The Clifton Alliance openers Oliver Sherwood and Oliver Simpson put on an opening partnership of 62 with the 50 coming up in only the 9th over before Simpson was dismissed for 29. The spinners then tied the batsmen down and the visitors went from 76 for 1 in the 20th over to 109 for 7 in the 38th. The 8th wicket pair of Sam Grant and Thomas Brown led a recovery with a stand of 27 before the important wicket of Grant who was out for 35. Fifteen required for 16 balls. Which side would hold their nerve for victory? With 2 overs remaining Clifton still needed 13 to win. The 9th wicket fell in the 49th over which only went for 3 runs. This left the visitors ten to win with the last pair together.
Ben Cliff bowled the last over and ran the batsmen out going for a quick single from the penultimate ball which left Clifton 143 all out from 49.5 overs.
The damage was done by the spinners Harry Sullivan with excellent figures of 2 for 16 from his allocated 13 overs with 4 maidens, Sam Wisniewski 13 overs 4 for 36 and Yash Vagadia 2 for 25 from 11 overs.
It was another excellent performance by the Yorkshire Academy and their 4th successive win and moved them to second place in the Yorkshire League North table their highest place since 2017. Castleford are seven points ahead at the top.
On Saturday Yorkshire Academy visit Clifton Park to play York.
Points: Yorkshire Academy 10 Clifton Alliance 4.
Andrew Hinchliffe – Yorkshire Academy scorer.
