Pudsey St Lawrence C.C.

The Bradford Junior Cricket League has published the fixture lists for the U11s, U13s, U15s and U17s for the 2012 season and all these are now available on the respective team pages of the PSL web site.

A revamped league structure sees the number of sections in each age group reduced from three to two. Fixtures for the U9s competition have not yet been posted by the Bradford League.

Ian Priestley's Under 11s will be entering two sides in the Southern Section of the League and the fixtures of the Under 11As and Under 11Bs have now all been posted in the U11 section of the website.


The Under 11As start their season with a home fixture against Spen Victoria on 29th April. This will be the first meeting between the two sides since the acriminous Cup semi final of 2009 which saw Spen progress to the final in a reply at Tofts Road following the tieing of the first match in controversial circumstances at Spen. As the 11As seek revenge against Spen the Under 11Bs will open up their season away at Northowram Fields.

The following week the two Under 11 teams will face each other in a fascinating fixture at Tofts Road. Given the new look league structure this will be the only League fixture between the two Saint Lawrence sides in the season. Other key diary dates are the 10th June when the Bs visit the Britannia Ground to take on local rivals Congs and 15th July when Congs visit Tofts Road to take on the As.

In a bizzare fixture list the U11As will play two home games against Farsley and two away games at Lightcliffe. They will play all other members of the section just once. The U11Bs will play Northowram Fields and Spen Victoria home and away and will entertain Thackley twice at Tofts Road - they will play the other teams in the section just once.

The JCT 600 U11s Cup 2012

Both the U11As and Bs have byes in the First Round of the JCT 600 Under 11 Cup competition. The U11Bs will start their campaign with a second round trip to Bolton Villas on 11th June. The As will be away in the second round to the winners of the Thackley/Saltaire tie.


Ian Priestley's U11s will go into the 2012 season with a large squad of experienced and talented players. The core of the 2011 team has moved up to older age group. Josh Marsden, Tom Frankland, John Pearce, Harrison Emmet-Lee and Ben Merchant all gave great service to the Under 11s over the last two seasons. However, they leave behind them a large group of players who have already been given the opportunity to represent the PSL U11s. Several young players will move up from Greg Woods Under 9s ensuring a strong and vibrant U11s pool well capable of fielding two sides in the Southern Section of the Bradford Junior League. Harry Allman has also arrived from Pudsey Congs to ensure that coach Ian Priestley will be faced with difficult weekly team selection decisions.

The U11s are fortunate enough to be able to call on a group of experienced players who have experience of competitive cricket with the U9s and U11s. Josh Priestley, Ben Sugars, Billy Potter, Jim Watts, Owen Bailey, Henry Scott, James Chadwick, Cameron Harding, Deep Sirohi and Greg Mckenzie all played for the U11s during the 2011 season.

With good attendance at the winter nets competition for places in 2012 is bound to be intense.


The U11s had a successful season in 2011. Under Ian Priestley's guidance the U11s finished as runners up in the Central Section of the League seven points behind champions, Pudsey Congs. Ian had to juggle a large squad and was faced with the weekly dilema of only being able to select eight players from a pool of almost twenty.

The U11s got off to a winning start last season with a convincing victory away at Idle. James Chadwick took a wicket with his first ball for the U11s and the following week debutants Cameron Harding and spinner Deep Sirohi made similiarly impressive debuts. A third successive win came at Farsley before Congs dented PSL's unbeaten start to the League defeating the U11s at Toft's Road.

A dramatic tied match against Undercliffe was followed by a narrow defeat at home to Idle. A last ball one run defeat by Undercliffe followed putting the title beyond reach. A second tie of the season followed in a nail biter at Congs which was enough to see our local rivals take the U11 title. The Under 11s went on to finish on a high with comfortable wins over Great Horton Church and Bradford and Bingley B which secured them the runners up slot in the League.

Finishing second in the League represented a considerable achievement as Ian rotated the squad to give as many players as possible the opportunity to play competitive cricket for the Under 11s. This selection policy was vindicated as interest in the U11s remained high all season and a large pool of players consequently benefitted from high quality coaching on Friday nights as well as being given the chance of playing in the League.

The 2010 U11s won the Central Section of the Under 11s League under the stewardship of Richard Marsden. The season before Gerard Sharpe and Darren Hardaker guided the U11s to second spot in the 2009 League. Ian Priestley's 2012 squad have sufficient strenght in depth to ensure that the current U11s achieve at the highest level in the league.


The Under 11s have an eventful recent history in the Cup competition. They went out in the second round last season losing by seven wickets to Pudsey Congs in a one sided affair at Tofts Road.

In 2010 they reached the semi-final and went of the competition having only played one game and having remained unbeaten on the field. PSL were given a bye in the first round and Thackley conceeded the the second round game unable to field a team. A third round victory over Lightcliffe catapulted the Saints into the semi final. Communication problems between PSL and Keighley led to the repeated postponing of the semi-final. As time ran out with the fixture unplayed the League ruled the tie would have to be decided on the toss of a coin. Coach Richard Marsden made the wrong call and a sorry Cup campaign came to an inglorious end.

The 2009 U11 semi-final against Spen almost led to the severing of diplomatic relations between the two sides after the Spen umpire called a contraversial no ball in the final over of the match which allowed Spen to tie the fixture. A depleted PSL side lost the reply and Spen went on to undeservedly lift the trophy. PSL coach Gerard Sharp had to be restrained by supporters at the end of the tie as he bore down on the Spen umpire armed with a plastic stump and bag of spanners.


Although Sharp was put through an intensive rehabilitation programme he remained volatile when confronted with cricketing injustice. At Baildon in July 2010 Sharp zipped the Baildon coach into a cricket bag and held him hostage in protest at Baildon's unilateral decision to reduce the U13Bs match to 16 overs a side. Gerard was released on probation soon after 'The Battle of Baildon' and had the electronic tag removed from his left leg last November.

Although seen umpiring some junior games in womens clothes last year most reports suggest that Gerard is now returning to normal. It was his desire to umpire dressed as a woman that led to Gerard's 'Cash for Clothes' fundraiser being exposed as a crude scam which would allow him to get his hands on his favourite feminine wear from the bags of clothes donated by Club members. As Gerard's rehabilitation moves towards a successful completion players and Club officians can look forward to the new season with growing confidence.

Gerard was last seen fitting the bar into the refurbished PSL Clubhouse. Gerard's astonishing new bar is already being acclaimed as the greatest man made wooden structure since Noah completed his ark.

Regular readers of this column will be aware of the fact that Gerard heeded medical advice and took a pre-season Caribbean cruise in February. Your correspondent is now in a position to exclusively reveal the truth about Gerard's Barbadian cruise. Gerard's final night meal in the Captain's Restaurant of the QE2 was ruined when he discovered he was dining on the same table as a current member of Baildon CC. Our feisty U13s coach had to be restrained by staff when he leant over the table and attempted to drown the Baildon official in his bowl of Creamed Lobster Bisque.

Gerard was detained by the ship's senior officers and chained in the post room below the waterline. He was lucky to be rescued by Kate Winslet who chopped through his chains shortly after the luxury liner hit an iceberg.

And a note for the Groundsman....Bernie Scott are you listening.??

The 2012 BJCL fixture list has presented Club Groundsman Bernie Scott with an interesting mid-summer challenge. On Sunday 17th June and Sunday 1st July both the PSL U11 A and B teams have home fixtures at Tofts Road.

On 17th June the As will take on Great Horton Church and the Bs have a home fixture against Undercliffe. On 1st July Tofts Road will host the U11s A team fixture against East Bierley at the same time and on the same ground as the U11 Bs entertain Spen Victoria.

Good luck for the season Bernie...it is upon your pitches that so much cricketing drama will be played out....No pressure there then!!!