A captain’s innings of 56 by Fred Pearson was not quite enough to bring Craven & District Junior Cricket Association victory in their opener against East Yorkshire.

East Yorkshire lost two wickets in as many overs and after 12 were 17 for two.

But a recovery came from the next three batsmen before wickets fell more regularly and the innings closed on 167-9, with three wickets each for Joe Stead and Pearson, A Hussain’s ten overs only costing 23 runs.

The Craven reply got off to a bad start, losing Jack Beetham at three but they recovered to 34-1 after 14.

The introduction of Knapton, whose prodigious movement removed Chapman, Robinson, Bowker and Simons in his first spell, with Wilkinson having holed out at the other end, meant that Craven were 67-6.

A careful recovery was then performed by Pearson and Jones, who took the score to 101 before the latter was out. A brisk 27 from Hussain, coupled with an acceleration by Pearson, put Craven back in the match before Hussain holed out in the deep.

The reintroduction of Knapton brought about the fall of the ninth wicket and, though Stead stood firm, Pearson finally succumbed with Craven nine runs short.

* Denholme’s Matt Wear gained an illustrious scalp with his first ball in the Upper Airedale Junior League’s Under-12 ‘Test’ against the Nidderdale League at Ingrow.

He castled J Botham, grandson of Ian, to make the score 5-1.

After six overs, Nidderdale were 20-1, but Will Rankin picked up the wickets of Stanford (19) and Bond (4), the latter via a stunning catch from clubmate Ben Weatherall, to make it 32-3 after ten overs.

Tom Addison (Oxenhope) and Jake Greenbank (Earby) joined the fray, with the Earby lad hit for two fours in his first over.

Addison opened with a maiden and then captured the wicket of Hopkinson for 9 at 52-4.

After 18 overs, Nidderdale were 71-4 but Wear’s second spell engineered a run-out, making the score 89-5, Wear finishing with 6-1-18-2, also dismissing Davies for 12 to make it 106-6.

The returning Addison then got a wicket in his first two overs, including Yorkshire player Barnes for 43 at 132 as Nidderdale were sent back for 139. Addison’s fig-ures were 5.3-1-21-4.

Upper Airedale started well with Greenbank playing the main role before losing Weatherall for 7.

Greenbank was out for 28 to Botham’s first ball and captain Lewis Hopkinson went for 2.

Fourth-change spinner Bond (3-3 in 11 balls) tightened the screw and Upper Airedale were out for 102.