Askham Bryan II lift Graham Headley Memorial Cup (From York Press)

Askham Bryan II lift Graham Headley Memorial Cup

11:26am Friday 7th September 2012 in Sport By Martin Jarred

RAMPANT Askham Bryan II stormed to Graham Headley Memorial Cup success with an emphatic victory against Stockton & Hopgrove II at Heworth .

They emerged victors by 101 runs at Elmpark Way which staged the game after the original venue, Kelfield, could not hold the final because their pitch was waterlogged.

Stockton made a great start as Ian Smith and Nigel Collinson kept it tight early on, Smith getting rid of Paul Thornton and Ashwin Shetty early on as Askham were bogged down at 21-2.

However, Askham skipper Mike Bains, who narrowly missed out on a century in his side’s division five game the previous day, kept a calm head and turned the innings around with an 86-run partnership with Sam Abbey who fell to Pat Durkin just after reaching his half-century – his third 50 in four knocks.

The rest of the Askham batsmen played around Bains who finished on 87 not out as his side reched the break having made 186-6.

Division six promotion hopefuls Stockton faced a challenging total and needed a good start but did not get it as opening bowler Shetty struck three times in a devastating second over to remove Collinson, Phil Herridge and Richard Horseman. With his new ball partner Thornton trapping Durkin leg before, Stockton were virtually out of the game at 13-4.

Captain Pete Fairclough (37) and Dan Reardon (18) breathed life into Stockton’s innings but the return of Shetty (5-16 from ten overs), supported by spinner Prasath (3-29) saw the last six Stockton wickets fall for only 22 more as they were bowled out for 85.

The trophy was presented to Askham Bryan by the league’s senior vice-president and honorary life member Frank Stones.