BEATING Cleckheaton in the Black Sheep Trophy would be one of the "greatest fixtures" Dan Woods has been involved in at York Cricket Club, the skipper declared.

The Clifton Parkers, on the verge of handing over their Solly Sports Yorkshire ECB County Premier League title after seven successive seasons, have the toughest of semi-final tasks in the prestigious competition - a trip to the reigning Bradford League champions on Sunday.

It is a game that has already had to be re-arranged because of bad weather and Woods feared for a while it would have to be settled on an evening as a T20 encounter.

York will be without prolific batsman Jack Leaning, who continues to shine for Yorkshire, and Jonny Moxon, who has suffered a setback in his bid to return from injury.

Woods said: "It is an extremely strong league and they have got a lot of very talented players. It will be a good test and a good challenge for us.

"If we win the game on Sunday it will be one of the greatest fixtures I have ever been involved in at York. It would be an extremely proud achievement.

"They are champions of the Bradford League, are top of the table and they are a side that all the clubs in Yorkshire are looking at as a benchmark. It's a game we are looking forward to and we hope we give a good account of ourselves."

The league title might be out of their hands, with York relying on Yorkshire Academy having a spectacular slip up, but Woods insisted his men would fight to the end as they prepared for the long trip to Cleethorpes tomorrow.

"The reality is the Yorkshire League is out of our hands," he added. "We are relying on the Academy to slip up. The Black Sheep is something we do have control over. If we win two matches we win one of the strongest competitions in Yorkshire cricket.

"If we win our last three league games and the Academy lose one and fail to bowl someone out we might still be there. You still don't know quite what might happen."