League News
As the season draws to a close we take a quick look at the tables in the Huddersfield Saturday League with four of the six competitions having completed their fixtures.
First of all, it was good to see some semblance of normality return to Saturday bowling after the shortening of the Covid-affected 2021 season and no bowling at all in 2020. With a number of teams returning to action rather than playing in the reduced season it felt as if we were finally on the road back to a real competition again.
In the Subscription Cup, Crosland Moor chalked up a third consecutive title win but in the process lost a match for the first time in over 4 years. A 3-11 September defeat at the hands of Golcar Lib A was their first defeat since August 2018, a run of 48 consecutive wins.
Almondbury Lib were runners-up for the second time and Longwood were relegated after one season in the top flight.
The remarkable rise of Elland C&BC continued as they won the Drayton Cup by 16 points with just one defeat and that was at the hands of their fellow promoted rivals Cowcliffe A. The two teams have finished first and second in the same competitions for the last three seasons. In 2021 they finished 1st and 2nd in the shortened Division 2 season but there was no promotion or relegation enforced that year. The previous year, 2020, there was no competition, but in 2019 the teams were both promoted from the Littlewood Cup after finishing first and second.
Previous to that in 2018 the Elland side finished behind title winners Linthwaite C&BC in the Bamforth Cup to gain promotion. In 2017 they were in the Ingham Cup and once again finished as runners-up, this time to Lowerhouses C to gain another promotion. In 2016 they won the 10-man Beaumont Cup after being promoted as Champions from the Binns Cup in 2015. I make that a total of six consecutive promotions in the seasons when promotion was available to them.
There are two more rounds of matches to be played in the Littlewood Cup and the Bamforth Cup with Kirkheaton Con B and Milnsbridge BC A respectively leading the way.
Milnsbridge Lib have won the 8-man Binns Cup and under League rules will play in the 10-man Bamforth Cup in 2023. Hemplow and Thongsbridge C teams struggled throughout the season to end up well adrift of safety and both will drop down into the Taylor Cup for next season. They will be replaced by Shepley, who won the Taylor Cup by 29 points, and runners-up Cleckheaton Sports B.
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