Yeadon'S new vice-captain Grant Soames has quickly had to step up and take control of the first team.

The young spinner becomes the third man to captain the relegation-threatened club in as many weeks.

First, Australian skipper Damian Shanahan controversially walked out on the club.

Then Former captain Craig Thornton, who resumed the captaincy last weekend, sustained a serious shoulder injury which has put him out of action.

With Yeadon needing to find some form, and quickly if they are to avoid relegation, Soames has stepped forward to take up the challenge. f0or Saturday's crucial Division One home clash with Woodlands.

He will need to boost a side which lost both games at the weekend but games in which they felt they could have done better.

Against East Bierley on Saturday Yeadon were going well at 182-6 but then Neil Elvidge was caught on the boundary and Soames ran out debutant Chris Henry.

The side slumped to 201 all out instead of posting a challenging score and they handed five overs to their opponents.

Bierley cruised to victory with Andrew Bairstow hitting an unbeaten century.

Craig Thornton was the most economical of the bowlers with 1-25 off eight overs.

It was much the same situation on Sunday when Yeadon took on the challenge of Spen Victoria in the Priestley Cup.

Yeadon again reached 180 with ten overs to go but were unable to build on it with Soames running a colleague out for the second day running - this time it was Neil Elvidge who had made 80.

Damon Gormley also made a good contribution with 65 but the tail end contributed little with only 27 runs being accumulated between five batsmen.

Spen made a solid start through Steve Bethel (21) and Thomas Owens (65) and the good work was continued by Gareeb Razak with 69 as the Yeadon attack - minus Thornton - struggled