On Saturday Yeadon entertain fellow Priestley Cup semi-finalists Bradford and Bingley who include former Yeadon skippers Patrick Fordham and Peter Graham in their ranks.

Both Yeadon and Bingley have suffered from inconsistent form this season and have saved their best for the cup. They have followed a poor Saturday performance with a tremendous cup win on the Sunday so far so whoever wins on Saturday will probably be a bit worried about their cup progress the next day.

Perhaps a rain affected draw would set both sides up nicely for their respective cup semi-finals - Yeadon at Pudsey St Lawrence and Bradford and Bingley at Baildon.

Both sides are skippered by Guiseley men who live but a stone's throw away from each other. Yeadon by Craig Thornton and Bingley by Patrick Fordham. Both started their careers as juniors with the Guiseley club.

Captaincy for Thornton is a new thing this being his first season in the role and he is starting to question whether it is his thing.

Fordham on the other hand has been a captain all his life from Under-14 club cricket through Joe Lumb, White Rose and schools county cricket to international level with Hong Kong in the ICC Trophy.

Thornton said: "I don't know if captaincy suits me. People tell me I have done reasonably well in my first season as skipper but I have no previous experience of the job and I have found it hard to play my own game. I haven't really enjoyed being captain, it is a different sort of concentration and I think my own game has been affected."

A lot of captain's would love to be in Thornton's shoes however preparing to lead a side out in the prestigious Priestley Cup semi-finals.

"The semi-final is a big game for us. A few of the lads know what it is like from a couple of years ago but our season at this point is in a downward spiral so it would be great to get to the cup final," said Thornton.

He added: "We know all about Pudsey St Lawrence and the county players they may or may not have in the side but it is all down to what happens on the day. We are all up for it at Yeadon. I suppose the cup format works for us in a way as we don't just rely on a couple of bowlers every week. We tend to use a lot of bowlers in every game so when it comes to the ten over restriction in the cup it does not affect us too much."

Thornton's problem will be more in deciding who to bowl and in what order as virtually his whole side can bowl.

The last time Yeadon got to the final against East Bierley two years ago Pakistani all-rounder Naeem Khan was the star man of their cup run. This season the Tiger has not fired on all cylinders but he is a match winner and one for the cup.

"He usually delivers in the cup and he won us the last round against Esholt," said Thornton, "but essentially we are a team and we all have a part to play. If we can win it will be a big turning point for us. It would give our season a real boost."

On Saturday Yeadon gained a point from a drawn game at Cleckheaton hanging on with nine wickets down. Cleckheaton made a good score of 226-3 after opener Mark Gill had hit a superb 82 before being bowled by John Roper. He eventually found excellent support from C Siddall with an unbeaten 75.

It was a fairly torrid time for the Yeadon bowlers with the usually miserly Roper going for 68 off 15 overs.

None of the bowlers really got to grips with the task with Iain Philliskirk having the best return of 2-17.

Yeadon lost opener Jon Carey without scoring and his partner Munawar struggled for 19. Naeem Khan with 35 and former skipper Damon Gormley with 31 then produced a fightback but Yeadon fell away as Booth took control with a 4-36 return off 21 overs.

Philliskirk, skipper Craig Thornton and Grant Soames all went without troubling the scorers but wicketkeeper Paul Hebden and last man Roper hung on for the draw.

Cleckheaton.- M Gill b Roper 82, P Winrow c Munawar b Philliskirk 28, D Brand c Thornton b Philliskirk 5, C Siddall not out 75, C Pickles not out 14; x 22; ttl 226-3.

Bowling: J Roper 15-3-68-1, G Ahmed 12-3-33-0, C Thornton 6-0-26-0 I Philliskirk 7-2-17-2, G Soames 5-0-40-0, D Gormley 5-1-22-0.

Yeadon.- W Munawar c Gill b Swallow 19, J Carey c Siddall b Brooke 0, N Khan c Siddall b Booth 35, D Gormley run out 31, H Ullah lbw b Booth 10, I Philliskirk c and b Yates 0, C Thornton run out 0, G Ahmed b Booth 12, G Soames b Booth 0, P Hebden not out 1, J Roper not out 5; x 17; ttl 130-9.

Bowling: A Swallow 14-6-37-1; M Brooke 4-1-16-1; P Booth 21-8-36-4; A Yates 9-2-24-1; D Brand 2-1-1-0.

Esholt went down by 46 runs to Bankfoot when only Lou Vincent with 78 was able to show any resistance to the bowling of Bankfoot's Greg Colehan (5-35).

Bankfoot.- N Fitzpatrick run out 22, I Cheesewright c Gaunt b Lister 8, S Mughal c Paynter b Vincent 53, D Priestley lbw b Birkby 1, G Wainwright c Toothill b Vincent 32, A Patel b Drake 25, A Marshall c Gaunt b Drake 21, N Hanson c Gaunt b Vincent 10, R Ellis not out 11, G Colehan not out 2; x 19; ttl 206-8.

Bowling: D Drake 7-0-48-2, B Lister 21-7-56-1, M Birkby 14-3-41-1, L Vincent 8-1-50-3.

Esholt.- S Shuttleworth c Wainwright b Hanson 3, J Wilkinson c Mughal b Hanson 5, L Vincent b Stothart 78, K Dewhirst b Colehan 0, D Gaunt c Wainwright b Colehan 0, A Luxton run out 40, M Paynter c Mughal b Stothart, J Toothill c Wainwright b Colehan 0, B Lister b Colehan 7, D Drake c Priestley b Colehan 4, M Birkby not out 0; x 22; ttl 160

Bowling: N Hanson 11-4-35-2, G Colehan 14.1-4-35-5, A Marshall 7-1-34-0, S Mughal 2-0-13-0, I Cheesewright 2-0-9-0, A Stothart 7-1-18-2