CULLINGWORTH, Queensbury and Upper Hopton all caused upsets, as the second round of the ENCO Halifax League’s Parish Cup proved to be no respecter of reputations.
In all, six Premier Division teams bowed out, four of them to lower-league opposition, including two victories by Second Division sides.
Top-flight Copley made the journey to Cullingworth and were asked to bat, Oliver Thorpe (100 not out) and Matthew Rowles (50) enjoying a fourth-wicket partnership of 108 out of a final total of 208-5.
Copley must have been considered favourites at the tea interval, but any conversation on that basis was unheard in the home dressing room - certainly not by Jack Rogers (74no) and Bilal Khalid (62no).
Opener Rogers anchored the innings and was already well set when Khalid joined him in a precarious position at 99-4.
But there followed an unbeaten partnership of 112 that ended with a place in the third round.
The other best performance came from Queensbury, who claimed the scalp of SBCI at Old Guy Road.
The Premier Division team, electing to bat, ran into all sorts of early trouble, losing their first five wickets for only 35.
Simon Wood (70) then engineered a recovery, being the ninth man out as SBCI closed on 144, Michael Davies bowling superbly to take 4-15 from seven overs.
In the hosts’ reply, an attacking Oliver Challis (59no) saw his side home to a memorable win at 149-4, after Bradley Gerrard-Harrison (42) and Will Mackay (26) had earlier batted sensibly to lay the foundations for the innings.
First Division Upper Hopton also claimed a Premier scalp as they beat visiting Luddendenfoot by five wickets at Jackroyd Lane.
In the all-Premier Division clash at Booth, visitors and holders Thornton elected to bat and scored 226 in 44.3 overs.
Most of the runs were spread over their top eight, with Nikki Hutchinson (47) and Josh Hutchinson (45) top scoring.
In reply, Booth found the going tough, as they capitulated for just 108 in the 34th over.
Thornton used no less than seven bowlers, headed by Grant Soames’ 3-2, with Max Rawson bagging 2-21 and Ross Parr 2-26.
Grant Soames took three wickets for only two runs as Thornton thrashed Booth in the Parish Cup. (Image: Ray Spencer.)
Shelf Northowram Hedge Top had little difficulty in reaching the third round, accounting for hosts Mount, from two divisions below.
Batting first, Hedge Top did not find the conditions easy and used up all of their 45 overs in scoring 155-9, the top scorer being Chris Metcalf with 39.
However, Hedge Top’s batting difficulties turned into Mount’s nightmare as they were shot out for 48, with five batters recording ducks, as Gurdev Singh recorded incredible figures of 5-1 from his three overs.
Low Moor Holy Trinity progressed to the next round by beating Southowram at Ashday Lane by 46 runs.
Asked to bat first by their hosts, Trinity posted a below-par 154, of which opener Oliver Brook (61) was comfortably the stand-out batter.
But the home team’s batters struggled to get to grips with the Trinity attack, barring a couple of exceptions, as they could only reply with a total of 108, Stuart Fenton taking 5-14 in nine overs.
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