Baildon grateful to unlikely batting hero in promotion bid

After all, the Baildon left-arm spinner had been batting No.11 (once), No 10 (five times) and No.9 (four times) without any great success this season, scoring 69 runs in seven innings with a highest score of 15 for an average of 9.8.

However, when keeper-batsman James Skingle was unavailable for a couple of weeks, Sharp put his hand up - and the result has been transformational, not only for him but for his team.

In his three innings since facing the new ball, Sharp has scored 180 runs at an average of 60.

The bulk of those runs came through a magnificent century that helped Baildon win a knife-edge clash at a gloomy Birstall on Sunday.

His sparkling knock of 118 has put his team on the brink of promotion to the Bradford Premier League Premier Division after a 12-year absence from the top flight.

Sharp faced just 79 balls and hit 16 fours and three sixes, adding 57 for the first wicket with captain Kevin McDermott (23) and 138 for the second with Jonny Reynolds (51) before being dismissed.

Baildon ended up with 241-5 but Birstall came so close in reply, making 236-7.

In a remarkable conclusion, it seemed easier for the batters to hit the dark-cherry coloured ball than it was for the fielders to either see it, stop it, prevent ones from becoming twos or judge the bounce on a ground that seem made for runs.

Without Sharp’s runs, Baildon would have lost, but they just squeezed home. 

And because of that victory, they now only need three bonus points in Saturday’s final league game at home to East Bierley - the only team that can deny them promotion as runners-up to Carlton.

Dwayne Heke and his East Bierley side can pip Baildon to promotion this coming weekend, but only with an emphatic victory. (Image: Ray Spencer.)

Ilkley Grammar School PE teacher Sharp confessed: “I wasn’t the best of batters (as a tailender) but when one of our openers went on holiday two weeks ago I put my hand up and ended up getting 56 and they have stuck with me.

“I have definitely surprised myself and the lads were happy for me to open the batting.

On Saturday I got six and was out to (former Yorkshire and England ace) Tim Bresnan, so I can’t really complain about that, but here I got 118 off 79 rocks.

“Kev and I put on a good opening partnership and I was seeing it nicely on a good pitch, and the dark-cherry ball goes a bit further than a red one.

“I gave a couple of chances when the ball went up in the air, but I ended up with a career-best score and then we just had to make sure that my score still meant something at the end of the game.

“We were feeling good when we came off for bad light with a few overs to go because we were just ahead on DLS (by two runs) and weren’t too worried about going back out, but I trusted the boys to get us over the line.

“(Fellow spinner) Seif (Hussain) and I have got over 100 hundred wickets between us this season, and then we had Raman Athwal, who is 16, at the end who put in a great shift.”

Sharp added: “It was horrible fielding in that second innings.

"As the batting team, you can push hard and really put the pressure on the fielding side and then more mistakes happen for the fielding side, so we did well in the end by saving a few boundaries.

“When we came back out it was lighter than when we went off and it is always nice to finish a good game like that on the field, so credit to the umpires..

"I was confident in that tough situation as we have come through them before this season.”

Baildon were looking good for promotion, but then lost four in succession in late July to mid-August to put that in doubt.

They have regrouped since and have won three of their last four to make themselves favourites to get back in the top flight.

Sharp explained: “We played on a few rough pitches in that (losing) spell but here on a nice pitch we showed what we could do by getting 240 off 30 overs and then defending it.

“It also takes the pressure off next weekend, which is a relief, and it is in our hands now.

"We will hopefully do a job against East Bierley and it will be brilliant to play on good pitches like this every week next season.

“We definitely have the bowling to take some victories if we go up.

"But we also have the strength in depth with the core group of players that we have and we will be fine in the Premier Division.”