Baildon skipper Ian Phillis-kirk reckons his side are an opening bowler short of being JCT600 Bradford League title contenders.

After leading the fourth-placed side to a 36-run victory over Brighouse, who are a place below them, the hard-hitting batsman said: "If we had beaten East Bierley like we should have done on the second Satur-day of the season we would be right up there.

"But we are still an opening bowler light with Craig Hitchenor being injured."

Baildon signed Philliskirk's former Farsley team-mate two winters ago but he has been sidelined since with a knee injury.

Philliskirk said: "It is something that needs a long period of recuperation but we hope to have Craig back in the second half of the season. If we had had him I feel we would be title challengers."

Certainly there is no team in the division with a more varied spin attack than Baildon.

There is the off-spin of the experienced former Yorkshire and Somerset player Jeremy Batty, the leg-spin of Jamie Abbott and the left-arm spin of Mushtaq Ahmed.

Overseas player Suyash Burkul takes care of one of the opening bowling slots, while in the absence of Hitchenor, the other new-ball position seems to be swapped between Joe Lonsdale and Matt Reed.

And the batting has been bolstered by the signing of the classy Tabbi Bhatti from Saltaire and Lincolnshire's Simon Webb to complement the elegance of Simon Davies, the belligerance of Matthew Duce and the raw power of Philliskirk.

However, the question has to be asked: Should Baildon have beaten Brighouse in a rain-hit contest at Jenny Lane?

The hosts made 15 for none in six overs before the weather closed in and, after an early tea was taken, Baildon were looking good for 180.

Davies and Webb had put on 66 for the first wicket, and Webb and Bhatti then added 70 for the second wicket. Davies hit Sou-vik Banerjee for a six and a four off successive balls on his way to 37, while Webb, who made 55, was more effective when he played conventional shots rather than trying the old heave-ho.

Bhatti, still handicapped by a leg injury, played some delightful offside shots in making 40 but Baildon fell into the trap of trying to hit boundaries rather than working the ball for ones and twos.

Davies was severe on anything short, while Webb's confidence will have grown after previous scores of two, nought and 18 on his debut season in the league.

Bhatti, who survived a top-edged sweep off Greenwood that a full-length Linley dive just failed to pouch, later fell to a catch at deep midwicket by Haroon Rashid off Ahmed from a delivery that he would have been better trying to hit for four rather than six.

What had looked like being 180 off 34 overs finished up being 148 for eight as leg-spinner Rizwan Ahmed and left-arm spinner Chris Greenwood reap-ed their rewards.

Baildon had slipped from 136 for one but Philliskirk said: "It was a difficult wicket to force the pace on and I still felt that 148 would give us a good chance to win."

Brighouse, needing under four-and-a-half an over, looked in control in an opening stand of 57 between Mark Gilliver (57) and James Clarke (21).

However, Gilliver injured his groin during his innings and said afterwards: "We played badly but Mushtaq Ahmed did a good job with the ball for them and was turning it square.

"We should have nicked more singles rather than trying to crash it around. Ian's declaration was very fair as he could have batted for another five overs if he had wanted to, knowing their score."

As for his team's performance in the field, skipper Gilliver said: "Chris Greenwood and Rizwan Ahmed bowled well for us, as did Tim Linley."

Gilliver may have lost the war but feels he won his battle against old mate Batty.

The Brighouse skipper laugh-ed: "It's not 1-0 to Batty. It's 1-0 to Gilliver as he went for four sixes in three overs."

Batty's chance to equalise matters will come at Brighouse on July 7.