Skipper John Wood confessed he was ‘very relieved’ after bottom club Cleckheaton beat leaders Bradford & Bingley by four wickets at Wagon Lane.

Cleckheaton went into the match having lost four of their first five matches and Wood said: “We have made our usual bad start to the season but I am relieved to get over the line against a team I think is the best side in the league and hopefully this result will get us moving in the right direction. We didn’t put this team together to fight relegation.

“I am not worried about the bowling attack – we have the best opening bowlers in the league in James Lee and Iain Wardlaw – but I am concerned we are not savvy when we are chasing a total.

“We have been too slow at the top of the innings, which puts everyone else under pressure to score quickly.”

This welcome victory lifted Cleckheaton off the foot of the table while, despite this defeat, Bingley remain two points clear at the top of the table – but they will regret a below-par batting performance which saw them bowled out for 207.

In fact, it could have been worse when they were struggling at 89-5 as Lee (4-75) and Wardlaw (2-36) – they opened the bowling for Yorkshire seconds last week – made early inroads before the home side were rescued by a sixth-wicket stand of 80 between top-scorer Naweed Ghany and David Clow.

Unfortunately for Bingley, Ghany’s dismissal for 79 sparked a collapse that saw them lose their last five wickets for 38 runs, including Clow, run out for 43, and they paid a price for not using their allotted 50 overs.

Cleckheaton timed their reply well, making the winning runs off the third ball of the first of the two extra overs Bingley handed to them.

Wood addressed the problems of Cleckheaton’s slow starts by promoting himself to open the innings in place of Marcus Walmsley and the move worked perfectly as he scored 50 off 44 balls in an opening stand of 77, leaving fellow opener Mark Cummins to play an anchor role.

Cummins received good support from Walmsley (40) in a fourth-wicket stand of 69 that ultimately took the game away from Bingley.

Although home skipper Phil Slater took three wickets in five overs, including Lee and Michael Nicholson in successive balls when Cleckheaton were four runs short of victory, it could not spoil the visitors’ day and, fittingly, Cummins scored the winning runs, turning Richard McCarthy past square leg for four to leave himself unbeaten on 74.

Bingley thought they had dismissed Cummins at 116 when David Clow took a catch at midwicket off Ghany, only for the umpire to call a no ball, much to the consternation of the home players.

Slater offered no excuses for the defeat that brought a run of four consecutive wins to an end.

“Not enough runs, not batting our overs out – we did well to recover from being five wickets down but it just shows in this league that players have got to take responsibility and bat through,” he said.

“Then we let them get off to a flier and we didn’t bowl well enough. We should have scored 220 or 230 and then it might have been a different story, but they batted and bowled well.”