Manningham Mills stalwart Jeff Slater reckons the absence of East Bierley skipper Lee Goddard on Sunday has tipped the scales in favour of the Scotchman Road club.

“I reckon we would have been in with a good shout anyway,” said the 67-year-old looking forward to the JCT600 Bradford League’s Sovereign Heath Care Priestley Cup final at Spen Victoria (noon).

“But this has given us an even bigger chance. Lee is always capable of scoring a hundred and he is a useful seam bowler too.

“The danger is if we go gung-ho but opener Farakh Hussain is having a great season for us and hammers it from ball one.”

Goddard underwent keyhole surgery to remove his appendix last Sunday after feeling unwell on Saturday night.

His absence means that former Yorkshire and England all-rounder Gavin Hamilton will lead the side and young batsman Andrew Newby will come in.

East Bierley official Ray Davis said: “Lee is very disappointed to be missing out. He desperately wants to play but his health is much more important than one game.

"He has tried to convince us that he will be fit to play, but he has to rest and make a full recovery."

Mills have one change from their regular line up. All-rounder Shahzaib Khan is on holiday so Haseeb Rehman comes in.

Slater, the father of Bradford & Bingley all-rounder Phil, was in the last Mills team to win the cup in 1977, along with Yorkshire and England players Don Wilson, who died recently, and skipper Phil Sharpe.

Slater said: “It was only our fourth season in the league, having joined from the Bradford Central League.

“We had some good players. Dick Noble was a good opening bowler but retired from the game too soon, and Paul Holdsworth was a good player too.

“I ended up batting with Don Wilson and he said ‘What do you reckon?’ “I said ‘One of us is going to have to go for it’, and he hit four sixes and we won quite comfortably!”

MCC president Phillip Hodson will present the trophy and choose the man of the match.

East Bierley: Gavin Hamilton (Capt), Mark Gill (wkt), Andrew Rennison, Nick Walker, Rao Anjum, Richard Atkins, Tim Cooper, Andrew Newby, Kez Ahmed, Neil Gill, Luke Jarvis. !2th man: Cameron Bell.
 

Manningham Mills: Masood Ahmed (Capt), Farakh Hussain, Adal islam, Gulsheraz Ahmed, Noman Ali, Adam Patel, Mohammed Altaf (wkt), Iqbal Khan, Zeeshan Qasim, Haseeb Rehman, Aezaz Dar. 12th man: Aftab Ahmed.


Umpires: Alan Carter and Glyn Pearson. Third umpire: David Sutcliffe.