Ribblesdale League

WITH the burden of captaincy lifted from his shoulders Daniel Cheesbrough has weighed in with the runs to keep Great Harwood pushing for honours on two fronts.

Cheesbrough has been the model of consistency so far this season, never failing to make doubles figures in 10 visits to the wicket.

He is averaging nearly 40 in league and cup and guided Great Harwood to victory over Whalley on Saturday with his maiden century in the Ribblesdale League.

"It should not have taken that long to come," was Cheesbrough's honest assessment after posting a score of 114 to take the Cliffe Park side up to third in the league.

And he is in no doubt about the secret of his success this summer.

"I am not the captain," he said. "Last year and the year before I was waking up thinking about cricket.

"Now I start thinking about cricket when I get to the crease."

Cheesebrough is well on target to top the 528 league runs he scored last season with 326 in the bank already.

And after six straight wins, Great Harwood are handily placed as possible dark horses for the league title - a tag that suits them.

"Nobody's mentioned us yet and we are just staying in the shadows. Everybody is talking about Cherry Tree, Padiham, Earby and Clitheroe," added Cheesbrough. "Time will tell if we stay the course but I would like to think so. We have been in similar positions for the last five or six years so we will see if we have learned from previous mistakes.

"We were disappointed to lose our first two games. We threw it away against Cherry Tree when we needed about 25 runs with eight wickets left.

"And against Ribblesdale Wanderers they had Dexter Fitton as a substitute professional and he beat us single-handed."

Great Harwood have bounced back from that double setback and Sunday's thrilling revenge win over Wanderers in the Ramsbottom Cup set up a last four clash with holders Cherry Tree. "That will be a big game. A lot of the Cherry Tree lads were there watching on Sunday," he added.

Great Harwood have a more than useful professional in Charles Dagnall. The Cumbria all-rounder has been selected for the Minor Counties under-25 side and youth is the key to his club's current run of form.

Cheesbrough, looking forward to marking his birthday with a win at Barnoldswick next weekend, added: "We are just enjoying ourselves. We are a young set of lads and the oldest is 27. I'm 24 on Saturday and I'm the third or fourth oldest in the team."

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