Bradford Town 1st XI (20 points) beat KC Club 1st XI (7 points) by 15 runs.

A minutes silence was observed before the game in memory of Adrian Cooksey, a much loved and missed member of Bradford Town C.C.

The KC Club captain won the toss and put the home side into bat.

Opening pair, captain James Edwards and Nick Gerrish started solidly and put on 57 for the first wicket when Edwards fell caught for 16.

Gerrish continued to flow runs from his bat but three wickets in quick succession, Adam Cooksey (9), James Pike (0) and then Gerrish himself for an excellent 51, which put Bradford on the back foot at 83 for 4 from 28 overs.

A rebuilding partnership between the experienced pair Tony Laws and Clive Warren re-established Bradford’s innings and pushed the score along nicely.

Warren fell for 13 with the score on 120 but Laws with 35, Paul Ashton 13 not out and Sam Edwards 8 pushed the score to 156-8 from the allotted 45 overs.

KC Club captain Ben Webber picked up 3-51 from 12 overs supported by Jay Brown 2-34 from 12 and Scott McNeil 2-31 from 10 overs.

In reply the KC Club innings started solidly with Mark Brown and Bob Mercer keeping out Bradford’s opening bowlers.

However with the score on 31, the introduction of Laws into the bowling attack brought immediate reward with Brown clean bowled for 19. With the score on 40, three wickets fell, 2 for Laws and one for Gerrish to leave the away side reeling on 40-4 from 16 overs.

Laws then removed Jay Brown for 1 but a solid 6th wicket partnership between Johan Gouws and Scott McNeil slowed Bradford’s victory charge.

The partnership was broken by Sam Edwards, removing McNeil for 20 and breaking a 55 run partnership.

The result still hung in the balance and whilst Gouws was at the crease KC Club were favourites.

However, when Adam Cooksey was introduced to the attack he combined with Matthew Harrington to strangle the run rate and pick up some wickets which included the dangerous Gouws for an excellent 47, clean bowled by Cooksey.

Harrington picked up one wicket and Cooksey 3, sealing the 15 run victory by clean bowling the final batsman giving Bradford an excellent start to the 2009 season.

This was a tightly contested game played in very good spirit and was an excellent way to mark the memory of Adrian Cooksey.

Bradford Town 2nd XI (25 points) beat North Bradley (2 points) by 10 wickets.

A minutes silence was observed before the game in memory of Adrian Cooksey, a much loved and missed member of Bradford Town C.C.

The North Bradley captain, James Taylor won the toss and decided to bat on a wicket that appeared to be good for both batting and bowling.

The Bradford Town opening bowling pair, Khyl Harrington (6-2-11-2) and Huw Ricketts (6-0-24-3) put the emotion of the start to one side. The young Harrington showed that he is developing fast with a great spell of line and length bowling, picking up two excellent wickets.

Both bowlers were well supported by some excellent fielding from the Bradford team.

North Bradley fell to 26-5 from 10 overs, but when James Taylor was joined in the middle by Chris Warren the fall of wickets was stopped.

Warren supported his skipper ably as Taylor set about the Bradford bowling with skill.

When Tom Wade (4.1-0-34-1) had Warren caught in the covers for 14 they had put on 74 valuable runs to take North Bradley to a defendable score of 100 all out (North Bradley only had seven players) with James Taylor finishing on an excellent 51 not out.

In his 25th season playing for a Bradford-on-Avon cricket club Graham Long led the reply alongside Rob Powell.

As ever Liam Brown (6-1-12-0) showed what a good bowler he is by creating problems for the opening pair, but Powell and Long managed to stay at the wicket and nudge the ball around to rotate the strike.

After 22.5 overs Graham Long hit the winning runs to finish the match on an unbeaten 54, with Rob Powell on 34 not out.

A great finish to a game played in an excellent spirit and dedicated to the memory of Adrian Cooksey.