Arthington 2nd XI – 100/3 23.5 overs	99 all out – Middleham 1st XI 27.2 overs
Umer Khan: 40 Aditya Khatua: 19	Joe Seaborne: 7-1-20-4 Harsimran Singh: 3.2-2-4-2

After the 1st XI’s victory in the cup, they were hoping to secure the league title in emphatic fashion on the following weekend. Due to another concession by the opposition, however, the job was effectively done without taking the field, meaning the 2nd XI took the spotlight once again in their hotly anticipated relegation scrap, following their longest away journey of the season, against fellow bottom of the table dwellers Middleham.

 

Things began in promising fashion for the visitors when the stars aligned and captain Luke Seaborne won the toss and elected to bowl first, but an early drop by Harsimran Singh at point before a wicket had fallen had Arthington hoping that another case of butter fingers had not made its way around the squad. Thankfully, in the very next over, Singh was able to redeem himself  by taking a more difficult opportunity off the bowling of Joe Seaborne for the first wicket.

 

Seaborne continued his fine late-season form by taking the next three wickets as well, twice lighting up the stumps after devious movement off the pitch before a catch at slip was held by Luke Seaborne. Zaid Anwar then removed the bails at the other end to dismiss the Middleham number three, who had made his side’s top score of 26, to leave the score at 55/5 and the home side in trouble.

 

There were some small partnerships by the hosts from their middle order, but nothing that worried Arthington unduly, and wickets continued to fall, as the change bowling of Ritankar Chakraborty managed a brace of wickets, firstly via a terrific, low, one-handed catch by wicketkeeper Steve Potter, before a more simple grab at slip by Luke Seaborne for his second dismissal of the afternoon. 

 

Harsimran Singh then got in on the act with the ball to light up the stumps once again and, after seeing two lusty blows fired back over his head by the Middleham number eight in his first over, Luke Seaborne recovered somewhat with his second to find the stumps with the second delivery to remove their number ten. In an attempt to repeat the feat at the other end, the only other Middleham batsman to reach double figures sliced a ball high in the air to be easily caught at point by Riaz Piran to end the home side’s innings. All out for 99.

 

The chase was not a formality for Arthington, however, given that half of their regular opening pair was absent and the pitch had been misbehaving a bit in the first innings, so credit must go to the changed opening batsmen of Umer Khan and Aditya Khatua, who navigated the early stages of the innings well as their partnership reached fifty. Khan scored slightly more freely and hit several well-struck boundaries through the off side, but Khatua managed a straight six for his only boundary of his 19-run innings, which disappeared into the field beyond. Unfortunately, his innings was ended with a plumb LBW and not long after, Khan also fell, though there was little he could do about the ball that struck his stumps as it kept impossibly low and snuck under his defence. He made 40 excellent runs including 8 fours.

 

Next to the crease were Steve Potter and captain Luke Seaborne and both seemed of the opinion that running between the wickets was unnecessary and dealt exclusively in boundaries to get Arthington on the brink of victory. Potter struck two fours through the covers either side of his first six for Arthington, straight back down the ground. Seaborne smashed a cross-batted hit for four back past the bowler, narrowly missing the umpire, another through mid-wicket then muscled a six deep over the leg side. His attempt to repeat the feat with the very next ball, however, resulted in his dismissal when he was easily caught at mid-on with the score 96/3.

 

In a remarkable parallel to last week’s batting innings, Ritankar Chakraborty then struck what turned out to be the final ball of the innings for four through square leg to end the contest. Arthington won by seven wickets. A thoroughly impressive display by the Arthington 2nd XI sees them climb well-clear of Middleham with two matches to go. They are not safe yet, but Middleham likely need two big victories to stay up, with Arthington just needing a handful of bonus points from their remaining matches to take it out of Middleham’s hands altogether.

 

Arthington’s next match is at home against Pannal. The 1st XI travel to Fairburn for their final match of the 2025 season.