Man-of-the-match Guy Darwin ended up on the losing side when the Bradford Junior Cricket League beat the York Senior League U17 Joe Lumb side by five wickets in the Wilkinson Sword Trophy final.

Batting first, York soon got the measure of the Bradford bowling with opener Nathan Briggs (Clifton Alliance) on the attack with his side steadily scoring over four an over in the match held at Idle CC, near Bradford.

York's first wicket fell with the score on 62. Briggs called for a run to backward square leg and was run out for 36 in the misunderstanding with Guy Darwin (Bedale).

Carl Berens (Bedale) then joined Darwin to put up a partnership of 40 before Berens was stumped by keeper Nicholson for 23.

Darwin was joined by several other partners who failed to build a score. However, he held the innings together with a fine knock of 95 not out and the York innings finished on 210.

Bradford's innings faltered in the 11th over in which James Edgerton (Scarborough) had one of the openers caught behind by Luke Jennison (Scarborough) with the score on 12.

Edgerton finished his first spell with two wickets for 12 runs, with the Bradford innings standing at 24 for 2.

This brought together A Shahzad and S Benzafar who went about rebuilding the Bradford innings in style. They put on a partnership of 129 before Benzafar was bowled by Richard Bentley (Thirsk) for 74.

Soon after Shahzad fell to a well-taken catch by Briggs, of Tom Pringle (York), for 43.

The York team sensed a glimmer of hope as they tried to build on the two quick dismissals. They were thwarted by a solid innings from I Nicholson who ran himself out, but not before he had scored 32 off 25 balls.

D Clow hit a four to bring Bradford's innings to a close with an undefeated 25, with the West Yorkshire outfit finishing on 212 for 5.

Updated: 12:27 Wednesday, September 12, 2001