KEIGHLEY may not have been able to triumph at Roberts Park but they did have two heroes in their opening-day All Rounder Cricket Bradford Premier League Championship A Division match against Saltaire.
Opener Andy Wear scored 71 at a decent lick in Keighley's 167 before Mohammed Shahnawaz – one of their new signings from Riddlesden – took 5-35 as the hosts won by three wickets.
Wear added 67 for the first wicket with Luke Chapman (16) and 43 with overseas player Ben Hastie (20) before Keighley subsided from 111-2 to 167, chiefly due to Saltaire's overseas star, former Cleckheaton player Tanzeel Altaf, taking 6-46.
Saltaire also suffered a collapse in going from 70-0 (Rashid Ayub 43, Mohmmed Munir 39) to 115-7 but were revived by an unbroken 54-run stand between Amjid Hussain (34no) and Adeel Ashraf (24no).
Wear was the only other Keighley wicket-taker with 2-34 of ten overs.
There was better news from Keighley's second team, who had three half-century makers in their home derby victory over Bradford & Bingley Seconds.
Openers Rory Robinson and Louis Horsfield both made 53 in a partnership of 80, Robinson's knock only taking 55 balls and 66 minutes, while Horsfield was in for 91 balls and 126 minutes before being fourth out at 128.
No 5 Jack Rogers then shepherded the tail by making 52 off 70 balls, adding 32 for the last wicket with Paul Barker (3no) as Jack Dixon took 5-37.
The Wagon Laners were 52-1 but then lost a steady stream of wickets and were dismissed for 134, Robinson completing a fine all-round match by taking 5-49, with Rohid Ali (2-10) and James Rogers (2-15) chipping in.
On Saturday, Keighley's first team are at home to Liversedge, while the second team are at Brighouse Seconds.
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