Young Davies looking to lead Otley to Waddilove Cup glory

8:09am Thursday 17th July 2008

OTLEY'S rookie skipper James Davies is looking forward to his first Waddilove Cup semi-final in the hot seat.

The Cross Green outfit travel to Division Two side Calverley for Sunday's clash but Davies and his men will not be taking their senior division status too complacently.

The skipper explained: "We have been rather inconsistent but it is a big day for the club and although we are disappointed with our league position at the moment we have a big chance in the cup.

"We played in the final a couple of years ago and threw the game away so I would like to go one better this time. Our second team are also in the Birtwhistle Cup semi-finals so it would be great for the club for both teams to get to the finals."

The former Menston St Mary's schoolboy has come up through the ranks at the Otley club where his father Steve was a talented all-rounder.

James is very much following in his footsteps and would like to be the man who brings Waddilove Cup glory back to Cross Green after a break of 20 years.

Of his first season captaining the senior side James said: "It is going alright but it is much more of a challenge than captaining the junior sides in 20 over games which I did.

"We haven't performed very consistently though but the added pressure of the cup seems to bring the best out of us so we are hoping for a good day on Sunday."

Renowned former Otley player Chris Smith has watched young Davies come up through the ranks and he said: "He has had somewhat of a baptism of fire but he is young and he leads from the front, opening the batting and the bowling.

"Our lads play well in patches and it depends what team turns up on the day as shown by our recent results against Adel, we got thrashed by them in the league on the Saturday and then defeated them in the cup the following day by 47 runs so who knows.

"One thing is for sure, just because Calverley are in Division Two and we are in Division One we will not be taking anything for granted."

The other semi-final sees a clash between Division One sides Green Lane and Kirkstall Educational at the Yeadon club's ground in Nunroyd Park.

High flying Kirkstall were knocked down a peg or two last weekend by lowly Burley and Green Lane will be hoping that their confidence has been dented.

Lane themselves will be struggling to remember their last win although a series of games have been hit by the bad weather.

Last Saturday they lost out in the drawn derby game to Rawdon who took the five points.

Lane however have plenty of players capable of turning a cup tie such as their Indian star Vivek Mahajan and this season's newcomer bowler Istikhar Hussain along with home grown talent such as Michael Abbott.

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