MCC Universities: Leeds/Bradford triumph over Surrey

Date released: 22 April 2005

Leeds/Bradford UCCE today recorded an impressive four-wicket win over Surrey in the MCC Universities match at The Oval. The victory gives the team an early season boost ahead of the first matches in the MCC Universities Championship, which starts on 9th May.

Batting first, major contributions from Scott Newman (83), Richard Clinton (106) and Mark Ramprakash (92) enabled Surrey to declare on 433-7, but not before Leeds seamer Jonathan Siddall had recorded his first 5-wicket haul against first-class opposition. He returned figures of 17 overs, 1 maiden, 5 wickets for 86 runs.

The Leeds/Bradford batsmen scored steadily in reply to take the UCCE to a first innings total of 333, with both Adam Patel (54) and James Duffy (64) making half-centuries. The bowlers kept the UCCE very much in contention by restricting the Surrey batsmen to 217 in their second innings. Tom Glover was the pick of the bowlers, taking 4 wickets for 47 runs from 12.4 overs.

It was then up to the batters to chase a challenging total of 317. The top five batsmen made a reasonable start, but it was Ryan Bradshaw, an MCC Playing Member, who took the game away from Surrey, scoring 89 not out off 70 balls to record a memorable win for the university side.

MCC’s Head of Cricket, John Stephenson, was delighted at the news of the victory. “This is a great result for the Leeds/Bradford boys, and should give them confidence for the MCC Universities Championship,” he said. “MCC has invested in university cricket because we believe that it is important to enable talented cricketers to continue their academic education while at the same time pursuing their sporting ambitions. Playing against county opposition gives the students a good idea of what will be required to make it in the professional game. I hope that this win will inspire the Leeds/Bradford squad for the future.”

MCC took over the funding of the University Centres of Cricketing Excellence at the beginning of 2005, and is investing over £1.2million in the six centres over the next three years. In addition to Leeds/Bradford, the other centres are situated at Cambridge, Cardiff/Glamorgan, Durham, Loughborough and Oxford.