PICTURES: Harrogate suffer blow to Yorkshire League title hopes

Barnsley dealt a blow to Harrogate’s title challenge last Saturday with a clinical display of batting that sent Harrogate to a third defeat in four league games.

None of the Harrogate batsmen reached 50 as the Azeem Rafiq inspired Barnsley bowled them out for 252 – in prime batting conditions.

And despite three wickets from Tom Geeson-Brown, Harrogate failed to get much purchase from the wicket as Rafiq’s brother Danial (74) and Zohaib Ahmad (77) smashed half centuries at more than a run a ball.

The defeat dropped Harrogate below Barnsley into third at the half-way point in the season.

The captain put it down to simply being second best on the day.

He added: “It was a tough one. We have had two weeks of average results and were looking to bounce back from that. In a way, we did that with the middle order getting runs.

“I was quite happy with the total we posed. It was just one of those days where it came off for them.”