Hosiery Mills looking good
by Paul Barker, 4th July 2004

For virtually the whole of the first half of the season four sides battled it out at the top of Division 1 and for the first time in years the race looked like going all the way to the wire, but in the last few weeks Mansfield Hosiery Mills have broken right away from the pack and it has to be said it will be very difficult to catch them now.

Their latest conquest was an overwhelming seven wicket win at Bolsover where they took the home side apart and won virtually as they pleased. Batting first Bolsover could only make 126 before being bowled out and this would have been much worse had it not been for a fabulous knock of 54 by their Pakistani star Tariq Rashid.

Tariq was absolutely brilliant on a wicket that gave assistance to the bowlers early on. He defended well, hit the loose ball and generally made a nuisance of himself to the Hosiery Mills attack. He has as we all know made far bigger innings, but this was Tariq at his absolute best and certainly an innings to be proud of.

Jason Gorman with 3 for 46 came strong at the finish whilst Matt Milnes, Asela Jayasinghe and Dave Loveridge who bagged the vital wicket of Tariq all chipped in with a brace apiece as Hosiery Mills never let their grip loosen.

The score of 126 was never going to be enough and Tom New (45), Mark Curtis (31 n.o.) and Jason Gorman (34 n.o.) saw Hosiery Mills home in a canter. Only once did they falter when Chris Pemberton captured two wickets in two balls to get rid of Tom New and Jeff Appleton, but it was too little too late as Hosiery Mills extended their already formidable lead at the top of the table.

What is making things much easier for them is that the chasing pack keep faltering. Apart from last weekend’s weather fiasco Kiveton Park who had looked most likely to challenge them had lost two consecutive matches and Saturday’s setback at Thoresby Colliery made it three.

Batting first Kiveton again failed to perform with the bat making a modest 164 for 9 which looked better than it really was with lower order batsmen Richard Spurr saving face for his side with a brilliant unbeaten 73. Australian import Jonathan Hill continued his improvement taking 5 for 46 in an excellent spell of medium paced bowling whilst the whole hearted Steve Willis helped himself to 3 for 50 in support.

Apart from a couple of blips Thoresby’s batting has looked as good as anyone else in the league and this total gave them little or no trouble at all as they raced to victory by four wickets on 167 for 6. Jonathan Hill and Steve Willis both completed great all round performances with 31 and 41 n.o., respectively and the classy Paul Hughes made a cultured 39 also as Thoresby picked up eighteen points for the win.

Spare a thought for Richard Spurr however who certainly didn’t deserve to finish on the losing side. In addition to his unbeaten 73 he captured 4 for 55 in a great spell of bowling and virtually carried his side in this match.

Cutthorpe seem to have regained their momentum but the four consecutive defeats they suffered would seem to be too much even for them to make up. Their latest conquest was a four wicket win against Glapwell which was not quite as easy as it might sound. Batting first Glapwell were under the cosh immediately as Asadullah Butt (5 for 61) and Ejaz Khan (3 for 32) bowled with skinflint precision to limit them to a disappointing 146 for 8.

New Zealander Ian O’Brien top scored with 26, but with the wicket drying out, batting was becoming easier and one suspects that the toss was a very important one to win here. Having said that Glapwell despite only posting this small total refused to give up and captured six wickets before being beat. The Cutthorpe batting still looks a little uneasy at times and had it not been for two fine innings by Chris Marples (37) and in particular Karl Fields who made a superb unbeaten 62, things could have been very different!

Notts. & Arnold Amateur were to suffer once again as the weather curtailed them when a certain victory over lowly Blidworth was very much on the cards. Batting first Notts. & Arnold reached 186 for 9 when the overs ran out with Julian Thornhill continuing his brilliant run of form with a masterful 53 and wicket-keeper Bill Trewartha adding fine support with an unbeaten 44.

Richard Smith who has bowled superbly for Blidworth in recent weeks continued his excellent run of form taking 6 for 46 with a brilliant spell of high class bowling.

Blidworth were quickly in trouble and when the heaven’s opened were staring defeat in the face at 86 for 6. Only Lee Wilson with 33 made any impact against the Arnold attack and Blidworth certainly played their ‘get out of jail card’ in this one.

An absolute thriller at Ordsall saw Bridon pull off an unlikely win against bottom club Edwinstowe who had the game won for most of the way before failing to finish the job off. Batting first Edwinstowe could only muster 154 for 7 despite good knocks from Dave Hallam (54) and Ian Smith (31). One unsavoury incident saw Paul Benson run out for backing up which many players on both sides regretted after the event.

In reply Bridon slumped to 88 for 7 and when Rob McLeod was dismissed for 39, Edwinstowe looked to have it ‘made’. However a cavalier innings by Australian Justin Miller (31 n.o.) finally saw Bridon to victory with a single wicket to spare in a nail biting finish. Sean Bullin (3 for 34) was the pick of the Edwinstowe attack but it must be said that they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in this one.

Papplewick and Linby 2 nd kept their top spot in Division 2 with a hard fought winning draw at Pilsley. Batting first Papplewick had Gareth Rusinowski to thank for virtually everything as he made an invaluable 56 out of a disappointing total of 141 all out. Nobody played Saeed Bin Nasir (4 for 37) and Ian Worthy (3 for 57) with any confidence and had it not been for Rusinowski the total looked likely to be less than 100.

In reply Pilsley could never get to grips with Steve Alford who bowled a miserly length that simply stopped people scoring runs. Despite their good work in the field, Pilsley could not capitalise on it and struggled to 110 for 6 when the overs ran out. Saeed Bin Nasir (33) and David Wright (35 n.o.) both batted well, but Pilsley will be hugely disappointed not to have collected 20 points from this one.

Killamarsh who occupy second place in the division were bitterly frustrated to find their match at Whitwell was abandoned owing to the state of the ground and this gave Marshalls the chance to leapfrog above them and that task was accomplished in a low scoring affair at Middlefield Lane .

Their opponents Notts. & Arnold Amateur 2 nd have been moving up the table in impressive fashion of late and when they limited Marshalls to just 133 for 9 they must have been patting themselves on the back for a job well done. Andy Walters with 5 for 19 was the pick of the Notts. & Arnold attack as nobody could get in on a difficult wicket for Marshalls .

Little changed after tea and the bowlers continued to dominate affairs as Mark Davies sliced through the Notts & Arnold batting taking 6 for 49 as they were bowled out for just 97 as Marshalls claimed a most unlikely but very welcome 36 run win.

Eckington are the complete masters of the dramatic finish, but even they wouldn’t want an encore of the one where they beat North Wheatley with Leverton by one wicket at Staveley Lane . Batting first North Wheatley became the first side this season to find the Eckington wicket difficult and had it not been for a superb 36 from Wayne Harrison they certainly wouldn’t have reached three figures as the overs closed out with the score on 123 for 9.

Wayne Dye (4 for 29) and Andy Davies (3 for 41) bowled immaculately for Eckington but they were quickly to find out that even this modest total would cause big trouble. Wickets fell at an alarming rate as Rob Hackney (3 for 40), Colin Metcalf (3 for 28) and Richard Robinson (3 for 22) put them to the sword and at 99 for 9 the match looked theirs for the taking for North Wheatley.

However a fine last wicket partnership saw Ian Thompson guide his side to an improbable win and leave North Wheatley wondering how they had lost this one. North Wheatley are in desperate need of points but if they can reproduce performances like this one, they should get out of trouble whilst Eckington can look back and think they are still very much in the promotion stakes when they can win a match that they had lost for 95% of the afternoon!

Nothing goes right for a team that is struggling and Clay Cross Works must feel that the whole world is against them after narrowly going down at Ryton Road against Anston. Batting first Clay Cross were soon in trouble and only Martin Leatherday with 45 saved them from a rout as Kevin Vollans bowled superbly to take 6 for 28. The final total of 164 all out didn’t look immense but it certainly gave Anston plenty of trouble before victory was achieved.

Eight wickets were taken with only Dean Brearley and Jon Geary (29 each) keeping Anston in the match, but they doggedly kept plugging way and scraped the victory on 168 for 8 to leave Clay Cross in despair and wondering where their next victory is coming from.

Blyth are also in deep trouble and it gets worse by the minute for them as they were annihilated by 144 runs at a rejuvenated N.S.K. Batting first N.S.K. made a huge total of 227 for 4 on this day of low scores with Matt Shaw making 42 but the real star was Nigel Murray who made a magnificent unbeaten 103 as the Blyth attack wilted under the pressure.

When one looks at the Blyth batting line-up it is difficult to understand how they keep getting out for such pathetically low scores. Almost all the top order have scored runs at the highest level in Division 1 but none of them seem able to perform nowadays! Once again they were bowled out for just 83 with Andy Cox bagging 5 for 22 in an impressive spell.

N.S.K. seem to have turned the corner now and are starting to climb the table, but Blyth ’s position is becoming rapidly more hopeless with every passing week. Good players don’t become bad players overnight and it is difficult to know what is wrong with this side who look doomed the way they are playing at the moment.