Trimphant Thoresby thwart Hosiery Mills double bid
by Paul Barker, 13th September 2004

The dream that the brilliant Mansfield Hosiery Mills side had of completing a league and cup double was well and truly put to rest as they crashed to defeat at the hands of Thoresby Colliery on Sunday at Central Avenue .

The game was a real low scoring encounter with Thoresby bowling the Hosiery Mills out for just 98 which took an eternity to reach. The duration of the innings lasted an amazing 37.4 overs and the full force of this shows what a difficult surface the game was played on when one looks at the stroke players in the both sides armoury.

Sri-Lankan Asela Jayasinghe top scored with a meagre 21, and the only other players to make any impression at all were skipper Mark Langford with 17 and Dave Loveridge with 14. This should in no way detract from the Thoresby bowling attack who used the conditions brilliantly and all reaped a rich reward for their wonderful efforts.

Shailesh Patel (2 for 18), Bill Lippeatt (2 for 16), Steve Willis (3 for 18) and David Evans (3 for 15) all bowled superbly and once they tightened their grip, Hosiery Mills couldn’t loosen or break it in any way.

Whilst this total might look small it still needed to be reached and Hosiery Mills struck a major blow when they had their bogey man Martin Cheshire dismissed l.b.w. very early in the reply.

Needing to consolidate and not waste the advantage gained, Thoresby grounded out the runs slowly but surely. Jason Gorman as he has done all season bowled magnificently and conceded just eight runs from his eight overs and took two wickets into the bargain.

The Australian Jonathan Hill battled superbly and his sheet anchor roll of 28 n.o. was a vital contribution for his side. The real winner however was Shailesh Patel whose innings of 37 really put his side on top and with Steve Willis making 15 Thoresby edged home with six wickets to spare but it did take them 33.1 overs to gain their first ever trophy in this competition after being the beaten finalists in last season’s final.

Quite obviously for his 2 for 18 and 37 runs, Shailesh Patel was awarded the Gordon Mycroft Memorial Cup as Man of the Match and trophies were also awarded to the umpires Mick Colley and Stuart Broadley.

And so the curtain comes down on a memorable centenary season for the league and it was fitting that these two well matched sides should have contested this final. Hosiery Mills for their part have been brilliant champions and Thoresby have been the only side to beat them this season in both the league and this cup final after narrowly losing the first encounter between the two sides at Huthwaite earlier in the campaign in a real thriller.

There can be no doubt that Thoresby have been a bogey side to Hosiery Mills this term but the latter have had an outstanding season that will long be remembered by everyone who saw them in action throughout it.

Tomlin Trophy – Final Tie

At Central Avenue : MANSFIELD HOSIERY MILLS 98 all out (Steve Willis 3 for 18, Dave Evans 3 for 15) lost to THORESBY COLLIERY 101 for 4 (Shailesh Patel 37) by six wickets.