Weather destroys programme
by Paul Barker, 27th June 2004

The adverse weather conditions which were widely forecast hit the cricket big style on Saturday with none of the games in Division 1 and 2 reaching a finish. Many sides gave it a go and were doing quite well until another downpour around tea time finally administered the coup de grace.

Mansfield Hosiery Mills kept up the pressure at the top of the table by gaining ten points at Blidworth before play was finally wiped out. What was good news for the Hosiery Mills was that several of their top order batsmen managed some invaluable batting practice and made excellent use of it.

Tom New (55), Jason Gorman (39), Sam Butler (41) and Sri-Lankan Asela Jayasinghe (30 n.o.) all showed good form and their interludes at the crease will only have done them even more good. Hosiery Mills concluded their innings on 204 for 6 before declaring. Richard Smith (3 for 71) bowled well for Blidworth but the rain cascaded down with Blidworth on 10 for 0 forcing a premature ending.

Kiveton Park and Notts. & Arnold Amateur virtually split the points between them with the former claiming nine and the latter eight before the rain put paid to any further developments.

Kiveton reached a more than useful looking 197 for 5 with Adam Burgess again batting brilliantly to make 86 and Phil Cooper who showed a temperament and maturity way beyond his tender 15 years of age as he made a glorious 54. Gary Chapple (3 for 51) bowled well for Notts. & Arnold but little more took place as the heavens opened with the reply on 17 for 0.

Cutthorpe took full advantage after seeing the dark clouds threatening on the horizon by declaring in their match at Farnsfield with their total on 200 for 5. This meant they picked up an extra four points and Farnsfield two which was a just reward for both sides efforts.

Batting first Cutthorpe finally looked to be back in the groove with Andy Thompson making 51 and great support coming from Chris Marples (36) and Karl Fields (34). New Zealander Mark Silcock once again bowled well for Farnsfield bagging 3 for 68 before the declaration took place. No more play was possible and the declaration looked to be a shrewd piece of thinking by the Cutthorpe skipper.

As stated before in these notes one of the best overseas players to have been brought over here for many seasons appears to be Cuckney’s Australian star Dave Newman who certainly made his mark on the match against Bolsover at Langwith Road .

Batting first Cuckney rattled up 203 for 4 with Newman making a magnificent unbeaten 106 which represented a major feat in the dark and dismal conditions. Fine support came from Paul Gurnell with 38 as both sides tried hard to force a result.

In reply Bolsover reached 125 for 6 with the sensational Tariq Rashid making a brilliant 61 before being dismissed. The century was not to be Newman’s last contribution of the day and he picked up 4 for 42 in a fine spell of medium paced bowling to complete a brilliant all round performance. Cuckney would be well advised to get this fellow’s name on a contract for last season before some other club comes sniffing around. He certainly is some performer.

Glapwell made a useful start against Bridon reaching 77 for 3 when the rain halted proceedings. Dean Graney (21) and skipper Andy Smith (24) both batted well, but there is no better bowler in the league in these sort of conditions than Colin ‘Percy’ Hurst and he exploited them to the full taking all three wickets at a cost of 38 runs. The match was evenly poised and would have been very interesting but sadly it was not to be.

Edwinstowe and Worksop never got started thanks to the morning session of rain and picked up six points each.

In Division 2 leaders Killamarsh never got started in their home match against N.S.K. and this meant that Papplewick & Linby 2nds leapfrogged them to go to the top of the table. Papplewick reached 180 for 9 when the overs ran out at Whitwell with Adam Somekh making a superb 45 and Nazrim Sookram a fine 62. Whitwell were well served by Ryan Coalwood who took 3 for 18 and Australian Braydon Stone who bagged 5 for 26 in a highly impressive spell.

That was the end of proceedings as rain made sure no further play was possible.

Are Marshalls doing it again? Last season as we have mentioned before they suffered a terrible relapse of form in mid season which cost them dearly and after losing last week to Papplewick they were in quite a predicament against Anston when the weather intervened much to their relief.

The two Ian’s, Barley and Cannings bowled quite superbly to take 5 for 46, and 3 for 41 respectively as Marshalls were bowled out for a modest 129. This might have been enough, but Anston would have fancied this job and must have felt thwarted by the rain.

Eckington looked certain winners at Blyth after bowling the home side out for just 98 runs. Blyth simply couldn’t cope with Tom Dawson (3 for 18), Ian Thompson (3 for 23) and Wayne Dye (4 for 34) and their batting simply collapsed like a pack of cards. Eckington were on 10 for 0 when no more play was possible.

Notts. & Arnold Amateur 2 nd looked in a spot of bother when the rain fell at Goosedale Lane . Batting first Notts. & Arnold reached 122 for 8 in their overs despite fine knocks from David Hoos (39) and Mark North (37). The man who did the damage and you can’t keep his name out of the news was Saeed Bin Nasir who ripped through the Notts. & Arnold batting to take 6 for 48 in a magnificent spell.

Once again it was a case of what would have happened next. The wicket was obviously difficult but had Bin Nasir got going with the bat only one result was on the cards but we will never know.

In the final match of the top two sections, North Wheatley with Leverton entertained lowly Clay Cross Works and were limited to 150 for 8 when the overs ran out. Wayne Ellis and the consistent Dave Waller (31) top scored for North Wheatley who struggled badly against the accurate attack of Ian Bettney (4 for 56) and Stuart Brown (3 for 48).

As the saying goes ‘Nothing goes for you when you are struggling’, and after making a confident start Clay Cross had reached 8 for 0 when the rain set in to wipe out any hopes of further play.