Thoresby take the title
by Paul Barker, 11th September 2005

Although it couldn’t be done in the grand manner with a rousing win on the last day, Thoresby Colliery have taken the Bassetlaw League Division 1 for the very first time in their history and are promoted to the Nottinghamshire Premier League in 2006.

Sadly the rain was the deciding influence as the weather made its presence felt from the early stages on Saturday morning and never relented until it had done its job thoroughly and had seen virtually every match called off.

Not only was it the top of the table which was affected, but also the bottom. Bridon needing to register ten points more than opponents Marshalls to stay up were also denied by the weather and this famous club from the 1980s will now be plying their trade in Division 2 next season.

Whatever way you look at things however there can be no denying that Thoresby Colliery deserve their triumph. Although many would argue, this side is a real team unit with virtually all the players pulling the strings. Okay you could say with some sort of justification what about Martin Cheshire and yes the elegant left hander is a quality player but Thoresby have several other good players and many of them will feature in the league averages when they are published.

Nigel Burkitt has been the ideal opening foil for Cheshire and after an indifferent start the young Zimbabwean that they brought over, David Irvine has proved to be a terrific player with useful contributions with both bat and ball. Steve Willis is a hard hitting all rounder who is a fierce competitor at the best of times and Richard Hope has made several useful runs throughout the season.

With the ball Shailesh Patel and Naeem Ahmed have both bagged a tremendous amount of wickets but the ‘trump’ card has been Billy Lippeatt who has had the season of his life taking almost fifty wickets with his off spinners and also proving how useful a good slow bowler can be.

In addition to everything else, Thoresby had thirteen outright wins over the season which was three more than any other side could muster. Without question the hard work they have put in has received its reward and nobody could begrudge them their success which was certainly most deserved.

The runners up and the side who will feel most upset are Glapwell who were the only side who could have prevented Thoresby winning the title on the final day. This side have come on in leaps and bounds over the last two seasons after a sticky patch which saw them constantly just avoiding relegation year in year out.

The revolution began last season and must be referred to as the ‘ New Zealand connection’. The change in fortune began at the start of the 2004 season with the appointment of Andy Smith as skipper and he set about turning a side which had become perennial losers into winners and he did a first class job.

When he decided to go back home at the start of this season Iain O’Brien another Kiwi who last season had picked up 67 wickets was appointed in his place. Iain had been capped by his country twice against Australia last winter so everyone knew what he was capable of, and the move has turned out to be an unqualified success.

Not only has O’Brien took a bin full of wickets again, it is the effect that he has had on the rest of the side. Matt. Hall a very promising young all rounder has come of age with both bat and ball and there is still room for further improvement. Lee Topham and Dean Graney have become a good solid opening partnership who can play shots also and Rob Davison has also had a marvellous season.

In addition Nick Truswell at his best can take most attacks apart, Asghar Mohammed has an unorthodox but effective style and Nick Bircumshaw has had one of his best seasons yet. Yes Iain O’Brien has certainly been a good recruit for the Glapwell ranks in more ways than one.

Edwinstowe have had a tremendous season when you consider that they only just missed relegation last season. In Asif Zakir they picked up a first class all rounder and Garth Brown the Australian has once again done the business.

Richard Gombos has had his best season for years and the side did incredibly well to finish a deserved third and for much of the season were in the title race.

If Farnsfield had had someone to back Mark Silcock up in the bowling circles, they would surely have won the championship. In one match against Glapwell they scored almost 300 runs and still lost. There can be no criticism of their batting with Paul Franks being available for much of the season, Andy Edwards performing at his very best and Paul Delaney showing the form that was commonplace to him several years ago.

However Silcock virtually carried the attack single handed and it was asking a little too much. If they can recruit a partner for Silcock for next season, they will be virtually unbackable for the title.

Cutthorpe hung around the top for most of the season, but it must be said they never looked like hitting the high spots that was common place a few years ago. At one time you never expected them to lose, but now you are not so sure. They are capable of batting collapses at times, and that at one time never looked likely and whilst Andy Thompson, Nigel Kingham, and Asadullah Butt are still excellent players, some of the others wouldn’t have got anywhere near the side of a few years ago.

They are still a threat to anyone at their best, but the word inconsistency has now crept into their vocabulary and that never featured in the great sides of a few years ago.

Half way through the season, Cuckney sat proudly on top of the pile but a slump from the half way stage saw them finish in mid table. One knew at the start of the season that they would struggle to replace the brilliant Australian Dave Newman who made such an impact last season, but in Richard Stroh from South Africa , they found an extremely adequate replacement.

They still have some very talented young players in Simon Shipp and Daniel Brown to name just two and with a tremendous set-up at their disposal they will be looking for even further improvement next season.

Two teams that merged into one, Arnold and Notts. Amateur were expecting big things when they got together and altered their base to the Goosedale Sports Club. At present it hasn’t quite happened but don’t write them off there is a long way to go yet. This is an extremely well run club and under its new elongated banner of Notts. & Arnold Amateur, I have no doubt that given time they will get there.

Many of the regulars are still there including Ian Flood and wicket keeper Bill Trewartha and they did make significant progress in the second half of the season after Paul Murphy took over the role of captain. Their Australian import Leigh Baldry was a classy left hander who on the right day could take their opponents apart and if they are patient about things, this side will certainly make its presence felt over the next few years.

A team who were on everybody’s lips at the start of the season was Kiveton Park, and the way they started it would have seemed that these people were very right. ‘Kivo are the favourites for the title’ was the cry and after their successes in 2004 why should anyone err on the side of caution.

What people had tended to forget was that the opening partnership of Australian Ryan Snape and Adam Burgess had both moved on and when you consider that this pair had scored 1709 runs between them in 2004 it left a gaping chasm for the club to refill.

Another Australian Peter Coleborne started well, had a mid season glitch and then came back strongly at the end. They also had a 16 year old Phil Cooper who is very good and going to be even better plus several other young players of note including Matt Cartwright and Kyle McKeeman. Ably skippered once again by Rob Coxon they will have benefited from this terms experience and though next year might still be a touch too soon for them, 2007 should see them reach full maturity and watch them go then!

One of the two promoted sides Killamarsh, after an uncertain start always looked capable of attaining safety. There are one or two players here who are more than capable of holding their own at any level and others although they are experienced, have enough guile and will to win about them to always put their side in with a chance.

In Sam Malpass and Paul Burdett they have two players who are definitely going to make their mark for many years to come and Steve Ludlam if he can shake off the problems with his back is a testing opening bowler. Well captained by Parmindar Mudhar, they have the right mixture of youth and experience and Peter and David Allen, Adrian Rivington and Rodney Cook are also capable of producing performances which are more than adequate at this level.

Killamarsh will no doubt have benefited from this season’s experience and if they could latch on to a good overseas player for next season it would be the icing on the cake and could see them rise dramatically up the table.

With a brand new captain, Steve Bentley, Worksop expected better things this season but once again they showed they are the great enigma of Bassetlaw cricket. On their day they are capable of beating everybody as they showed when beating Glapwell when they were plumb bottom of the table, but on other days their performances could only be described as the apex of mediocrity and sometimes they were downright pathetic.

At one stage of the season they looked like becoming divorced from the rest at the bottom but a terrific run saw them climb the table in spectacular fashion before sliding back to their early season form at the end. In Steve Bentley, Glenn Pym, Richard Grainger and Tim Ward they have the nucleus of a good side but their bowling attack is quite thin and if Paul Burton retires as has been mooted, heaven knows where they will take many wickets from next time around. This is another side with tremendous facilities and it is one of life’s mysteries why they aren’t more successful.

However they did win the Mallen Trophy in one of the most exciting finals you could ever wish to see so they did win something in what otherwise was a wholly disappointing season for them.

Marshalls the other promoted side started the season so well with a terrific five wicket win over Worksop but then something happened beyond their control which was to haunt them for the rest of the campaign. They had brought over an Australian by the name of Glen Talorico and he figured prominently in the first match, but then incredibly became home sick and departed back to the other side of the world the following week.

Add this to the fact that Kevin and Matt Housham decided they were not playing out of the promotion winning side, and the Andrews brothers departed to Clifton in the Notts. Premier League and half the side had disappeared before their very eyes.

Occasionally they were able to pull out a good result such as the winning draw they claimed over Edwinstowe, but it was hard work for them and they seemed to be in for a rough ride as they faced up to their final match at Bridon with the winners staying up and the losers being relegated. However it didn’t happen that way and the match was rained off so Marshalls retain their place in Division 1 in 2006.

There are some good players there with Australian skipper Tim Down producing some very good innings along the way. Mark Whitlam and James Deacon are also goodish players but the bowling attack is wafer thin and without a major shake-up they look as though next season might be even longer than this one has been.

The saddest sight in the league was to see Bridon at the bottom and relegated. The side is riddled with uncertainty and there is grave doubts whether they will even exist at the end of next season. Like the colliery sides of yester year, Bridon are in the unenvious position of being a works side and that works no longer exists. It stands their gaunt and rotting and is completely boarded up.

Years ago almost 2000 people were employed there but now it has been relegated to the back waters of industry and sadly nothing can be done about it. Remember Steetley, another Bassetlaw giant and another works side, they went and sadly Bridon look to be heading in the same direction.

If there is one person this shouldn’t be happening to it is Gareth Jones the club secretary and the skipper of the incredible Bridon side of the 1980s which won the league six years out of nine. Nobody and I repeat the word nobody could have worked harder for a club than this guy has. Bridon is written all the way through him like a stick of rock you would buy at the seaside and he has worked beyond the call of duty to turn matters around, but I am afraid that even Gareth looks like losing this battle.

Even to the unconnected neutral it makes one want to cry for this fellow. He doesn’t deserve this and it is horrible that it is happening. Sadly in the world of industry today, nobody cares a jot about honest loyal workers, you are just there as a number to make money for the shareholders and when it suits them you are dispensable. What a rotten state of affairs.

At the present time they are guaranteed one more year and despite overtures by Gareth to the company, council and MP’s the picture is looking absolutely hopeless. Nobody wants to play for a side that has nowhere to go and from the Premier League of two years ago they are now in Division 2 of the Bassetlaw League and facing extinction. Why can’t the local council do something about it, surely there is another space to build more houses without taking playing fields isn’t there? I’m sorry but it is my opinion that if they wanted to do something about it, they would, but obviously they don’t so a local treasure can go to the dogs for as much as they care. Harsh words maybe, but very very true.

Of course they have had an awful season and despite the fact that they had probably the quickest bowler in the league in the Australian Justin Miller, they looked in for a struggle from the early part of the season. Whilst Miller is quick however he is rather erratic and not the thinking bowler that Iain O’Brien of Glapwell is. It is sheer pace and nothing else, but on his day he can be a handful.

There is some precocious young talent there and Matt Makings and Craig Saxelby both look the part for the future. This is another marvellous achievement by Gareth who has run the youth sides there and encouraged the young players for such a long time. He has also been groundsman and has ensured the wicket was as good as any you would find in the league. I could go on forever about Gareth Jones and I do hope that things work out for him and his beloved club, but somehow I have the gut feeling that he is going to lose this battle. It really is so very sad.