Farnsfield and Retford look 'hot'
by Paul Barker, 24th April 2008

After some disastrous predictions in the past, I have finally managed to hit on a winning formula, nominating Killamarsh in 2006 and Cuckney last season and hopefully this year I can make it a hat-trick. Okay I can hear people saying that it was not too difficult to tip Cuckney last season, and I admit it wasn’t, but it was still there to be won. They were certainly a very good side that swept everything before them as they raced to the title with a massive 59 points to spare.

The giant South African Richard Stroh who is now settled over here scored 1181 runs at a massive average of 131.22 and to add to this he bagged 33 wickets at 18.27 to complete a most memorable season. Indeed Cuckney never looked short of runs as Will Butler their skipper averaged 48.73, Kunil Jogea 39.44 and a re-juvenated Steve Bentley 39.67.

With the ball in addition to Stroh, Steve Randell took 39 wickets at 15.77 and Will Butler helped himself to 20 at 17.50. You simply couldn’t take it away from them; they were a very good side that deserved all the success they gained.

Right. 2008 is a different season altogether and who will emerge victorious this time around is open to conjecture. My tip lies somewhere in the regions of Farnsfield or Retford for the title, but someone else possibly Kiveton Park might emerge from the pack to knock all predictions for six.

Lets take a look at Farnsfield first. Although some might not agree you can’t help but admire the set-up that they have there. If you can bat, you can’t fail to score runs at Farnsfield, it’s that good. In addition they have the best youth set-up in the East Midlands and over the next three years a whole host of terrific young players will emerge from their expansive ranks.

Already Sam Wood and this before he had reached the age of 15 managed to score 427 runs at 28.40 last season and there are more of this type of player around Station Lane. This campaign sees Paul Franks captaining the side when he is available and the signs are that he will be on duty for about 50% of their league matches.

This is a massive boost for the club as Paul is sheer quality and nobody could question his commitment to Farnsfield. As Paul once said ‘Outside Nottinghamshire, I have never wanted to play anywhere else, I was born here and I am Farnsfield through and through’. It’s a pity that others aren’t as loyal as Paul when clubs arrive on the scene throwing a few quid around in the game today.

They have recruited wisely in the close season, signing Lewis Saxby who they have coveted for quite some time from Glapwell. Lewis is a very promising seam-up bowler who does swing the ball and hopes are high for him. Brett Hutton a young all rounder from Worksop has also joined and another young all-rounder that they have great hopes for is Alistair Haynes who has joined their ranks from Southwell.

Add to that a 19-year-old wicket-keeper batsman from South Africa Damion Crowley who is expected to do very well and the nucleus of a good side is certainly in place. Mark Silcock their front line bowler from New Zealand is also fully fit after carrying a niggling knee injury for much of last season and with Neil Sharp and Dave Bell to add back-up their attack looks better balanced than for many years.

As mentioned earlier, the youth policy that they laid down several years ago is now beginning to bear fruition and Farnsfield’s future looks very secure. Also as previously stated they have the best wicket in the East Midlands and whilst bowlers might argue it is a graveyard for them, if you put the work in you will gain reward.

They have been the great enigmas in the past and the height of inconsistency, but something tells me that this season will be very different. Former skipper Andy Edwards will lead the team when Franks is unavailable and with Paul Delaney guaranteed to chip in with runs as well this side looks strong throughout. The only player they have lost is Andy Carter the young pace bowler who has recently joined Nottinghamshire on contract and will now be playing for Bracebridge Heath.

Relegated from the Nottinghamshire Premier League last campaign, Retford look to restore their battered pride as quickly as possible. Don’t anyone run away with the idea that Retford will take this lying down, they are a proud club whose record over the years compares with the very best in the country and my feelings are that they will come charging back at the double.

They feel that it will be a testing season for them but they will have their incredible Sri-Lankan all rounder Chandra Kumara back again for a third consecutive season. He won the all-rounder prize in the Nottinghamshire Premier League last season and is a player of the highest quality. Skipper is John Musgrove and they have also signed a player who has plied his trade in the Leicestershire Premier League called Iain Bates who has recently moved to live near Retford. This guy is also a seam bowler who the club have high hopes of.

Owing to the late movement of their wicket-keeper to another club, Retford have searched for a good replacement and come up with one of the best in former Kiveton star Mick Godber. There have been some good glove men in the league over the years but this guy has certainly been up there with the very best. The only problem is his commitment to football so the tenure is only likely to be a short term one.

The Retford club have also pledged their future to a thriving youth set-up under the direction of Chris Hall and Chris Kelley and already fruits of their investment are beginning to show. Don’t write this side off, something tells me they will do a bit better than alright.

If there is one side where plenty of traffic has flown through during the winter months it has to be Kiveton Park and anybody who writes them off would be a complete fool. Only Cuckney finished higher than them last season and they were one of only two sides (Farnsfield was the other) that beat the champions in 2007.

They actually sat proudly on top of the pile for a few weeks but a bad run about two thirds of the way through the season saw any hopes they might have harboured, slip away. Richard Spurr who proved to be an inspirational skipper last season continues in charge.

They have signed an Australian all-rounder from Sydney Wests called Ed Brown and they are hoping he will prove to be as good as previous players that have arrived from the other side of the world. Ian Hampshire who made a triumphant return to their ranks last season will also be there to add valuable experience and they have also signed Tim Ward who will keep-wicket and young all rounder James Hubble from Worksop.

Unfortunately they have lost the talented Alex Gilbert who has joined the army, Tom Neely the young wicket-keeper/batsman who has joined Edwinstowe and Kyle McKeeman who has joined Firbeck as a batsman because his back will not stand up to the rigours of bowling anymore.

In addition stalwarts such as Richard Grainger who has always scored runs, Rob Coxon and a young player who I believe will emerge from the shadows and prove to be a thorn in everyone’s side Matty Cartwright are all there to bolster the middle order. Don’t write Kiveton Park off, they will not be far away when the season ends.

One sad story is that the ultra talented Phil Cooper appears to have fallen out of love with the game at the age of 19. Phil looked absolutely brilliant two years ago, before leaving to join another club that didn’t work out. He returned to Kiveton but hardly played and it is a massive loss that such an enormous talent now seems to be drifting away from the game.

Phil; if you read this, as someone who admires people with talent, don’t take any notice of what some numpty at another club told you, go and do what you do best and that is play cricket either for Kiveton or somebody else. You know you love the game, so get out there and let that God given talent flow. You will regret it later in life if you don’t.

If there was a side that I thought would trouble Cuckney last season it was Cutthorpe but right from the very start of the season everything that could go wrong, did. For a start, although most clubs suffered, nobody did quite as bad as Cutthorpe with the weather.

They lost a staggering nine matches to rain which is almost 41% of their total league fixtures and the Pakistani opening bowler Farhan Ayub who they were so optimistic about turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. That is so difficult to believe when you look on Cricinfo and find he has taken 50 first class wickets at about 33 runs each!

However this time although they have lost the services of Asadullah Butt who was one of the highest regarded players who have performed in the league for the last ten years to Wickersley, and the swashbuckling opening batsman Andy Thompson to Eckington, they have recruited Junaid Khan a right hand batsman and left arm medium paced bowler to their ranks.

This guy has represented Pakistan at Under 19 level and looks to be a quality player. In addition they have brought in Chris Cowley (from Bolsover) and if this talented stroke player produces the form that everyone knows he is capable of then that should be an excellent move. Nigel Kingham captains the side for the very first time and Matt Cluer who is undoubtedly probably the best player ever to come from the Cutthorpe youth set-up has returned after looking like he was transferring to Mansfield Hosiery Mills. News has filtered through in the last seven days that they have also signed left arm medium pacer Chris Pemberton who was thought to be going to Glapwell after a lengthy spell at Bolsover. He will be a good acquisition and someone who can also score runs late in the order and do it rather quickly as well.

It is Cutthorpe’s last season in the league and they will want to go out with a bang. The side doesn’t look quite good enough to challenge at the top, but they will make themselves a nuisance and provide the occasional result that will surprise everybody.

A side that are definitely going through a transitional period are Notts. & Arnold Amateurs who finished last season in fifth place but it is difficult to be optimistic about them finishing so highly this time. Last season they were blessed by the presence of the Australian Tom Elliott who scored nine centuries in sixteen visits to the crease, had an overall aggregate of 1575 runs at the mighty average of 121.15.

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out such a player is difficult to replace and unfortunately the Arnold side haven’t managed to find a replacement at all. Ian Flood again captains the side and younger players such as Joe Pallister, Gareth Chapple and Ryan Martin will have a lot resting on them this time. They have got an excellent youth set-up but their promising youngsters of which there are many have yet to gain enough experience to cut it at this level just yet.

News has just emerged that the Notts. & Arnold side have just signed Dilhan Mario Anthony Cooray a 21 year old from Sri-Lanka who has broken through into the first class game and big things are expected of him. He is a capable right hand batsman and a leg break bowler which should prove very interesting if the wickets are dry and he can get enough purchase on the ball to give it a real ‘rip’.

With this signing, Notts. & Arnold look a reasonably strong force who should consolidate their place quite comfortably. One thing is certain, they will certainly miss Elliott very badly, he was a real gem and no side can afford to lose a player of his ability!

One team that did underachieve last season was most definitely Glapwell, but the signs already look better for this term. After losing Iain O’Brien their New Zealand opening bowler his replacement Uma Khan was rather disappointing.

This time they have recruited an Australian named Jeffrey Wharton who over the last three years has taken close to 100 wickets for Stainsby in the Derbyshire County League Division 1. He can also handle a bat and might be just the man to add substance to the middle order which was prone to collapse last season. They were reputed to have also signed Chris Pemberton a left arm medium pacer from Bolsover who has regularly taken wickets at this level but the news now suggests he has changed his mind and gone to Cutthorpe instead, and Ricky Schomar an all rounder who has joined from Underwood in the South Nottinghamshire League.

Matt Hall again captains the side and it certainly does look a touch stronger than the last campaign. However it will not have done their case much good losing Lewis Saxby to Farnsfield and Andy Woolven back to Grassmoor. This is another side that should easily be okay, but it would be a major surprise if they challenged at the top.

The most distant outpost in the league is without doubt Marshalls from Gainsborough, but they are becoming a force to be reckoned with in the league. Last year they won the Mallen 20/20 trophy and are hoping to build on that success this time.
Paul Van den Heuvel their Australian skipper who is domiciled in this country has done a fantastic job since taking over and his enthusiastic approach rubs off on to the rest of the players in the side. They have several players such as John Deacon and Mark Whitlam who would be top drawer if they could add another hundred runs to their tally over a season, and their overseas player Andrew Coles did so well with both bat and ball last season that they have invited him back and he has duly obliged. 

Two youngsters Gary Andrews who can bat as well as bowl an intelligent line with his slow wiles and  Darren Andrews who is a big strapping lad with some serious pace to his bow should have benefited from last season’s experience and be even better this time. Mark Davis is still a good player as an all rounder and Marshalls should once again enjoy another good season.

Bridon who were without question the team of the 1980’s have suffered badly over the past few years with doubts about the availability of the ground at Ordsall, had a satisfactory season last time and avoided relegation comfortably after gaining promotion in 2006.

Roger Wells captains the side this term and Rob McLeod has regained full fitness over the winter period and should be scoring plenty of runs once again. The club have a tremendous youth policy, which has served them well down the years, and they have high hopes in particular for Aaron Haycock who did well on occasions last season without reaching the consistency level that everyone at the club knows he is capable of.

Simon Davison has developed into a good strike bowler and Wayne Spooner is now once again showing all the ability that was evident a few years ago. They have recruited well and their overseas player will be a young 19 year old New Zealander Tim Muir a leg break bowler and late order batsman who scored the winning hit in a recent match with India Under 19’s.

Muir has been recommended to the Bridon Club by Stuart McCullum the father of the exciting current New Zealand wicket-keeper Brendan McCullum. Stuart played for Bridon in 1979 and still keeps in touch with the club, hence the acquisition of Muir for this season. This is another side that should do alright.

A club who came down from the Premier League in 2006, Thoresby Colliery had a steady season last campaign and will look forward to making further progress this time. Martin Cheshire must rank as one of the longest serving captain’s in the league and what a good one he has been.

He has also scored runs by the bucket load and this tall elegant left-hander never fails to impress. Their wicket is also one of the flattest tracks in the league and if you can bat, you should have little or no problems here. They have also signed an Australian batsman Thomas Rickarby and opening bowler Naeem Ahmed has returned after a year’s sabbatical.

They will win more matches than they lose but look a little short to be challenging for honours. Nigel Birkett always scores his fair share of runs and Steve Willis will add his share of runs and wickets also. Shailesh Patel and Bill Lippeatt make up a varied attack and Thoresby can attack the season with confidence.

A team that has been formed by a merger between the old Bolsover side and Killamarsh and are to be called Killamarsh II will be playing at Villas Road, Bolsover and it will be an interesting experiment to see how things pan out. Teething problems have already been experienced with Chris Cowley leaving for Cutthorpe, Andy Rogers for Matlock and Chris Pemberton for Glapwell and the hierarchy at Killamarsh know that a challenging time awaits them.

Mark Bull will captain the side as he did at Bolsover last season, and the idea will be to give a chance to a host of young players who are beginning to make their mark. Experience will come from Charlie Walker, Matt Ryalls and John Wooliscroft but they do look to have a hard task in front of them to protect their status. We will have to wait and see on this one.

A couple of seasons ago I tipped Edwinstowe as ‘live’ outsiders for the title. After their second match of that season, the visiting captain told me they were a certainty to be relegated and I was so wrong and he was so right. However it must be said that everything that could go wrong, did and nobody could have suffered so much ill luck in a season as Edwinstowe did then.

They had signed a top order batsman on from Treeton and it is difficult to remember but I don’t think he played a single league match because of injury, Richard Gombos broke down and missed 85% of the season and one after one disaster took place with no respite along the way.

Last season after a steady start they began to regain that confidence and they had in their ranks the quite brilliant South African Dean Elgar, but then again he was injured and went home after competing in about 50% of the games. He was replaced however by Pakistani Mohammad Wajihuddin who did a fine job and helped their promotion juggernaut roll in.

This season they are cautiously optimistic that they will do alright. They have signed a useful young wicket-keeper batsman in Tom Neely from Kiveton Park and an Australian batsman Wade Townsend who they have high hopes for. In addition new and vastly experienced players who joined them last season or were injured last time around will make a big difference this time around namely Jeff Appleton, Ian Smith and Gareth Price plus exciting young stars such as James Peacock and Thomas Ward.

Paul Peacock will skipper the side and the only loss and it is a major one is that owing to work commitments and a change of location Jon Garnham who has been a fine all rounder for them will not be available. Without wishing to put the ‘Indian sign’ on them again they should be okay this time around.

Finally and it is always nice to hear of success stories Waleswood make their debut in the Championship having come through all the divisions from the bottom to the very top in a short space of time. This just shows what can be achieved if the drive and commitment is there and the club deserve all praise for their initiative.

Simon Cope continues to skipper the side but the star of the show is undoubtedly Gareth Davis who arrived from Wickersley at the start of last season. Davis is a sound and solid left hand bat who scored 779 runs last season at 64.92 and took 41 wickets at just 9.29 with his deceptive left armers from a very short run-up. I say deceptive, because he is not exactly a slow bowler, but he is mightily effective.

They have also bolstered the side by signing Saqib Shah from a club in Wakefield and he is an addition to the bowling strength as well as being a good middle to lower order batsman. Also joining them is Asif Azeem from a Sheffield club who is a genuine all rounder. At this moment in time they are very difficult to judge but they do have an incredible spirit running through the side which has lifted them through the leagues at break-neck pace.

Don’t write them off, you could easily end up with egg on your face!