Saturdays were not favoured with fine weather this summer. Of the 16 League fixtures scheduled, 7 were wiped out by rain (compared to 0 of the 10 Sunday games!). Sure enough Saturday 30 August dawned wet for the visit of Apperknowle 2nds, second in Division 5, for the penultimate match of the League season.
By noon the pitch had dried a little and was deemed playable. Apperknowle may have been a little over-confident in sending only 9 men, or perhaps they didn’t think the match would be played. Be that as it may, they won the toss, chose to bat, and made a very modest 105, with captain Greg Taylor taking 3-12.
Now back in June Tideswell went to Telecomms 2nd XI and bowled them out for 106, only to collapse to 58 all out in reply. The difference this time was Richard Taylor, not a relation of Greg, but another dentist. With 5 fours and 4 sixes, he made 56* and before 32 overs were completed, 20 points were in the bag.
True, 2 of these were deducted by the League because the captain was too busy celebrating to text in the result in time, but Tideswell went into the last game the next weekend having won one 1 game all season, but third off the bottom and with a real chance of survival.
Sure enough, Saturday 6 September was another wet one. Matches off, points shared all round, and Tideswell stay in the 5th Division.