The points situation in Yorkshire & Derbyshire Div. 5 is looking very tight as the season heads towards the end for this summer. Whittington Wanderers and Hollinsend Methodists have won more than they’ve lost, but most other teams have won about half and lost about half. In the last Village Voice report, Tideswell were up in 2nd place, but July was a month in which two of Tideswell’s matches were against teams that have folded – in other words there was no game.
On 29 July Tideswell travelled to play Hollinsend Methodists, a team they beat at home back in May. As usual Tideswell lost the toss and were asked to bat. With Jack Cutts taking 5-14, Tideswell struggled,their eventual total of 96 owing a fair bit to Dan Shirt’s 28. It took the homeside 35 overs to make the winning runs, with Cutts (29) again prominent, and 6 wickets fell in the process.
On 12 Aug Hollinsend were away to top team Whittington Wanderers. The Wanderers would probably rather have been wandering, as Jack Cutts’ 4-9 saw them all out for a rather meagre 24. So Hollinsend took over at the top of this unpredictable Division.
Going into the away match on 19 August v Sheffield Transport 2nds, Tideswell had slumped to 7th place in the 9-team League, but with 1 or 2 games in hand over most other teams. Greg Taylor won the toss, and as has worked so often for the toss-winners during this rain-affected summer, he put Transport in to bat. Tom Sullivan took 4-14 and Rohan Patel 3-13 as Transport were skittled for 37. Mike Sayers(8*) and Dan Shirt (26*) put away their tea and proceeded to knock that off in 8 overs.
So it’s back up to 4th for Tideswell, with a game in hand over the teams above. The last home match, v Whittington Wanderers, now top again, may be crucial. That’s on Bank Holiday Saturday, which may be after you get this issue, unfortunately, or we would be looking at a large partisan crowd I’m sure.