Went to Buxton Cricket Club yesterday. What a shame the biggest sized town in this league has the worst team!
Derbyshire & Cheshire League Division Two - 45 overs
Buxton 148/9 - 45 overs
Hollingworth 151/4 - 34 overs, Hollingworth win by 6 wickets
A morning of indecision, awake at 9am but heavy overnight rain made me overly cautious. By 11am I only had a few options, Buxton, Compstall or New Mills. I made the decision to make the short trip by train to Buxton as it was the easiest and was between the bottom two clubs in the bottom division. My feeling in the week had been to travel by train down the Glossop Line and head to one of Broadbottom, Dinting, Old Glossop or Tintwistle, I had favoured Old Glossop, I wish I had followed by gut instinct!
Left the house at 12:20 and was at Buxton station by 1255. Ground an easy 5 minute walk away. Its a cracking ground, with a huge flat circular pitch and excellent views towards Solomon's Temple. Banking at the north end, with plenty of shade and vantage points. I sat under a tree trying not to get sunburnt! It used to host first class matches and the venue of the infamous snow in June game from 1977.
Buxton for its size as a town should be doing better than this, as in the end it was a comfortable win for Hollingworth. Buxton were 40/0 after 10 overs, but then were restricted with a 12 over spell seeing just 16 runs. Hollingworth employed the spinners from the 9th over, and never allowed Buxton a chance to get a competitive total. Wickets regularly fell after the 30 over mark when they were 87/3, with ten off the last over their batting highlight.
Tea came and I had a walk round, play resumed at 4:42. Hollingworth never looked like needing the full 45 overs, 17/1 after 5 became 51/1 after 10. Buxton's spinners worked for a while, 13 runs conceded, 3 wickets from 9 overs leaving Hollingworth 79/4 after 21 but the hosts needed to break the fifth wicket partnership to stand a chance but sadly never did. Hollingworth's 5th wicket partnership was never broken and they knocked the remaining 70 runs away from 13 overs.
Match over at 1847, and it was an enjoyable afternoon on a warmish day in Buxton, I say ish, when the sun went in, it was chilly! Now about Old Glossop v Hadfield in Division One, a few regrets, I should have been up earlier as there were 593 runs in all! I will be off to Broadbottom v Hayfield in 2 weeks which should be a cracker. On the other hand, both Compstall and New Mills were lower scoring affairs than this
Tom
