Old Glossop exorcise their demons

After a sluggish fortnight, the 2^nd team boys revitalised their season with a tremendous 9-wicket demolition of Hayfield, which saw a return to form for several players following a series of below-par performances. The victory was made all the sweeter due to the absence of Captain Cannon and the Parker brothers, Matt and Martyn. The former two were on holiday, whilst Martyn found himself left like the little Dutch boy – “with his finger in the dyke” (calm down Twisty) – having flooded his house whilst working on his bathroom. Despite the absence of the two Parker brothers, Old Glossop were buoyed by the return of stalwart former captain Anthony Parker and his remarkable smelly feet. His presence, along with that of young wicket-keeper Mikey Parker, ensured that the all-important Parker Quota was maintained.

Captain Keith Mitchell was unable to continue his early season success as he lost the toss, but Hayfield played into the hands of Mitchell by opting to bat. The OG skipper later admitted that he would definitely have bowled anyway. In the absence of Matt Parker, it was decided that James Wright would open the bowling with Ivan Twist, and Wright certainly responded to the vote of confidence following a difficult couple of weeks. In fact, the entire team rose to the challenge posed by a team ranked fourth in the division at the start of play.

Old Glossop took to the field in a relaxed and confident manner, in marked contrast to recent weeks, and the tone was set early on as youngsters Will Reddington and Matt Tracey provided huge contributions to two early wickets which sent shock waves reeling through the Hayfield ranks. Reddington scored a magnificent run-out during Twist’s opening over, surging in from square leg to leave the visitors a wicket down without score. With the match taking place on the top wicket, Twist was visibly struggling to cope with the awkward slope at the Manor Park Road end. It was decided that Wright, with his left arm over action, may fare better, as there is no slope on that side of the wicket. As a result, Keith Mitchell came on at the Pyegrove end to allow Twist to change ends, and his third ball produced a mis-timed drive which flew to Tracey at mid-off. The youngster held on to a difficult catch and sent the Old Glossop faithful wild with delight. Hayfield were now in deep trouble at 0 for 2.

Twist and Wright now began an excellent spell of bowling which restricted Hayfield to ones and twos. Indeed, the standard of fielding was excellent, with even Wright holding on to two early catches (admittedly off his own bowling) to leave Hayfield at 30 for 4. The left-armer was bowling aggressively now and, backed up by his team-mates and a partisan crowd, appeared to have regained his old confidence. Indeed, the catches from his own bowling prompted comparisons with a certain P. Greenhalgh. Old Glossop were unrecognisable to those who had witnessed their recent performances at Birch Vale and Compstall; the excellent fielding even prompted one fallen batter to comment to Wright on the boundary, “you’ve got a tremendous fielding side”. The bemused OG bowler was left shaking his head in disbelief at the transformation in his side’s performance.

Twist soon joined the party, picking up Hayfield’s dangerous number 3 after an excellent catch by Gerrard out deep. In no time at all, the Old Glossop bowlers had decimated the Hayfield top order, leaving them at 40 for 5. The sense of fun and enjoyment increased, as Twist toyed increasingly with his run-up, asking Mikey Parker to put his helmet on. “Well take yours off first!” came the reply. The OG boys were having a good time, and so was the crowd, even without chief cheerleader Derek Slack, who had been kidnapped by the first team and smuggled to Dove Holes.

Keith Mitchell replaced the tiring Wright, whose body appeared unable to cope with the unusually long spell. Indeed, his figures of 12 overs, 2 for 33 were his best for some time, but Mitchell was ready to steal the show. After Twist had picked up his second wicket of the day, Mitchell raced through the lower order, as the excellent fielding continued. Steve Allcock picked up his customary catch, and, if Wright sparked comparisons with Greenhalgh, then the ball surely follows Allcock in a manner evocative of a young Patrick Rowbottom – only Steve holds onto his catches!

Hayfield were all out for 110, and Mitchell had finished the match with figures of 6 overs, 5 for 7! This excellent spell will surely not be bettered all season, even by the evergreen Twist, who had a relatively quiet day (quiet with the ball at least!), taking only 2 wickets, but bowling extremely tightly during his 19 overs. There were good performances all round, not least from youngsters Mikey Parker, who was terrific behind the stumps, Will Reddington and Matt Tracey. This was the welcome home which Anthony Parker had been looking for. The only slight downer on the OG spirit came at tea, when the boys entered the pavilion to see Podolski put the Germans two up against the hapless Sweden, who must surely have been feeling like Hayfield at this point!

A sure sign of the OG improvement came when Wright remembered to pay for tea. Things surely couldn’t get any better, could they? All that now remained was for the Old Glossop batters to win the match, and Jon Wright and Steve Allcock, opening in the absence of Airwolf, set about the Hayfield bowling with aplomb. It is this sort of “whispering death” bowling which has troubled Old Glossop in previous years (re: Mike Hawking), but there was no sign of trouble on this occasion (although Anthony Parker is known to struggle against this sort of attack, so he was rightly held back). Wright, performing under some pressure due to recent low scores, started superbly, timing some tremendous shots through cover and backward point. When he fell for a well-made 31, victory was within Old Glossop’s grasp with the score at 60, and opening partner Allcock also batting well. The absence of Airwolf was not being felt, for this was easily the highest OG opening stand for some time.

Allcock was now joined at the crease by Airwolf’s nephew, Mikey Parker, who settled in to play the support role to the now free-scoring opener. Allcock began to hit out, and nudged the score over 100. This was a marvelous effort from the makeshift opening batter. Allcock reached 50 with only a few more runs needed to secure the win, and he then duly delivered the sucker punch with a well struck six, over mid-off, into the Pyegrove trees. This capped a tremendous Man of the Match display from the scouse magician, who finished unbeaten on 56. Mikey, not to be outdone, scored 15 not out.

This had been an awesome display of batting power from the Old Glossop boys, who punished some poor Hayfield bowling to send an increasingly vocal crowd into raptures.

Having been well and truly slaughtered at Compstall only one week earlier, Old Glossop had proved their qualities, in a victory which was unlikely at the start of the day due to the absence of key performers Cannon and Matt Parker. Martyn Parker, who had cried off at 12:00, was left to lament the fact that he had missed out on such a great win. To add insult to injury, he was awarded the much sought after tag of “Dick of the Day”, allowing him to become the first person to win this title without actually playing in the match in question. Old Glossop’s level of performance had simply been too good throughout the team.

The Old Glossop terriers had well and truly exorcised the ghosts of Compstall and Birch Vale.