Key fixture shift 'beggars belief'

BRIAN LORD

UPSET Saddleworth Cricket Club officials say they will be forced to withdraw from the Tom Hardman Twenty20 Cup after finals day was rearranged.

The climax of the competition has been put back a week to a avoid a clash with the LCB Cup semi-finals.

Friarmere, hosts Greenfield, Monton and Weaste and Saddleworth were due to converge on Ladhill Lane on Sunday, August 21.

Premiership side Monton are set to face Farnworth on the same afternoon, but after an impassioned plea by the Welbeck Road club at the latest PCL monthly meeting, the league executive announced a change of date to Sunday, August 28.

The league that evening tweeted that "the decision was reached on agreement between all four clubs and the executive committee".

Saddleworth dispute that as they claim they were not present at the discussion which followed the delegates' meeting at Middleton CC.

Brian Lord, the first XI captain at Well-i-Hole, said: "We have seven or eight players missing, so to play a second team with the professional would devalue the competition.

"Originally it was a single fixture weekend, so a lot of the players made arrangements to spend time with their families.

"The league then rearranged a round of matches for the Bank Holiday Monday (August 29). That we accepted after the bad weather earlier in the season.

"However, to play Sunday as well now, with only two-and-a-half weeks' notice and not to be consulted beggars belief.

"Saddleworth have got 100-per-cent sympathy with Monton. They are in a flagship competition and everyone in the league wants them to do well."

Lord, who was present at the meeting, did not realise the league's executive committee wanted all four club representatives to stay behind on Tuesday evening to discuss the possibility of rescheduling finals day.

Lord added: "We've drawn Greenfield in the semi-finals. Why can't we play that on a midweek evening with the final in September?

"There is no way we can play on that date (August 28), for the same reasons as Monton, as we would be forced to field a virtual seconds team."