NEWARK TURN THE TABLES ON TIDESWELL

TIDESWELL UTD 1 NEWARK TOWN 2
CMFL NORTH @ ST JOHNS RD
8 APRIL 2017 --- 3PM

TIDESWELL UTD FC

Three lovely strikes provided the goals that punctuated the mundaneness of this 90 minutes and the two from Arron Martin with just one from Dave Boden allowed Newark Town to quickly overturn last weeks defeat in Nottinghamshire to the same team.
After a search for games with a purpose at this stage of the season the blog still ended up selecting a game with little too play for but it was a chance to make a first visit to Tideswell Utd and on a beautiful spring day with not a cloud in the sky a trip to this lovely Peak District village was selected.
The option for an early departure from Chesterfield was taken at just after 1030 and by 1120 we were in this typical Derbyshire remote rural village.  Having visited the village many times before nothing was to new for me but for the purpose of the blog let me say there is dry stone walls, sheep, quaint stone cottages, sheep, the villages Church known as The Cathedral in the Peak, sheep, and 2 fish and chips shops!  The latter gave a big dilemma and as we made an early detour to take some uninterrupted pictures of the ground we came back to the main road and had a look at Elliotts and decided to walk through the village first.

TIDESWELL LOOKING LOVELY IN THE SUN

After admiring this beautiful village with its superb community of local shops we came back towards The Corner Chippy for our selection today and with a late departure at 6.30 we did discuss visiting Elliotts for tea but in the end settled on a sandwich from the Coop!  With plenty of time we settled down on a seat outside St John The Baptist Church [Cathedral in the Peak] todays offerings were somewhere in the mid table of the fish and chip league.  A walk around the village took us up to the Market Sq and as we journey back towards a drink we settled down in The Horse and Jockey after originally trying to get served in The George only after waiting 5 minutes to be ignored and see a bloke who had just walked in receive service first, never one to accept an injustice off we went, in a huff, and our £5.90 was duly deposited with the pub at the opposite end of the village!
Along the many snickets and alleyways we arrived at the ground and before entering took a look at the cricket pitch and bowling green all of which created a multi sport venue.  There was time to catch up with Richard Lane from Newark Town a 'doer' of most things for the club plus of course The CMFL results round up a weekly bulletin.  Richard proceeded to tell me he had spotted a sign over the far side advertising a haulier with his name and that there was a street name named after him in the village.

RICHARD LANE SPOT NUMBER 1

"Cheers Richard" I said You see I'd already noticed this and though it would be a good play on Richards name but all the same here goes!

NEWARK SECRETARY RICHARD LANE HAS A ROAD NAMED AFTER HIM IN TIDESWELL

We contributed our entrance fees, programme and raffle to the pleasant lady on the gate Mick visited the snack bar and I took a look at the theatre of dreams.

OH YES AND RICHARD LANE [R]

Immediately on entering you are confronted by the roofless dug outs, I believe blown off in a strong winds a few weeks ago, moving to the right the pitch is railed off with hard standing all the way around although the grass is starting to win the battle.

SUN ROOF DOWN FOR A LOVELY DAY IN THE DUG OUTS

Over the far side is a part seated part terraced stand with 'TUFC' emblazoned on the metal sheet work.  The far goal has a steep bank behind it which gives a superb viewing area with some superb vistas of the rolling hills of Derbyshire.

MAIN STAND AT TIDESWELL

This area is accessed by some steep steps behind the goal or by the side of the stand a set of metal steps which make for an original feel the area certainly offers a good view of the game too.

VIEW FROM THE BANK

In a small crowd of around 25 Mick had gone off talking to a few locals and visitors among the visiting Newark fans were also a ground hopper from Sunbury on Thames and Mark a friend from Chesterfield with his walking buddy they had been out for a walk and called back to take in the game.  So once again a shame that the 'locals' probably only numbered 15 which is a real shame because Tideswell is a village and the small but dedicated band who run the club deserve some support in bigger numbers especially since their transfer to step 7 from The Hope Valley League this season.  Not only that the team currently sit in 4th place a tremendous achievement for their first season in The CMFL.

MORE BEAUTIFUL DEBYSHIRE

To the game well the first half was a non event goal less at the break with little to shout about save for both sides hitting the post from long range.  First it was Newark when soon to be goal scorer Martin struck the woodwork from 35 yards out and then half hour mark Alex Pugh from a similar distance repeated the trick for Tideswell.

NEWARK ON THE MOVE

The deadlock was broken on 63 minutes when Martin got his first with a sweet strike wide on the right from the edge of he box the ball flew across the goal and into the far corner of the Tideswell goal.  It was 2-0 to the visitors on 70 minutes when Martin, again, fired home this time from further into the penalty box.

EYES ON THE BALL

With 7 minutes remaining of the 90 Tideswell gave themselves a chance of rescuing proceedings when Boden found himself free in the box and he made no mistake smashing the ball into the top left hand corner.

FREE KICK FROM MARTIN LOOKING FOR HIS HAT TRICK

In the closing stages as Tideswell looked for the equaliser it was Newark who probably provided the neatest move of the game when Chris Dobbie sent Cole Maule away down the left and his cross found Tyler Martin unmarked in front of goal but he fired wide.

LOOK AT THE QUALITY OF THOSE DRY STONE WALLS

The long draught for a really entertaining game goes on for the blog as today didn't provide it however what it did provide was a cracking day out to watch some football in beautiful surroundings.  I love my Welsh football visits but there can be nothing more pretty than visiting Tideswell and taking in a game, if your hopping on public transport plan it carefully but it is achievable but probably avoid the bad weather months!
We now ha 1 1/2 hours to wait for our bus back to Chesterfield so back to the Coop for a 3rd time, haha, and a small picnic was enjoyed once again on the public seats in the village we proceeded to have a 3/4 of an hour walk around the edge of the village and once again take advantage of seeing Richard Lane the tarmac variety.
With a quick connection in Chesterfield base was achieved just one hour later at 7.30pm.