‘Go for it!’ urges positive Taylor

UPPERMILL captain Matt Taylor has issued a rallying cry in the countdown to Sunday’s Tanner Cup final against Bamford Fieldhouse at Hollin Lane (start 1.45pm).

Taylor, who has turned the club’s fortunes around since taking over as skipper last season, has insisted his side “go for the throat”.

Although they sit third in the table, Uppermill are big outsiders against a team poised to pocket a hat-trick of titles.

But Taylor is staying upbeat, saying: “We’re in good nick. We’ve swapped the team about in recent weeks and a few home truths have been said.

“We’ve also tried to be more positive and so far it’s paid off.

“We’re only the underdogs against Bamford, because we know we can beat every other team in the division.

“But they are only human and one or two of their players may get travel sick after being in the car for a couple of hours getting to the ground.”

Taylor has every right to be upbeat. Uppermill have won four of their last five league and cup games and seem set to challenge Austerlands for second place.

And if Uppermill do lose this weekend, it won’t be for the want of trying.

Taylor said: “We’ve got to go for the throat.

“Admittedly we got buried by them in the league (Bamford won by 10 wickets in May), but we had a horrible day.

“We were all a bit down after that defeat, but it also gave us the wake up call that we needed.

“We’ve got to take our chances when they come and hope Zeeshan Khan delivers a big score.”

Khan, who was the leading amateur batsman in 2008, is on course to be the first player to reach 1,000 runs this season.

Like Khan, it is Taylor’s first Tanner Cup final. In fact, it is the all-rounder’s first final in senior cricket.

Taylor had two failed attempts for Oldham in the last four of the CLL’s Wood Cup. He played alongside Jason Maher and Liam Garnett, now Bamford players, in the last of those defeats against Heywood.

However, Uppermill can look to Andy McVeigh, Alex Griffiths and James Baron, who boast previous cup-final experience at Saddleworth.

Seamer Andy Heap will be hoping to follow in his father Nigel’s footsteps as he played for Uppermill when they last won the Tanner Cup in 1982.

THE umpires for Sunday’s final are Peter Darby and Clive Senior.


Route to the final —

Round one: Beat Moorside by seven wickets.

Round two: Beat Stayley by 81 runs.

Semi-final: Beat Hollinwood by six wkts.



Uppermill-based umpire Fred Dellar saw three Saddleworth League hat-tricks on one day last weekend.

He was in charge of the Stayley versus Bamford Fieldhouse second XI game on Saturday when Stuart Mellor, for the home side, and the visitors’ Carl Barrett each claimed three wickets in a row.

Fred then returned to Uppermill, where he watched Glodwick professional Imran Aslam take a hat-trick against the hosts.