12 Dec - Ecclesfield & Yew Tree beat the freeze to share the spoils - 

The weather played havoc with local football for a third successive week last weekend, but one game played was on the all-weather surface at Concord Park, where Ecclesfield 147 Players Lounge missed the chance to go back to the top of the CBC Premier when drawing with fellow title hopefuls Yew Tree.

Ecclesfield manager Paul Bashforth had seven regulars missing through injury or work commitments and had to play himself in centre defence, but his man of the match performance almost helped his side back to the top. Ecclesfield drew first blood when Craig Senior and Gavin Hunter combined to put Ryan Keeney in and he ignored Yew Tree’s claims for offside to put his side ahead.

Yew Tree were behind for just ten minutes though with Nathan Hanson providing the perfect cross for Richard Gill to head the equaliser and it looked as if they would go into the break level, but three minutes before half time, Scott Johnson created the chance for Craig Senior to hit his fifteenth league goal of the season and restore Ecclesfield’s lead.

The second half was just thirty seconds old when Ecclesfield played the ball out to Gavin Hunter and his run and cross was met by Senior’s head for his sixteenth of the season to seemingly put his side on the way back to the top, but Yew Tree quickly reacted by making changes to their line up and the move soon paid dividends.

Scott Birch carved out an opening and crossed for Nathan Hanson head home to reduce the arrears and after another effort had come back of the home side’s bar, Ryan Cockayne paved the way for Hanson to hit his second to bring Yew Tree level.

Ecclesfield did their best to hit back and grab the win that would take them back to the top and Senior had one effort disallowed before a Scott Johnson effort was scrambled clear. Ryan Keeney then forced Yew Tree keeper James Marks to make a world class save, before Jayson Reeves had one disallowed.

It wasn’t one way traffic though and Scott Birch, Ryan Cockayne and Phil Cookson all went close to snatching it for Yew Tree, but neither side could force a winner and both had to settle for a point. Action from the game is shown below (photos by Paul Raynor). All other games were postponed.

5 Dec - Another white out -  The snow & ice caused every game to be postponed for the second successive weekend. The postponed Macron Cup ties will be re-scheduled during January. Lets hope things improve for next weekend, but the forecast doesn't look too promising.

2 Dec - Todd & Ash lead the way in the goalscoring charts -  Stocksbridge Park Steels' Adam Todd (pictured left) and Bulls Head's Nick Ash (pictured right) lead the way in the twentytwo sponsored goalscoring charts with 16 each. They are closely followed by Ecclesfield 147's Craig Senior on 14 and Fairbank-Rhodes Scott Whittington on 13. The full list of each clubs leading scorer can be found in the Results section.