Lockwood Con win 9-0 away at Cowcliffe

Veterans League Review of the Veterans 10-Man League Divisions 1 & 2 matches played on Tuesday 22 August

Cowcliffe continued to plummet towards relegation with a second consecutive 0-9 Division 1 defeat this time at home to Lockwood Con. That makes it 8 defeats from their last 9 fixtures and things are becoming serious for the team that sat 2nd in the table in mid-June. Last week I described the change in form as a freefall but after consecutive 0-9 defeats it feels like they are now accelerating towards Division 2 next year.

Elland C&BC, Meltham 'A' and Longwood stay in the drop zone as well. Meltham put up a stout performance away at Rastrick before going down 4-5 and Longwood had a good 7-2 home win over Marsh United 'A' who lost for the first time in seven whilst Elland had the week off. That big win for Lockwood Con seems to have relieved all danger of relegation and a 6-3 away win for Waterloo at Milnsbridge 'A' gave a boost to their survival chances.

The three points that Milnsbridge collected against Waterloo delayed the inevitable relegation for at least another week. Kirkheaton Con 'A' beat Lowerhouses 8-1 to knock them off second spot and go third themselves with Rastrick reclaiming 2nd place after their home win over Meltham. Golcar Lib 'A' extended their already enormous lead at the head of the table to 26 points after a 6-3 away win at Clayton West.

It was a good week to be playing at home in Division 2 with all six host teams winning their matches. That means defeats for two of the prime contenders for the promotion places including the leaders Netherton Con 'A' (at New Mill 'A') who saw their lead reduced to 8 points ahead of Shepley who kept up the pressure on the leaders with a good 6-3 home win over Lindley Lib 'A' who hang on to third place.

Lindley BC 'A' remain well in contention despite losing 4 points at home to relegation-threatened Holmfirth 'A'. Despite those points, the Holmfirth side remain in the drop zone along with Thorpe Green who were losing for the 4th consecutive match when going down 2-7 at Broad Oak 'A'.

The bottom two teams met at Bradley & Colne where the hosts came out on top with a 7-2 win over Hemplow 'A' which didn't make any difference at all to either team's survival chances but they did swap places in the table. Thongsbridge 'A' and Almondbury BC 'A' had their own mid-table meeting with a win for the home side meaning no changes in the running order this week.