HISTORY makers Diggle are riding high in the District League – three times over!
In a situation which league president Frank Beaumont believes is unique, the Saddleworth club’s trio of teams all top their respective divisions.
“I’ve known clubs with two teams to both be at the top, but never three at the same time,” said Beaumont.
“It’s a magnificent achievement, and it will be fascinating to watch the progress of the various sides as the season goes on.”
While the thirds won their title in 2005-06 and the seconds have been Reserve Division I champions for three seasons running, the firsts have never claimed the top-flight crown, with a best of runners-up back in 2001-02, when they won the Barlow Cup.
Club secretary Mark Smith, who is assistant to first-team coach Steve Southern, says nobody is getting carried away at this early stage.
“It’s been a good start, but we’ve played more games than some and we have yet to face the likes of (defending champions) Lepton Highlanders and Newsome WMC,” said Smith, who is celebrating his 10th anniversary at the club.
“But there’s a good spirit and we have a good coaching structure with Steve, who has a lot of experience in the Oldham area, at the top, Adrian Bottom taking the reserves and Alex Marsh and Howard Johnson jointly in charge of the thirds.
“Sponsorship from Gavin Wheeldon Applied Language (an on-line translation business which was once based at Armitage Bridge but is now in Delph) has helped us a lot, because while we don’t pay players, we’ve been able to kit them out well.
“We’ve had three or four new first teamers come in this time, and that’s had a knock-on effect, with other players dropping down to the teams below.”
Most of Diggle’s players are from the immediate area, but strangely, their home record hasn’t been especially strong .
“The surface here is good, and perhaps we’d do better if we had a sloping pitch!” quipped Smith.
