Wednesday Night's Opponents: Stone Dominoes

The fixtures computer - if indeed the NWCFL has a computer to do the fixtures for them - has given Cheadle two contrasting but equally problematic fixtures for the two first kicks-of-the-ball at Park Road. The elevated ones - Kirkham and Wesham - come to SK8 on Saturday but first it's the demoted ones, Stone Dominoes.

The Doms were founded as recently as 1987 at St.Dominics Catholic Church by the chairman for his youngest son and his friends as a team of 8 year-olds. The boys were the ones who chose the name: "Stone St.Dominics" became "Stone Dominoes".

The senior team joined the football pyramid in 1995-96 when they joined the Midland League Division Two; they came runners-up the following season. In 1997-98 Division Two was disbanded and all teams were absorbed into a single league which they became champions of in the 1999-2000 season.

They joined the NWCFL Div 2 for the 2000-2001 season, finishing a respectable 13th. The following two seasons were to be more successful as Stone Doms finished 4th and then 2nd, which enabled their promotion to Div 1. Two mid-table finishes were then followed by two nightmare seasons. In 2005-2006 they resigned from the league after playing just four games but were then re-instated; they finished a woeful second-from-bottom. However it got worse for them last season as they finished bottom of Div 1 with just 9 points and two wins to their name.

Despite this, Stone will be one of the teams to beat this season as they will surely seek and instant return upwards. This is the first of two ideal opportunities for Cheadle to put Saturday behind them and state some sort of intention.

Come on Cheadle!