Although windy and cold Saturday 5th September turned into an excellent day for the Hill, as both the 1st XI and 2nd XI advanced to the Semi Final stages of their resepective Banks Cup competition's. The 1st's winning by 28 runs against Eppleton and the 2nd's winning by 7 wickets at Washington.
After being put in to bat, the Hill recovered from the shock of losing James Schofield to the first ball of the game to end on 202 all out in the final over. This was built around a fantastic effort of 102 from Kyle Coetzer from 102 balls with 14 4s and 3 6s, and the fact that the next highest score after extras was Luke Doneathy's 20 shows what a special innings it was. After Kyle departed, the innings subsided somewhat from 181 for 4, but 202 was still a decent total.
After a quick breather, Kyle picked up the ball and took 3 early Eppleton wickets to leave our visitors 48 for 5, but despite a lower order recovery, they were bowled out for 174 with Kyle ending up with 4 for 28 to complete a decent day, while Callum Harding nipped in with 3 for 23.
The Hill will make the trip to Ropery Lane to take on an unbeaten Chester le Street side in the semi final on Saturday in what should be a great game.
2nd XI match report to follow ....
