As has been seen in our weekly reviews of senior cricket, this season more than ever our junior section has been vital to our ability to get 4 senior teams out each weekened, not only that a number of those players have been the star performers across those senior teams. However as well as the senior teams, many of those players also represent the junior teams, this is a half way report from the coaches at Under 11, Under 13 and Under 15 levels, on how there teams are performing.
Under 15 Report - Barry Pearson
In defence of the County Cup, the under 15 side reached the final once again before losing by 39 runs to a very strong Ashington side. In getting there, there were comfortable wins over Newcastle City by 100 runs, Stocksfield by 28 runs and then defeated Tynedale in the semi final. Gabriel Mellor and Liam Hynd have been prolific and both scored unbeaten 50s in each of these games, while there were three wickets for newcomer Robbie Cope at Stocksfield and two each for Seb Fletcher Woods and Gabriel, while Harsh Patel took two wickets against Tynedale.
In the final, Ashington made a bright start before tight bowling restricted the home side to 118 in 20 overs. Gabriel led the way with 3 for 16 in his 4 overs. In reply, Liam was run out in the first over and we never really recovered until James Roe smashed 25 from 13 balls, but the damage was done and we lost by 39 runs.
In the League, we started with a good win at Morpeth as we chased down 134 to win by 7 wickets, with Robbie making an unbeaten 46 and Ibrahim Ahmed 38. A first 50 for Harsh Patel was the highlight in the 23 run defeat at Ashington before Tynemouth were beaten by 91 runs with Gabriel scoring 43, Liam 30 and Harsh a brisk 43. There
were two wickets each for Seb, Sai Patel and Ramin Aatif. At Newcastle City, Liam made another 50 along side 41 from Robbie and 24 from Ibrahim in a 55 run win, before a good Backworth side were defeated by 9 wickets led by Gabriel with 51 and an unbeaten 40 from Liam.
Last Monday, we somehow lost a good game against a resurgent Blyth side by 3 runs, despite another 50 from Liam. Gabriel Mellor and Liam Hynd have formed an excellent opening partnership this season backed up by Robbie Cope, Harsh Patel and Ibrahim Ahmed in particular. The bowling has generally been good led by skipper Gabriel, Nicholas Walder, Seb Fletcher Woods and Sai Patel, but the fielding has been disappointing at times with
several dropped catches at times proving costly, while game awareness from a young side is something we will be working on in the second half of the season.
Under 13 Report - Barry Pearson and Jim Robinson
The under 13s have had a really good squad this season with some old favourites alongside some promising newcomers. We reached the under 13 County Cup Final before losing a really good game to a strong Tynemouth side. The first round took us to Morpeth where we scored 129/4 with Ollie Smalley scoring 30 with support from
new guys Adam Hasan 22 and Thomas Butler 27*. Two wickets for Charlie Krzysiak helped restrict the home side to 83/5.
We won away at Corbridge in the semi final by 9 wickets with Ollie taking 3/8 and scoring 22*, while Daniel Hynd made 31. In the final at home to Tynemouth, we were restricted to 98/6 in 20 overs against some excellent bowling with the highlight being 30 from Daniel. But Tynemouth reached the total in the last over despite a great
fighting effort from the Hill with the ball led by Ollie 2/10 and Thomas 3/12. It was an excellent game that could have gone either way.
The League performances have also been very good. We started with a win over Corbridge scoring 119/9 with Adam 24 and Thomas 32 starting well on debut, before bowling out the visitors for 44, Sukveer Bhinder taking 3 wickets and Aryan Mandal 2.
As in the cup final, the league game against Tynemouth was a close game ending in a tie, we scored 100 in 20 overs led by 31 from Flynn Pattison and 25 from Thomas, but another fighting performance allowed us to get a tie, Emily Smalley leading the way with 2 wickets.
The game at Newcastle City was abandoned after we recovered from 6/4 to reach 109, mainly thanks to 31 from Thomas and a last wicket stand of 35 between Emily and Rahim Aatif. The rain came with the home side 13/2. Our only league defeat to date came in another close came against a good Backworth side. They scored 110/6 and
we looked on course after a good partnership between Daniel 21 and Sukveer 27 before Sukveer was out to one of the best catches seen at this level and we lost by 4 runs.
Ponteland came to the Hill and our batters were in good form, Adam 30 Thomas 33 and Ollie 25. After a quick start from Ponteland, our bowlers took control with Charlie and Adam each taking 2 wickets as they were bowled out for 74.
An excellent performance followed in our last game to date at Stocksfield where Adam, Ollie, Daniel, and Sukveer all scored 30 alongside Flynn 29, and then the home side succumbed to some accurate bowling with 2 wickets each for Flynn, Emily, Aryan and Zack Askell on his under 13 debut.
We have a really promising and enthusiastic squad of under 13 players this year which gives great hope for the rest of the season and for the future.
Under 11 Report - James Walder
It has been great to have some new players join the club this season - Freddie, Jasper, Will, Jonah, Rayan, Yaksh and Walter - helping us grow to a squad of 18 players. This has been needed with a couple of serious injuries (broken knee for James and broken wrist for Jonah which were not cricket related!) and u13 calls ups has meant that everyone has had plenty of game time.
Up to the end of June we had played 10 games - winning 8 and losing 2. We lost our only cup match in a good game against a strong Hetton Lyons team but having not bowled or fielded well we almost chased down 137 off 16 overs with Freddie and Austin leading the way. The other loss was to a good Backworth team.
We started the season in the worst conditions i have ever played or coached cricket at - freezing cold, windy with plenty of rain at South North. The team did really well to keep going and ended up winning by 8 runs. The cold and windy weather has been a theme during the season so far with only a couple of games played in warmer conditions.
We have had a few wins by more than 100 runs and also managed to have 6 run outs in 3 of our matches benefitting from good fielding but also good wicket keeping from Joseph and Austin. There have been some good catches from Johah, Will and Austin. All of our bowlers have picked up at least 1 wicket with Josh and Jasper both getting a wicket with their first ever ball for the club and Zachary, Ted and Mussa all bowling well.
The players are learning about the importance of getting bat on ball and putting away the bad ball - Freddie and Thomas have both passed 100 runs for the season and several other players are approaching this milestone.
There is lots to look forward to (mainly some nicer weather) for the rest of the season and it is great that all players have improved in the first few months of the season - special mention to Walter and Yaksh who have stepped up as u9s to play some u11 games and more than held their own.
