A largely disappointing weekend for the Hill as the 1s went crashing out of the NEPL T20 Quarter FInals on Friday at Burnopfield, although they did have the consolation of a last over win against Eppleton on Saturday. Meanwhile both 3rd teams lost and the 2nd's game on Saturday fell victim to some heavy overnight and early morning rain in the Ashington area.
1st July - 1st XI v Burnopfield (away) - NEPL T20 Quarter Final
The game at Burnopefield went ahead despite some heavy afternoon rain and the surrounding black clouds. Captain for the night Kyle (Pete unavailable) lost the toss and the Hill were inserted on a 'green' un. We started magnificently and at the half way point we looked well set to post a big total, however from that point forward wickets fell regularly, due to one magnificant catches by the home team but some poor batting and shot selection in truth be told. Kyle top socring with 51, Angus and Finn next best with 21 each.
In reply Burnopfield also set off like a house on fire, with John Oswell hitting some magnificant straight sixes in his innings of 52 from only 27 balls, he was ably asisted by ex Hill man Alasdair Appleby (30 off 26 balls). Only a good spell from Safiun Ahsan Diip who took all 3 wickets to fall, saved us from what could of been a very heavy defeat.
The match scorecard (if you dare look) is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5465204
2nd July - 1st XI v Eppleton (home) - NEPL Premier League
After the heacy defeat to Burnopefield the night before we entertained Eppleton at the Hill. Captain Kyle won the toss and inserted the opposition. Things started better with the key wicket of Kyle Davis in the first over. Wickets falling regularly as Eppleton quickly found themselves at 64 for 5, however an 80 run 6th wicket partnership and some useful lower order runs saw them post 194 for 9 off 57 overs. Max picking up 3 late wickets for 38 off 9 overs, there was also 2 wickets each for Rory and Mohsin, unfortunately Callum picked up an injury after his 1st over wicket and could only manage 3 overs.
A quick rain shower meant that the Hill were restricted to a maximum of 51 overs to chase down the total, a feat we managed with 3 balls to spare, with Mohsin (15no) and Phil Bell (27no) seeing us to victory for the loss of 6 wickets. Earlier a dogged 49 from Adam Heather, 37 from Luke Doneathy, plus useful contributions (22 each) from Kyle and Finn set the platform for the much needed victory.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5024241
2nd July - 2nd XI v Ashington (away) - NEPL Division 2
The game fell victom to heavy overnight rain and was called off by 9:30 Saturday morning, A shame for the Ashington locals with Hill legend Phil Nicholson due to make his long awaited comeback after injury.
2nd July - 3rd XI v Haydon Bridge (away) - West Tyne League - Chris Poinder's match report
We made the first of what will be two trips up the A69 this week to play Haydon Bridge. After winning the toss the and electing to field Haydon Bridge finished 231 all out with J Taylor 71 K. Carruthers 36 and N Kendrew 30 the highest scorers. Wickets went to Zain with 4/42 Warren 2/43 and the skipper 2/21. One wicket each for Fardin and Fergus.
In reply the hill lost a couple of early wickets with Rory going without scoring and Rash getting 10 before a partnership of 52 (Zain and Max) saw us to 63 before Max was caught for 21. Another partnership (Zain and Warren) of 53 took us to 116/4 before Warren fell caught and bowled for 11. Unfortunately there were no further partnerships of note and wickets fell at regular intervals. At the end we finished on 149 all out, Zain top scoring with 76.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5295097
3rd July - 3rd XI v Chester le Street (home) - NEPL Sunday League
Sunday saw an existing game at the Hill with some great young talent on show in both teams. Unfortunately Chester le Street prevailed winning by 40 runs. There was some useful knocks in our total of 179, with another half century for Rohan, 43 for Safi and 31 for Zain.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5134470
