It's been a busy couple of weeks since our last update (apologies the web site editor has been on hols), so lets cracking with a round up of the games over the weekend of 18-19 June.
17th June - 1st XI v Felling (home) - NEPL T20
The 1s continued their good progress (in the NEPL T20 cup comp) with a 76 run victory over Felling. We batted first scoring 164 for 7 off our 20 overs, Phil Bell top scoring with 34, Rory Hanley adding some useful late order runs (28no) alongside skipper Pete Haliday (25). Felling struggled in reply with Kyle Coetzer top wicket taker with 3 fo 12.
The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5113418
18th June - 1st XI v Burnmoor (away) - NEPL Premier League
We lost a cracking game at Burnmoor by the narrowest of margins (4 runs) on Saturday 18th June. Burnmoor won the toss and elected to bat, Ross Greenwell top scoring for the hosts with 98 before falling Caught and Bowled to Callum Harding, who took an excellent 4 for 30 from his 11.4 overs, there was also impressive contribution from Max Williamson with the ball as he took 2 for 50 from 10 overs, Pete Jones was the other wicketer, as Burnmoor finished on 240 for 7 declared from 49.4 overs.
At 126 for 6 victory didnt look likely, but a 7th wicket srand stand of 60 from Luke Doneathy (76) and Rory Hanley (49) got us back into the game, then a 8th wicket stand of 30 from Rory and Max, saw victory in our sights, however a couple of more wickets, saw it come down to the wire, unfortunately Max was adjudged LBW on 18, and we finished 236 all out, in 58.2 overs.
The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5024249
18th June - 2nd XI v Castle Eden (home) - NEPL Division 2 - Matty Hynd's match report
Saturday brought the first ever NEPL visit of Castle Eden to the Hill and for a change we won the toss and elected to bat on a hard looking used track.
We got off to a bad start losing Hynd first ball, but Moore and McGreggor started to repair the damage before McGreggor was out for 12, Aatif followed first ball leaving the Hill 53/3. Runs continued to flow although Moore scoring quickly was not as fluent as other weeks due to the “sticky” nature of the wicket. Moore again passed 50 but was out soon after for 55, Fletcher became the 3rd first ball victim leaving us 90/5 with plenty of overs left. Wickets continued to fall and Nadella (18) got a good one, then Dawson (11), Kilpatrick (4) both fell soon after leaving us 118/8. Safi and Hunter, put up some resistance and when Hunter fell for 8, leaving us 135/9 in 44 overs we decided to take a calculated risk and declare to keep open the chances of the extra points.
Castle Eden started well, hoping to make a dent in the target, but Hunter removed both openers leaving Castle Eden 38/2. Some changes in the bowling and some aggressive batting took Castle Eden up to 70/2, before Safi removed the 3, 4 & 5 in quick succession leaving Castle Eden in trouble at 77/5. Kilpatrick was brought back and he struck immediately removing the next 4 batters in quick time, leaving Castle Eden 100/9. Safi then removed the no 11 with a smart catch from Hunter and Castle Eden were all out for 101, losing their last 8 wickets for just 31 runs.
This ended a run of 3 homes games in a row where we have managed to pick up 86/90 points, gets some more consistent sides out and push us back into the top half of the league. Next week we play away to Chester le Street which marks the half way point of a very interesting season which looks like it could be the most competitive second team season for some time with 34 points covering the top 7 sides at the moment.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5024702
18th June - 3rd XI v Stamfordham (away) - West Tyne League - Chris Pounder's match report
The West Tyne League 3’s recorded their second win of the season (by 7 wickets) against last years Champions Stamfordham at the weekend
After losing the toss we were asked to field first an impressive bowling display saw Stamfordham bowled out for 111 with the pick of the bowlers being Jayam Patel and the returning Matthew Lockey. Jayam returning impressive figures of 4/22 and Matthew 3/17.
In reply The Hill finished on 115/3 in the 32nd over with Davey continuing his recent good form hitting 58 not out. Davey was backed up with excellent knocks from Jayam Patel 11, Zain Ahmad 16, Rory Mustard 12 and 15 not out for Max Tidmarsh on debut.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5024702
19th June - 2nd XI v Gateshead Fell (away) - NEPL Banks Bowl Q-final
The 2s recorded a 70 run victory over Gateshead Fell to progress to the Semi Finals of the Banks Bowl. The Hill batted first scoring 206 for 7 in 40 overs, Freddie McGregor top scoring with 72, and Prahad Nadella sored 60, with the pair adding a stand of 102 runs for the third wicket.
The Fell struggled in their reply, and were all out for 136, with Haroon Malik taking 3 wickets, and 2 each for Pete Jones and Prahad.
The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5451640
