It was a run fest at the Hill over the weekend, with almost a thousand runs scored on the same wicket as the 1st XI won both their league match and cup semi final on consecutive days. The 2nd XI continued their terrific run of form with a good victory over title rivals Newcastle at Jesond, unfortunately however the West Tyne 3rd XI had to concede their game for the second weekend in a row and the NEPL 3rd XI lost to Sunderland on Sunday.
6th August - 1st XI v Newcastle (home) - NEPL Premier League - Premier Division
The 1st XI started a terrific weekend with a last over victory against Newcastle chasing down 277 to win with 3 balls to spare. Newcastle batted first posting 277 for 6 declared in 52 overs, with opener Bobby Green making the most of an early life to top score with 106. Finn McGreath was top wicket taker for the Hill with 2 for 23 off 8 overs, Callum, Mohsin and Kyle the other wicket takers.
Every Hill batter made a contribution in the chase, but it was the 5th wicket partnership between Finn (80 runs) and Phil Bell (40 runs), that kept the momentum going late into the chase, after a couple of quick wickets it was left to skipper Pete Halliday to hit the winning runs with a sweep through mid wicket. A terriffic game for a healthy early evening crowd.
The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5024244
6th August - 2nd XI v Newcastle (away) - NEPL Premier League - Division 2 - Matty Hynd's match report
We travelled to Jesmond in good spirit for the last W/L/D match of the season. After some overnight rain the wicket looked a little greener than you would expect but having won the toss we elected to bat.
Moore got off to a good start striking a number of early boundaries before Hynd was removed for 10 and the score was 41/1. Moore continued to be aggressive and we moved the score onto 94 when Moore was caught for 66 from 70. This brought around a mid order collapse, losing 4 wickets for 16 as we struggled to settle against the change bowling losing Aatif (19), Ahmad (8), Nadella (0) & Lockey (1) leaving us 110/6. Dawson and course and distance specialist Hunter set out to repair the damage and counter attacked to good effect. They took us past 200 and when Hunter was eventually out for 67 from 66 balls they had put on 135. Dawson was out quickly after for 69 from 71 pushing for extra runs towards a declaration 247/8 before Jones came in for the last over and hit consecutive sixes to take us to 260/8 declared in 52.
Newcastle started off slowly against Hunter and Kilpatrick and Hunter removed the opener for 0. Captain Boaden came in and chanced his arm and scored a quick fire 50 for 10 x 4, before being bizarrely ran out trying to run to the bowler Jones. Safi then removed Walker and the dangerous Stenhouse hit 3 big sixes before Kilpatrick returned and removed him and the next batter quickly leaving Newcastle up with the rate but losing wickets at 141/5. Safi then removed 7 & 8 quickly and Jones returned to remove the numbers 9 &10 leaving Newcastle 160/9. Throughout this opener Allen was still in and started to counter attack, we gave him a few lives before Hunter caught and bowled him, catching a high chance and thus bowling out Newcastle for 190. The wickets were again spread out with Hunter (2), Kilpatrick (2), Safi (3) & Jones (2). The top 4 in the league all won with similar points so it looks like 1 from 4 in the league with 5 win/lose matches remaining.
The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5024757
6th August - 3rd XI v Belsay (away) - West Tyne League
Benwell Hill conceded the game
7th August - 1st XI v Chester le Street (home) - Banks Salver - Semi Final
The 1st XI secured a place in the final of the NEPL Banks Salver with a stunning 10 wicket win over Chester le Street. CLS batted first and at the drinks break they were 121 for 1 off 21 overs, and looking likely to post a score in the region of 250, However, as always tends to do the break changed the game, as the visitors collapsed to 192 all out in the final over. Callum Harding doing the damage with 4 wickets, Kyle and Max picking up 2 each and 1 for Daniel Gardiner.
Openers, Mohsin with a magnificant 102 not out and Kyle Coetzer with 67 not out knocked off the runs in the 35th over to cap off a fantastic weekend of cricket at the Hill. Hetton Lyons await in the final at the Hill on Sunday 28th August.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5473091
7th August - 3rd XI v Sunderland (away) - NEPL Sunday League - Division 1
The Hill were inserted by the home side at the toss and posted a competitve score of 182 for 6 in 40 overs. Taylor Matthews top scoring with 52, able assited by Safi Ahsan Diip with 39 not out, and some useful runs from juniors, Rory Mustard (23, Warren Poxon (21) and Fardin Bhuiyan (20).
Despite 3 wickets from Safiun and 2 from Abu Siddique, the home side chased down the Hill total in the 37th over for a 4 wicket vistory.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5134513
