The 1st team had 3 games over the weekend, they kicked off with a last ball loss on Friday, a battling winning draw on Saturday and a comfortable win in the Banks Salver on Sunday, the latter thanks to a maiden 1st XI century from Rory Hanley. The 2nd's lost to Tynemouth, the West Tyne 3rd's lost to Haltwhistle, but we recorded another win in the NEPL Sunday leagie versus Hetton Lyons.
Friday 8th July - 1st XI v Percy Main (away) - County Cup
An understrength 1st team put in a battling display at Percy Main, but went down by 6 wickets on the final ball of the game. We batted first and largely due to 42 not out from Joe Fletcher and 35 not out from Pete Halliday, with next best of 26 from Haydon Mustard. We posted 131 for 6 in 20 overs.
A 4 pronged bowling attack of 14 year old Warren Poxon, 15 year olds Abu Siddique and Haydon Mustard, and the old man of the group, Max Williamson (22 year old for the record), all put in a good shift, but an excellent 67 from opener Jack Roys saw the home team through.
The match scorrcard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5356563
Saturday 9th July - 1st XI v Tynemouth (home) - NEPL Premier League
A beautiful Saturday afternoon saw a high scoring at Denton Bank. Returning skipper Pete, won the toss and elected to bowl, and a couple of early wickets made it look a good decision, however excellent 3rd, 4th and 5th wicket partnerships pushed Tynemouth onto a commanding 273 for 7 off 58 overs. Callum Harding the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 48 from 13 overs., Rory Hanley taking 2 wickets and Luke Doneathy the other wicket taker. Also special mention to youngster Ben Moody on his 1st XI league debut who put in a couple of excellent spells in his 11 overs for 47.
A superb 92 from evergreen Adam Heather was the bedrock of the Hill's reply, his innings along with contributions of 36 from Finn McCreath and 31 from Haydon Mustard, kept us in with a shot of overhauling the huge total, but wickets fell regularly too, leaving us at 216 for 7, however a quick fire 30 not out from Max Williamson near the end meant we secured a winning draw as we finshed at 252 for 8 off 52 overs.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5024247
Saturday 9th July - 2nd XI v Tynemouth (away) - NEPL Premier Leaague - Matty Hynd's match report
A tricky fixture against top of the league Tynemouth was again met with a number of key absences, this time in the bowling department, however the strength in depth l had a strong line up.
We won the toss on a hot day and a used wicket and elected to bat, the start was steady but a number of balls from opening bowler Carr were two paced. We managed to get to 25/0 before Carr removed Moore (11) with one that came back a lot, this quickly became 28/2 when he did the same to Hynd (14). This quickly became 41/6 as Carr removed 5 (Nicholson 6, McGregor 2 and Aatif & Fletcher 0) of the top 6, Kilpatrick and Nadella looked to repair the damage but when Kilpatrick was removed for 8 we were in real danger of a very early finish at 64/7. However, Nadella and Lockey had other ideas and defended well and counter attacked where they could. They both passed 50 and took the partnership to 132 before Nadella was removed for a well made 66 from 93 balls. Poxon was out first ball but Lockey continued to attack and when Stilwell was the last out, Lockey was left stranded 79 not out from 79 balls. The score of 201 from 49 overs looked competitive if under par for what we initially thought but a lot more than it looked at one point! Carr was the pick of the Tynemouth bowling picking up 5/30.
Tynemouth looked to start positively but Kilpatrick removed the opener Beever for 4, Lockey then removed Hallam Jnr and Nadella picked up the big wicket of Stewart in one of his early overs leaving the game in the balance at 56/3. Bowman came in and looked assured and positive and started to take the game away as Tynemouth were now ahead of the rate. Stillwell removed his partner Hull-Denholm at 104/4 but runs had started to flow quicker, skipper Davison was next to fall for 23 off the last ball of the Kilpatrick spell (2/43). Hallam Snr and Bowman continued to accumulate but Lockey and Nicholson slowed the runs up and the ball wouldn’t go to hand. Nicholson then removed Bowman (60 from 65) and Sturrock (11) leaving Tynemouth 188/7, however Hallam Snr and Walton knew a couple of boundaries would be enough and they struck the winning runs with 8 overs in hand. Nicholson finished with (2/30) and Lockey (1/35). A good effort from the team and 7 points from a good game.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/Matches
Saturday 9th July - 3rd XI v Haltwhistle (home @ Medomsley) - West Tyne League - Chris Pounders match report
The West Tyne 3rd XI suffered another defeat at the weekend at the hands of Haltwhistle. After losing the toss we were asked to bat first and started well with. 50 run partnership between Davey and Zain before a dubious lbw saw Davey depart for 12.
Zain would depart shortly after for 35 bringing Rory Mustard to the crease. Rory showed so much character after taking a few blows to the body and at one point having to retire but we would see this little battler return and hit a fantastic 37 pushing the score along with the returning Asanka (28). The hill would eventually finish 154/9 off their 40 overs.
In reply the hill again found wickets hard to come by with Halty openers Parker (33) and Thompson (40) giving the oppsition a platform to get to their target 4 down in 36th over. James Moody the pick of the Hill bowlers returning figures of 2/18 from 7. The other wickets went to the skipper and Ben Robinson.
The math scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5295109
Sunday 10th July - 1st XI v Washington (home) - Banks Salver Quarter FInal
Sunday saw the Hill to progress to the Banks Salver Semi Finals, with a 6 wicket win against Washington, thanks in a large part to a superb knock of 116 from Rory Hanley,as we chased down 210 in the 37th over. We restricted Washington to 210 all out on anoher excellent track. There were 2 wickets each for opening bowlers Callum and Rory, but special mention to Shay Marley who took his first 1st XI wickets in an excellent spell of 2 for 27 off 8 overs.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5454986
Sunday 10th July - 3rd XI v Hetton Lyons (away) - NEPL Sunday League - Barry Pearson's match report
The Benwell Hill NEPL 3rd team recorded their second win in three games at Hetton Lyons last Sunday 10th July with a 60 run win in a game where both teams were made up mainly with junior cricketers and there was lots of talent on show which was refreshing to see.
The Hill batted first and scored 213 for 8 in their 40 overs on a hot afternoon, Taylor Matthews batted nicely and top scored with 55, with useful contributions from Rohaan Aatif 48, Zain Ahmad who batted beautifully for his 27 before running himself out, and Freddie McGregor who again batted impressively with 30. It looked as though we would score more at the half way point but the Hetton bowlers pegged us back in the last ten overs.
In reply, the Hill bowlers started well, with 14 year old Jayam Patel bowling impressively in his opening spell picking up a couple of useful wickets, then 13 year old spinner Aaron Armstrong bowled really well and took 3 for 34 in his 8 overs as Hetton were reduced to 72 for 7. The home side rallied to make 153 before being bowled out, 13 year old Fergus Wallace taking a couple of wickets at the end and there was a wicket each for Warren Poxon, Taylor Matthews and Chris Pounder.
The 3s have a Banks Cup match away at Willington this coming Friday before going down to the coast on Sunday to play Tynemouth.
The match scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/5134484
