It was a disappointing weekend for the Hill in the U19 County and Smithson Cup finals.
U19 XI County Cup Final v Tynedale (away)
The weekend started on Friday evening as the Under 19s travelled to Hexham to take on a strong Tynedale team in the Under 19 County Cup final.
The Hill won the toss and decided to bat first, partly due to the fact skipped Haydon Mustard was delayed due to an overrunning Durham 1st XI CCC training session. Unfortunately we struggled early doors, with the key wickets of 1st XI players Dan Gardner (our for 4) and Haydon (batting #5) for 1, seeing us fall to 46 for 5 and then 58 for 7, the tail did well (in particular Aaron Armstrong with 14) to get us to a respectable 92 all out in 19.3 overs.
The Tynedale batters came out all guns blazing and quickly got on top, and knocked our total off for loss of 3 wickets (2 of them falling to Ayush Chakraborty) inside 11 overs. Well played Tynedale, deserving winners on the night.
U19 County Cup Scorecard v Tynedale
1st XI Smithson County Cup Final v Ashington (home) - Phil Haves match report
The Final of the County Cup turned out to be an exciting low scoring affair for a bumper crowd at Denton Bank on Sunday. Having been asked to bat a devastating opening spell from the visitors overseas Professional Louis (5/19) reduced us to 30/5. The two Max’s Tidmarsh (26) & Williamson (19) plus 16 from Abu helped us to at least pass the 100 & we finished on 102 all out with 2 overs unused.
Defending such a small total we needed an early breakthrough & Vasi duly delivered dismissing O’Brien first ball. Wickets from Callum & Dan plus the run out of the Pro by Max reduced the visitors to 22/4 & game on…. a wicket for Jonesey & it became 60/5. This was however as good as it got as McCarthy & Nichol took the score to 98 before Nichol was removed by Vasi. Into the final over & a snick for 4 by Potts ensured the visitors took home the cup with a composed 46 not out by Man of the Match McCarthy the major contributor.
A disappointing result but well done to Ashington.
1st XI County Cup Final scorecard v Ashington
Martin Avery was in attendance on Sunday has captured some superb pictures from the day, they can be viewed at https://MartinAvery.dphoto.com/album/djfyny