Congratulations to Michael Maclauchlan who scored his first century for the Hill in an excellent win for the 2nd's against Felling, however it was bad news for the 1st's as old boy Alistair Appleby put them to the sword with a magnificant double hundred. The NTCL 3rd's went down narrowly by 11 runs to Greenside. Read on forall the information.
NEPL Premier Division - 1st XI v Felling (a) - Lost by 240 runs - Match Report by Phil Haves
The trip to Felling on Saturday was the cue to turn in our worst all round performance of the season as former Hill player Alasdair Appleby but our bowling to the sword with a fantastic unbeaten 224 as the home side amassed 370/4 in their 50 overs. With the exception of Lee who used all his experience finishing with 0-29 off his 10 overs, all the other bowlers went around the park as the home side took advantage of a good wicket, fast outfield and short boundaries. Harpo, Max and Woody were our wicket takers.
Chasing such a huge total we got off to the worst possible start as Dave was stumped down the leg side in the first over. Wickets tumbled on a regular basis as we slumped to 130 all out and a huge 240 run defeat. Ayush top scored with 24 and Woody Wilson (23no) were the only batters to reach 20.
With 4 games to go our fate could be sealed on Saturday when we visit Burnopfield should we fail to win.
NEPL 1st XI Scorecard v Felling (a)
NEPL Premier Division - 2nd XI v Felling (a) - Won by 162 runs
The 2nd's bounced back in style after their mauling at Jesmond last week, with a huge 162 run win over Felling. Skipper Jones won the toss and chose to bat, and it turned out to be a great decision as we posted an excellent 290 for 5 in our 50 overs. Star of the show was Michael Maclauchlan who got his maiden 100 for the Hill, eventually finishing not out on 108, he was ably assited by Harsh Patel, himself recording his forst 2nd team half century with 52, and Abu Siddique with a fine 66.
Felling never really got going in their chase and lost wickets regularly as they were all out for 128 in the 28th over. Aaron Armstrong the top wicket taker with 5 for 29 off 6.3 overs, there was also 2 wickets each for Nazif Habibi and Abu, and a wicket for Jayem.
The win leaves us in 5th place on 274 points, a finish of 3rd or 4th place looks to be the realistic target for the remainder of the season with South North and Newcastle City (who we play next) currently occupying those positions on 311 and 284 points respectively. The Top 2 of Chester le Street (397 points) and Newcastle (369) are fighting it out for the title with 4 games to go.
NEPL 2nd XI Scorecard v Felling (h)
NTCL 3rd XI v Greenside (a) - Lost by 11 runs - Vice Captains Match Report by James Walder
The 3rd team travelled to Greenside and Skipper Chris 'Cherry' Pounder returned to his losing ways on the toss so we were asked to bowl first. This was against a team who had scored 380 against us earlier in the season so there was some nerves about how it would go.
Our young bowling attack started well with good spells from Nicholas and Sahel keeping the run rate down. We continued to take wickets with 18 of the 30 overs bowled by u15s who collectively got 5 for 113. A great spell from 3 for 13 from Cherry saw Greenside bowled out for 154 which was probably under par on a lightning quick outfield but challenging wicket.
Our response was led by Hector (31) but a steady stream of wickets held us back. Several batsmen had starts - James (20), Hass (15) and Nirmit (17) but we couldn't quite get across the line with Nicholas (18no) and Cherry (10no) taking us to 143 and an 11 run defeat. A little more patience from some of the younger players would have made the difference but after the chastening defeat earlier in the season it was good to be competitive and push Greenside all the way.
Four more games left. we currently sit in 8th place on 301 points, 58 points clear of the bottom 3 so hoping we can end the season with a couple of more wins.
NTCL 3rd XI Scorecard v Greenside (a)
