The 1st XI suffered their third defeat in four league games at the hands of Burnopfield, and the 2nd XI suffered their second defeat in the three league games, in a disappointing weekend, however there was some good news as the West Tyne 3rd XI defeated Hexham Leazes. Sunday proved a better day for the 2nd XI as they ran out convincing winners over Burnmoor in the Banks Bowl Quarter Final.
1st XI v Burnopfield - Phil Haves match report
The fixture list saw us visit Burnopfield on Saturday hoping to put last weeks disappointing performance behind us. Normal service was resumed when Pete lost the toss & the hosts asked us to have a bat. Things started pretty well as Haydon & Angus looked in little trouble against the home opening attack reaching 45 without loss. At this point & with the introduction of the spinners the wicket revealed its true colours displaying extravagant spin & varying bounce which continued throughout the game. Wickets tumbled on a regular basis as the home spinners took full advantage of the extreme bowler friendly conditions & we were subsequently dismissed for 110. Haydon top scored with 22 whilst off spinner McGurk finished with 5-22 & left arm spinner Moen 3-19.
It is always a difficult task trying to defend such a low total even with conditions favouring the bowler so much & Saturday proved the case. Oswell & Barker added 35 for the first wicket denying us early wickets we needed. Max then accounted for both openers & the dangerous Cole Pearce whilst Joe Torre dismissed Dinning & the home skipper Matty Oswell reducing the hosts to 84/6. At this point we looked to be in with more than a 50/50 chance of winning however a dogged partnership of 27 saw Burnopfield home without further loss.
Another disappointing result which can be partly attributed to what appeared to be below standard wicket rather than the whole performance.
Old foes Ashington visit Denton Bank on Saturday for their first visit after their promotion last season.
1st NEPL scorecard v Burnopfield
2nd XI v Gateshead Fell - match report
Despite wining the toss and batting on what looked an excellent deck, we only posted a disappointing 189 all out in 46 overs at home to Gateshead Fell. Our total was largely down to runs from the Old Joes of the team (86 from Moore and a late order 37 from Kilpatrick). Only 2 others posted double figures, Freddie McGregor with 18 and Warren Poxon (fresh off a century on his County U15 debut) with 10.
Despite early wickets, reducing the Fell to 1 for 2 then 13 for 3 and 27 for 4, an excellent 77no from Javed Malik in the middle order saw the visitors home by 4 wickets in the 50th over. There was 2 wickets each for spin twins Safiun Ahsan Diip and Pete Jones.
On Sunday we avenged our opening day league defeat to Burnmoor with a huge 186 run victory in the Banks Bowl Quarter Final. We posted 216 for 6, thanks to 65 from Freddie McGregor, 44 from Joe Fletcher, 34no from Abu Siddique and 33no from cup skipper Andy Dawson. Burnmoor were skittled for 80, 4 wickets each for Abu and Pete Jones, and 1 each for Safiun and Aaron Armstrong.
Matty Hynd's Captains Review
The second team returned to the hill and won the toss and elected to bat. Skipper Hynd was first to go. But Moore and McGregor started to build a partnership with McGregor starting to look more himself. We reached 74 before McGregor was dismissed for 18 and then we suffered a middle order collapse. Fletcher and Dawson first ball quickly followed by Siddique and Ahmad left us 88 for 6! Moore was batting well but running out of parters as he passed 50. Poxon showed a glimpse of his talent with a quick 10 and when Safi was out quickly we were struggling at 126/8. However Moore and Kilpatrick batted well and added 50 for the 9th wicket when Moore was eventually out for 86. Jones joined Kilpatrick to try and push us towards a declaration at 200 but Kilpatrick was bowled for 37. We were 189 all out in only 46.2 overs, leaving the fell 58 overs.
We started well with 4 quick wickets as we had the Fell 27/4, however the lack of pressure to score quickly started to tell as the fell sat in and waited for scoring opportunity. A partnership of 97, then 39 tool the fell to 143/6 with one batsmen set. The field had to more attacking as they still had overs in hand and the ball just wouldn't go to hand. The fell eventually winning by 4 wickets with 8 overs left. Kilpatrick 1-46, Safi 2-40 and Jones 2-27 picking up the wickets. The team left to think about not using up overs and finishing at least 30 short of where we should have been. Next week brings a tough challenge of Ashington away.
2nd XI NEPL scorecard v Gateshead Fell
2nd XI Banks Bowl (QF) scorecard v Burnmoor
3rd XI v Hexham Leazes - Chris Pounders captains report
The West Tyne 3’s returned to winning ways on Saturday beating Hexham Leazes 2’s by 7 wickets. After losing the toss and being asked to field the hosts posted 191/8 from their 40 overs Fitton hitting 71 not out with contributions from Barrick 31 and Richardson 22 being the main contributors. Pick of the bowlers was Ed Moody on WTL debut getting 3/30. Ben Robinson and Aaron Armstrong continued to perform well with the ball with 2/16 and 2/35 respectively.
In reply The Hill got off to a flyer with Rory hitting 47 from 42 before being caught behind but this didn’t stop the runs flowing as Shiva Prasad joined James Moody in the middle to take the score from 67/1 to 101/2 (Shiva 20). Then a 73 run partnership between James and the seldom seen Dave Haxon took the 3’s within touching distance of the win before an impressive James Moody was caught for 45. Haxon would go on to see out the innings (67 not out) with Abhi Roy (7 not out) to complete the win in the 33rd over.
West Tyne 3rd XI scorecard v Hexham Leazes
