After the highs of last weekends excellent victories for both 1s and 2s against Tynemouth, this weekend we once again had to experience the lows of defeat this time against Tynedale and Whitburn respectively. To add insult to injury the West Tyne 3s had to conceded their game due to large scale unavailability.
NEPL Premier League - 1st XI v Tynedale (h) - Lost by 6 wickets - Match Report by Phil Haves
Saturday saw a huge relegation battle as Tynedale visited NBMS Denton Bank with a return to the win/lose series of games commencing.
The visitors won the toss & asked us to bat first. With Yash disappointingly having returned to India for some form of cricket competition in Rajasthan Adam opened with Rory however both were dismissed early. The 8th over by Fletcher saw a long hop hit for 4, 6 wides bowled but unfortunately for the Hill also a wicket as Haydon hit another long hop straight to the only man out in the leg side at deep square as we slumped to 28/3 which soon after became 39/4 as Belly was dismissed for 5. Dan who was promoted to bat at 3 was joined by Prowler & they added 30 before the latter was out for 7 - 69/5. Max failed to continue his good recent form with the bat caught at deepish mid on for 1 & at 78/6 we were in big trouble.
Pete joined Dan as the pair attempted to repair the innings & had added 44 before Dan who had batted sensibly & reached his maiden Premier League half century was dismissed with the score on 122. Will & Pete added a further 29 before the former have played a typical Will innings was dismissed for 16. Luke (14) helped Pete add a further 39 & Pete was the last to be dismissed for 46 caught at deep square leg as he tried to make the most of the last over. A final total of 194 was a great effort given the terrible start to the innings & gave us what we thought was a chance of claiming the points.
The visitors had other ideas however & made steady if at times streaky progress & the opening partnership had reached 50 before Luke ‘castled’ the Pro, Mpofu, for a less than convincing 28. A second cricket partnership of 77 put the visitors firmly in the driving seat & although we then took wickets at regular intervals Tynedale eased to victory by 6 wickets with 2 overs to spare. Max,Luke, Rory & Dan were the wicket takers.
The result was a major blow yo our survival chances which reach just about last chance saloon when we visit Ashbrooke to face Sunderland on Saturday.
1st XI NEPL Scorecard v Tynedale (h)
NEPL DIvision 2 - 2nd XI v Whitburn (a) - Lost by 50 runs - Captains Report by Pete Jones
The Hill won the toss and took the opportunity to bowl on a pitch that looked like it would be pretty challenging to bat on. We put in a good all round bowling performance, so despite some ropey fielding we felt happy at the half way stage when Whitburn finished on 161-9.
It was never going to be an easy chase but we had batting talent deep into our order and the mood was positive. What followed was a procession of bemused batsmen walking off after playing perfectly reasonable looking defensive shots and getting their stumps splattered. Only one of our top 6 made it into double figures and things didn't get much better from there. The only saving grace was the 10th wicket partnership that almost doubled our total. In the end we were bowled out for 113 in the 34th over. Let's hope that is the end of the downs in what has been a very up and down season.
2nd XI NEPL Scorecard v Whitburn (a)
