It was a busy weekend for the Hill senior teams with 6 games in total (3 for the 1st's, 1 for the 2nd's and 2 for the 3rd's), and it was a mixed set of results.
1st XI Review
After a terrfic start to their league season, the 1st's good league run came to a crashing end, with a heavy defeat against Felling, to make matters worse they also lost on the Friday evening againstg Ashington in the first of the their three NEPL T20 Group A games, and then to Shotley Bridge in the NEPL Banks Salver on the Sunday.
Phil Haves match report - A tough task lay before Pete & the team as they visited Felling on Saturday & things started well after Pete had won the toss for a second week running. Having decided to bowl first & after Vasi took an early wicket Norris & Whaits took the score to 69 before the introduction of Max & Will saw 3 quick wickets fall including the prize wicket of Travis Norris for 58. In the face of some tight Hill bowling 93/4 soon became 126/7 & it looked like Pete’s decision to bowl was paying off. Metcalfe (38), Fox (41) & Leonard (23no) had other ideas & sensible batting along with selective hitting ensure the recovery was complete as the innings finished on 250/9, a challenging target. Max 3/42, Vasi 2/55, Will 2/25 & 1 each for Luke & Dan were the wicket takers.
After 3 consecutive blistering opening partnerships unfortunately the Felling opening attack of the impressive Seb Allison & Fox quickly reduced us to 8/2 & a further clutch of wickets including another 2 for Allison saw us slip to 46/6. To compound matters even more 2 run outs didn’t help & it soon became 72/8. Only some late hitting from Vasi who scored his maiden League half century finishing 58 not out enabled us to limp to 133 all out
This result brought us back down to earth & standards certainly slipped with both bat & ball & hopefully we can get back to winning ways next Saturday when Newcastle visit Denton Bank in the first of the win/lose/draw games
1st XI v Felling NEPL League scorecard
1st XI v Ashington NEPL T20 match scorecard
1st XI v Shotley Bridge Banks Salver scorecard
2nd XI Review - Matty Hynd's captains report
The 2nd team returned to the Hill after back to back away games, and showed 1 change to the team with Max Tidmarch unavailable, and Pete Jones returning. Felling won the toss and elected to bowl.
Joe Moore returned to form with his first 50 of the season before falling soon after, well caught on the line by Hill. Safi then ran himself out as 71/0, quickly became 73/2. Hynd and Nadella then added just shott of 50 before Hynd was out for 40, and the hill seemed well set at 121/3, a mini collapse followed as the Hill stumbled to 157/8. However like last week the depth in batting was evident as Jones and Kilpatrick and then Kilpatrick and Siddique added 52 for the final 2 wickets. With Kilpatrick 14 not out and Siddique 27 not out taking the Hill to a competitive looking 209/9.
Felling were soon on the backfoot at 43/4, however Stamper and Hill dug in and 56 for the 5th wicket before Stamper was out foxed by Nadella being bowkwd with a slower ball for a well made 54. Hill was then trapped LBW by the inform Nadella and Felling were quickly all out for 123 in 42.5 overs. The Bowlers again all chipping in Kilpatrick 1-23, Safi 1-14, Siddique 1-21, Jones 2-29 and Nadella 4-31.
Another good victory and this marked the 3rd win in a row in the coloured kit, leaving us in 5th position in the league. Next week is the return to red ball cricket, away to Newcastle.
2nd XI v Felling NEPL scorecard
West Tyne 3rd XI - Chirs Pounders captains report
Saturday saw the 3’s visit Wylam in the West Tyne League. After winning the toss captain Davey inserted the oppsition who made 145 in 38.5 over with opener Mark Wilson scoring 30 after being dropped early. Matthew Lamb 21 was the other batter the other batter of note.
The pick of the bowlers were Michael MacLachlan who returned figure of 3/26, Aaron Armstrong 2/29 and Davey Ladd 2/22. In reply the Hill lost an early wicket before losing Shiva Parasad lbw for 14 and a questionable lbw for Rash when going well on 16.
The Hill started to build the innings with Davey and Joe Fletch scoring 29 and 23 before Fletch was caught behind and Davey followed not long after. The Hill would then lose a flurry of wickets with only Michael MacLaughlan 7 and Aaron Armstrong 9 not out troubling the scorer. We went on to lose by 43 runs taking 7 points from the game.
3rd XI v Wylam West Tyne scorecard
NEPL 3rd XI review
The NEPL 3rd's recorded an excellent 7 wicket victory on Sunday against Philadelphia despite losing some of their younger players to the 1st's for their game against Shotley Bridge,
Philadelphia won the toss and elected to bat and posted a competitive 177 for 9 in their 40 overs, with the Hill reaching their target for the loss of only 3 wickets in the 37th over.
3rd XI v Philadelphia NEPL Scorecard
