It's been a long time coming but the 1st's recorded their second league win of the season when they did the double over fellow strugglers Shotley Bridge at the Spa Ground. The 2nd and 3rd games were abandoned in the second innings, and the young Sunday NEPL 3rd's continued their excellent season with a 9 wicket win over Burnopfield, with in form player Ayush Chakraborty taking a hat trick in his 5 for 11.
NEPL Premier Division - 1st XI v Shotley Bridge (a) - Won by 7 wickets - Match report by Phil Haves
Saturday saw a basement battle at the Spa ground as we travelled to meet Shotley Bridge.
Belly won the toss and asked the hosts to bat first. Harpo made the early breakthrough dismissing former Hill player Haydon for 10 caught by Morgan. Inspite of opener Burdon and the home sides Aussie Camarda adding 72 for the second wicket we bowled with discipline and the spinners kept a tight lid on things with the scoring rate as it rarely got above 3 for the majority of the innings. Lee and Max steadily chipped away at the home batting line up and aided by a couple of run outs we restricted Shotley to 231 having batted a full 58 overs.
Dave and Rory, not for the first time this season, got us off to a great start adding 63 for the first wicket before Rory was dismissed for 20. Skipper Belly joined Dave and they added a further 54 when Dave was caught behind for a brisk 79 off 49 balls (9x4 & 3x6). Batting at number 4 Morgan continued our aggressive approach with 56 off 42 balls (9x4 & 1x6) until he was dismissed with the total on 200, a partnership of 83 with the skipper. Belly, having batted with supreme confidence saw us home with Sam (7no) finishing 69 not out (8x4 & 1x6) as we knocked off the total in 37 overs
A confidence boosting and much needed win ensured we collected 25 points and move off the bottom of the table with the visit of 3rd bottom Seaham Harbour to come on Saturday.
NEPL 1st XI Scorecard v Shotley Bridge (a)
NEPL Division 2 - 2nd XI v Tynemouth (h) - Winning Draw (Match Abandoned)
The 2nd XI were in a strong position with Tynemouth 5 down and needing another 121 runs to win when the heavens opened in the tea break and the game was abandoned a couple of hours later with the pitch unplayable with puddles in the wicket ends on the square.
The Hill batted first with youngster Adam Heather (75 runs) opening with in form Ayush (40 runs) getting the Hill off to a strong start, then Jayam Patel (65 not out) batting at #4 kept the momentum going as we posted 235 for 7 in 54 overs.
In reply ex Hill man Marcus Turner and Patrick Hallam took a liking to the Hill seamers, and Tynemouth were going well at 95 for 1 , however not for the first time this season the change to spin proved pivotal. Pete Jones took 3 for 6 off 5 overs, leaving Tynemouth 115 for 5 off 30 overs at Tea. However steady drizzle started at the interval and turned heavier after about 30 minutes, and we were unable to get back on to the pitch.
We took 16 points from the game, and remain in 4th place. Next up is a tricky fixture at Whitburn.
NEPL 2nd XI Scorecard v Tynemouth (a)
NTCL Division 5 South - 3rd XI v Annfield Plain (h) - Match Abandoned - Captain's Match Report by James Walder
Match report for the abandoned game on Saturday. Happy to share a photo of the flooded pitch if you want!
The 3rds hosted top of the table Annfield Plain and without sounding like a broken record it was a very young team - two senior players, 1 x u19, 1 x u16, 3 x u15, 3 x u14 and 1 x u13 player.
A rare toss win saw us choose to bat with Seb (21) and Sukheer (15) scoring at 5 an over as we reach 47 for 3 after 10 overs. Runs kept flowing but there was also a steady stream of wickets with James, Hassan and Jamie all scoring 28 and some strong hitting from Sahel (18) saw us post 168 to get maximum batting points.
We were only 5 overs into the Annfield Plain game when we came off for hail and as the covers were being put on there was a torrential downpour which flooded the whole square leading to the game being abandoned. We ended up with 13 points and showed we could compete with the league leaders.
NTCL 3rd XI Scorecard v Annfield Plain (a)
NEPL Sunday Division 1 - 3rd XI v Burnopfield (h) - Won by 9 wickets - Match Report by Matty Hynd
The NEPL 3rd XI looked to build on the impressive quarter final win from Friday with a home match against Burnopfield. Ayush kept his 100% record up and lost the toss again and 10 man Burnopfield elected to bat against our young team, with 10, under.18s.
Burnopfield started well and the impressive McCarthy attacked the opening bowlers. They reached 61 before Nick Mason ran out opener Davison for 21. Ayush joined the attack and wickets started to tumble as Ayush claimed a hat trick and 5/11 in his 6 overs. Mccarthy was watching on from the other end as Burnopfield slumped to 91/6 and he was 62 not out. Mccarthy eventually fell to Armstrong in his first over well caught by Daniel Hynd for 63. Another run out and Aaron again meant that Burnopfield were 96 all out in 20 overs.
Liam and Daniel Hynd opened up and were positive in their approach, as we reached the target 1 down in 14.5 overs. Liam 43 from 43 and Daniel 34 not out from 45 getting the runs.
Ayush again captained the team well , however the fielding was a little under par and will need to be better in the final 3 matches where we play.2 of the top 3 who would certainly punish the dropped catches from Sunday.
NEPL 3rd XI Scorecard v Burnopfield (h)
