It was a frustrating weekend for Phil Bell's 1st XI as they threw away an excellent opportunity to get a rare win at Burnmoor, however the 2nd XI got back to winning ways in fine style against Tynedale, but NTCL 3rd XI lost at Matfen, on Sunday the NEPL 3rd XI recorded an excellent win over Philadelphia. Read on for all the info.
NEPL Premier Division - 1st XI v Burnmoor (a) - Lost by 21 runs - Match Report by Phil Haves
Current champions were our latest hurdle as we travelled to Burnmoor on Saturday.
Having won the toss the home side elected to bat on a warm Saturday morning. We made the perfect start to the innings with the ball as Ben removed both Greenwell and Brown with only a single on the board. This however brought home skipper Pringle to the crease and he made batting look ridiculously easy helped along the way by some poor catching as he peppered the boundary with 7x4s & 3x6s in a 42 ball 61 before Max had him caught by Dave with the score on 75.
Lee and Max bowling in tandem then restricted the scoring opportunities whilst taking regular wickets and when Harpo returned to pick up a couple of quick wickets the home side declared with their scored on 156/9. Max with another 4 wickets, Ben & Harpo with 2 each & Lee(1) were our wicket takers.
Set what appeared to be an attainable target Dave and Rory set about the task in their usual aggressive manner taking the total to 46 before Dave was disappointingly caught behind for 20. Sadly we lost a further 4 wickets for the addition of only 19 runs - 67/5. Ben joined Belly and steadily moved the total towards the target until Ben was dismissed for 14 with the score on 93. Pringle then dismissed Max for 2 and Abu second ball as we slumped to 109/8. Harpo joined the skipper and once again as they batted untroubled our hopes were raised of a victory taking the total to 133. Harpo misjudged a run and was run out for 12 and Belly was left unbeaten on 43 when Lee was bowled by Tindall.
Ultimately this felt like a big missed opportunity to gain that elusive second win of the season losing by 21 runs. We travel to the Spa ground on Saturday for a basement battle with Shotley Bridge.
NEPL 1st XI Scorecard v Burnmoor (a)
NEPL Division 2 - 2nd XI v Tynedale (h) - Won by 9 wickets
The 2nd XI bounced back to form in emphatic style with a 9 wicket win over Tynedale at Denton Bank. Tynedale won the toss and elected to bat and has a steady start, however the loss of Joe Barber at 31-3 and then ex Hill man Jake Robson at 52 for 4, saw an almighty collapse as the visitors were skittled out for 67 in the 24th over. Player of the season so far Ayush, was once again in on the action taking 4 for 4 in 3 overs. Michael Maclauchlan 2 for 20, and Nazif Habibi and Aaron Armstrong (1 wicket each) were the other wicket takers.
Despite the loss of Harsh Patel for 9, Ayush (34 not out) and Michael (21 not out) chased down the Tynedale total with few alarms in the 9th over.
We remain in 4th place in the league a massive 75 points behind leaders Chester le Street, and 52 points behind 2nd place Newcastle. Tynemouth at home are our next opponents on 11th July.
NEPL 2nd XI Scorecard v Tynedale (h)
NTCL Division 5 South - 3rd XI v Matfen (h) - Lost by 58 runs - Vice 'Captain's Match Report by James Walder
A young 3rd XI hosted Matfen and after winning the toss chose to bowl first.
After an early wicket for Jeff was followed by some steady partnerships taking Matfen to 137-4 with Oli picking up 2 wickets in two balls and it looked like we may limit Matfen to around 200. Some powerful late hitting and a well crafted century got Matfen to 240. 17 of the overs were bowled by u13 players Oli and Nirmit and Newbrough is a small ground and can be hard to defend.
The chase didn't start well with Robbie in his first match of the season and Thomas falling early. A 5th wicket partnership of 86 between James (67) and Nicholas (29) kept us in the game but as the rate rose we struggled to keep in touch. Some late hitting by Jeff (15) and Jamie (9) saw us end on 182 for 9 and a 58 run defeat but 8 bonus points.
We are hosting top of the table Annfield Plain next and need to be more consistent in our batting and bowling.
NTCL 3rd XI Scorecard v Matfen (h)
NEPL Sunday Division 1 - 3rd XI v Philadelphia (a) - Won by 5 wickets - Match Report by Matty Hynd
The NEPL 3s took on Philadelphia away with 10 men and a very young side, fielding only 1 adult. Ayush lost the toss and the hosts elected to bat.
Philadelphia reached 21 before Seb Fletcher-Woods removed the opener. The 5 strong spin attack then took over, taking wickets at regular intervals, Jayam Patel 3-12, Ollie Smalley 2-25, Ayush 2-15 and Nick Mason 1-2, leaving Philadelphia all out 117.
Opening bowler Simm removed the top 3, woth Daniel Hynd getting 20. Nav Safi scored 21 before being bowled but the damage was done at 98/4, before Seb Fletcher-Woods 28 not out and Oliver Smalley 6 not out took us to Victory in 19.5 overs.
The team again superbly captained by Ayush, moved back into 2nd in the league, now face a big weekend with the quarter finals of the cup on Friday and a tricky league match on Sunday at home to Burnopfield.
NEPL 3rd XI Scorecard v Philadelphia (a)
