It was an eventful Saturday with only the 1st's winning on the day, however both the 2nd's and 3rd's will count themselves unlucky as they went down fighting on tight finishes. Read on for the info...
NEPL Division 1 - 1st XI v Whitburn (h) - Won by 33 runs - Match Report by Phil Haves
Another enthralling day’s cricket ensued at NBMS Denton Bank as we hosted Whitburn in another vital game against one of our big rivals in our quest for promotion back to the Premier Division at the first attempt & ultimately saw us gain a vital victory.
The visitors won the toss & asked us to bat first & former Hill seamer removed Belly with a ‘jaffa’ for 4 then Adam for 18. When Rohaan (5) was dismissed by Connolly Smith having struggled for 30 balls we had been reduced to 49/3. Pete & TK added 39 when Pete was adjudged LBW for 22 with the score on 98. Scottish international spinner Greaves then gained a second LBW trapping Mark for 6 & then bowled Abu second ball as we slipped to 114/6. Max joined the Pro in what turned out to be a decisive partnership of 41 as TK reached a 6th League half century of the season before being dismissed for 51. Max made a valuable 32 & was last man out having guided us to 177.
Having set a competitive total on a used wicket we got off to the perfect start with Max bowling the dangerous Karl Turner & when Anth dismissed Sneller & had Greaves caught down the leg side second ball the visitors were on the rack at 10/3. This soon became 30/4 as Lee gained an LBW verdict. After a 34 run partnership Lee got a second LBW trapping May for a well made 39. Wickets then fell at regular intervals with only Zac Smith with 27 not out offering any meaningful resistance as Max with 3, Anth 4, Lee 2 & Jonesey 1 ensured we dismissed Whitburn for 144 & a vital 24 point win.
Next Saturday sees us visit leaders Gateshead Fell in another huge fixture.
1st XI NEPL scorecard v Whitburn
NEPL Division 2 -2nd v Whitburn (a) - Lost by 16 runs - Match Report by
Match report to follow.
2nd XI NEPL Scorecard v Whitburn (a)
NTCL Division 5 West v Stamfordham (a) - Lost by 6 wiickets - Match Report by James Walder
The 3rd XI took a young team to Stamfordham where we were asked to bat first. After a solid start from Rash and Thomas Hewison a couple of run outs put pressure on the inexperienced batting line up.
The rebuilding job was built around a knock of 120 not out from James Walder - hitting a 6 to reach his 100 and his first for the Hill (Editor - very surprising!) - with good partnerships with James Rowe, Freddie Mexter and Jamie Fletcher- Woods. We felt a score of 220 was very competitive on a challenging wicket.
There good opening spells from Nicholas Walder and Seb Fletcher-Woods (2 wickets) where we kept the run rate down. Unfortunately, as the team as found a few times this year, some powerful and at times unorthodox hitting kept Stamfordham in the game. A third wicket partnership with one batsmen reaching 100 and another 50 (helped by some dropped catches) took Stamfordham to the brink of victory. However our young bowling attack (Hector Walder (on debut) and Adam Hassan - both u13 bowled 10 overs and three u14 players bowled a total of 25 overs) kept going really well. Two wickets for James Rowe took the game to the 40th over with Stamfordham winning with four balls to spare.
Although it was disappointing to lose, it was positive to see the performance of so many junior players (including u11 Thomas Walder fielding for 20 overs in place of an injured player) so hoping to take that forward into the final two games of the season.
3rd XI NTCL Scorecard v Stamfordham
