All three leagues team went down to defeats on Saturday and the NEPL 3s game was abandoned on Sunday with the Hill in a strong position thanks to an unbeaten century partnership from openers Warren Poxon and Freddie McGregor. Read on for the match reviews...
1st XI v Ashington - Phil Haves Match Report
Ashington arrived at Denton Bank on Saturday for their first League visit since the demise of the Northumberland County League as we looked to halt the recent run of poor results. Asked to bat first it was sadly the same story as in recent weeks as we slumped to 40/4 with Angus, Haydon, Luke & Kyle back in the dressing room. Belly & Pete had to rebuild the innings & set about the task in a confident manner. Unfortunately the lunch break came at the wrong time for us & halted the momentum. The partnership had reached 63 just after lunch before Pete departed for a well made 27. This brought Will to the crease & he set about increasing the run rate adding a further 66 with Belly before the latter fell for a gritty 54. Vasi joined Will & they took the score to 218 without further loss before the innings closed. Vasi made a run a ball 22 whilst the highlight of the innings was Will’s unbeaten 70 off 69 balls.
218 was probably below par but certainly gave us something to bowl at after the poor start to the innings.
In reply Vasi took the early wicket of the dangerous Jessop however 43 from McCarthy, 59 from OBrien & an unbeaten 43 from the visitors overseas Louis saw the Ashington home by 3 wickets. Vasi finished with 3-57 from his 15 overs whilst Safi picked up 2 wickets in an encouraging debut.
The current run of 3 consecutive defeats is a concern & another home game against Tynemouth on Saturday provides an opportunity to arrest the slide.
2nd XI v Ashington - Matty Hynd's Captains Match Report
The 2s travelled to Ashington with a very young bowling attack and also miss Joe Moore to illness.
After we lost the toss Ashington elected to bat on another sunny day. U15 Poxon and u16 Siddique opened the bowling and Ashington were positive from the start but the young opening Bowlers stuck to their task and Poxon was rewarded when he took the first wicket and Ashington were 54/1 from 10. Torre. Jones and under 14 Armstrong came on and started to bring the rate down as momentum swung towards the hill as Ashington fell to 119/5. Ashington started to rebuild and wickets were still falling and at 158/7 the game was again in the balance. However Ashington showed their depth in batting and passed 200, declaring on 206/8 in 53.5. All bowlers picking up wickets with Siddique 2/46, Poxon 1/37, Torre 1/36, Jones 3/18 and 14 year old Armstrong picking up 2/63 from his 12 which didn't do him justice as he impressed both teams.
We again found ourselves in trouble at 8/2, losing Heather and McGregor. Ahmad showed some promise before missing a low full toss and we slumped to 45/4. Siddique and a 1 legged Dawson counter attacked before Dawson was smartly caught for 23. Siddique looked assured before he ran past one from Rutherford and was stumped for 23. Hynd, Torre and Jones all had small partnerships which took us over 125 but wickets were an issue and when Armstrong was last man out , we were all out for 131, with Hynd 24 not out. Things don't get easier as we travel to title chasing Tynemouth on Saturday.
West Tyne 3rd XI v Riding Mill - Chris Pounder's match report
After last weeks victory açai at Hexham Leazes is was back down to earth on Saturday with the west Tyne 3’s suffering a 99 run defeat at the hands of Riding Mill.
After losing the toss The Hill were asked to bowl first and Riding Mill set 3’s a target of 212 to win finishing 211/4 from their 40 over. Pick of the bowlers was Ayush with 2/32 from his 8.
We never really got going in reply and finished well short on 122/8 with Ayush top scoring with 20 followed by Abhi 18.
A disappointing weekend all round.
West Tyne 3rd XI scorecard v Riding Mill
NEPL 3rd XI v Gateshead Fell - Match Report
It was a frustrating Sunday for the NEPL 3s as the rain halted an excellent century opening partnership of 108 by Hill juniors Freddie McGregor and Warren Poxon. The Hill were chasing 197 for victory when the rain hit in the 20th over of a 32 over match. The Fell had earlier posted 197 for 3, with 1 wicket each for Under 15 bowlers Aaron Armstrong, Ed Moody and Ben Robinson.
NEPL 3rd XI scorecard v Gateshead Fell
