On Saturday the 2nd's got back to winning ways with a 4 wicket home victory against Sunderland, however the 1st's lost a low scoring game against Newcastle City by 3 wickets, and the NTCL 3rd's were well beaten (by 89 runs) at Humshaugh. There was better news on Sunday with the NEPL 3rd's recording an excellent 31 run victory at Gateshead Fell, read on for all the info.
NEPL Division 1 - 1st XI v Newcastle City (a) - Lost by 3 wickets - Match Report by Phil Haves
On our first ever NEPL visit to Broadway West to meet Newcastle City the result turned out to be a disappointing one as the result didn’t go our way.
Belly won the toss and decided to have a bat with the hope we could set a score which would prove challenging to the hosts batting second. Unfortunately things did not pan out as we hoped as Belly (5) fell early quickly followed by Rory who hit 2 boundaries before losing his wicket for 11 and when Rohaan was run out for 3 we had slipped to 32/3. Pete(18) and TK (19)tried to rebuild the innings but both fell with the score on 61.
Two further wickets fell with the score on 81 as Abu was dismissed for 5 and Max went first ball. Callum made 6, Winnie 1 and Fletch was last out for 28 as we were dismissed for 110.
An early wicket for Callum and 3 wickets in 4 overs for Winnie reduced City to 46/4 in the chase however our momentum was stopped in its tracks when an off the field incident forced the umpires to stop the game for a lengthy period. TK got out 5th wicket just after the restart however a 30 run partnership took the hosts to 89 when Lee took 2 wickets in 2 balls raising hopes of a victory. Unfortunately we were unable to make any further inroads as the home skipper saw his side home by 3 wickets with a composed 24 not out.
With such a tight League table wins in the last 7 games could mean the difference between promotion and a further season in the second tier.
Willington are the latest visitors to NBMS Denton Bank this coming Saturday.
1st XI NEPL Scorecard v Newcastle City (a)
NEPL Division 2 - 2nd XI v Sunderland (h) - Won by 4 wickets - Match Report by Prahalad Nadella
Having won the toss, Captain PJ stuck Sunderland into bat on a cloudy morning at Denton Bank and handed the new cherry to Prahalad and Warren. Prahalad, bowling for the first time on a Saturday since May 3rd (when he broke his finger by dropping a catch and being generally soft), claimed his first scalp of the day with just his third ball by cleaning up the opening batsman. A fine opening spell full of swing and military medium pace bowling from Prahalad left Sunderland 55-5, with Prahalad claiming all 5 wickets and his first ever 5-wicket haul.
Sunderland never really recovered from this position and other than a couple of extravagant blows to the boundary from their middle order, never looked like they would grind out the overs or bat for a long time. The spinners got to work, and Captain PJ hoovered up the tail with a quick fire 4 wickets, and Sunderland were bowled out for 96 having batted for only 31 overs.
In response, The Hill were setback with the loss of an early wicket for just 7 runs. However, Max and Warren led the team to 60-1 with some wonderful stroke play and aggressive running between the wickets. However, Max then decided things were too easy for him and chose to play a reverse sweep, only to get out caught behind. A quick flurry of two further wickets of Jake and Andy left the Hill at 64-4 and gave Sunderland a renewed hope in sneaking a result. Warren took matters into his own hands and alongside Michael, guided the team close to the target. Warren completed his 50 and then was trapped in front for LBW, which meant the Hill were 88-5 needing only 9 more runs. One more wicket was to fall at 94, however this was too little to late for Sunderland as Michael and Ayush ensured the Hill came out on top in yet another exciting game of 2nd team cricket at the Hill.
2nd XI NEPL Scorecard v Sunderland (h)
NTCL Division 5 West - 3rd XI v Humshaugh (h) - Lost by 89 runs - Captains Report by Chris Pounder
Saturday would see the NTCL 3’s suffer a heavy defeat at the hands of Humsaugh.
Winning the toss and electing to field Gabriel Mellor would make a breakthrough in his 5th over bowling skipper Arnup for 5 with the score on 26.
From then on it would be a toil in the field with R Forster and W Moss taking the score onto 69, Freddie taking a catch off the bowling of Taylor to remove Forster for 40. J Garret and Moss would take the score onto 129 before 3’s would get another, Garret bowled by Jamie for 26. W Forster would be next to go without scoring to Jamie caught and bowled. J Parker would join Moss in the middle before Jamie got a another bowling Parker for 14. Moss would depart run out by Seb for 94 before the remaining wickets of Sim (0), R Parker (11) Batey (12) and Sewell (0) would see Humsaugh finish 209 all out.
In reply the Hill were well short of chasing down the total losing wickets on a regular basis. The only batter troubling the score card Gabe with 26. Taylor and Seb both scoring 17 were the only other contributions in double figures.
NTCL 3rd XI scorecard v Humshaugh (h)
NEPL Sunday Division 1 - 3rd XI v Gateshead Fell (a) - Won by 31 runs - Captains Report by Matty Hynd
The NEPL 3rds lost the toss and were put into bat on a used wicket at the fell.
We started badly and were 23/3 after 10 overs losing Matt Hynd, Ayush and Armstrong cheaply. Maclaulan was next out for 15 and ar drinks we were 60 for 4 on a wicket offering a lot of help. Liam Hynd battled hard but was next out for a hard fought 20. Dawson and James Walder counter attacked (the latter on 1 leg after injuring his calf) . They put on 92 quickly before Dawson was out for 60. James was out quickly after for 41 as we finished with what looked like a strong 173 for 9. 12 year old Oliver Smalley managed to pick up a 1 not out on debut.
Our bowlers started superbly extracting bounce and movement from the helpful pitch and reduced the fell to 45 for 6. The Fell rallied but we kept on taking wickets and fielding well. Dawson caught the danger man Matthews for 59 off the returning Mellor and the fell finished 142 all out.
The bowlers were all fantastic Mellor 3-25, Nicholas Walder 3-13, Maclaulan 2-22 and Ayush 1-13 all picking up wickets. A special mention to Thomas Walder who sub fielded for his dad abd did brilliant and ran about 5 miles in the process and 12 year old Oliver Smalley who made his senior debut and never looked out of place.
We've got 2 tough fixtures left and a chance ti try and finish top half.
NEPL 3rd XI scorecard v Gateshead Fell (a)
