It was a mixed weekend of results for the Hill, the 1st XI continued their unbeaten start to the season with an excellent victory over Tynedale, however the 2nd XI lost the reverse victory. Unfortunately due to poor availability the NTCL 3rd XI had to concede their game against Greenside. On Sunday the NEPL 3rd XI opened their campaign with victory over Newcastle. Also on Sunday a weakend 1st XI went out of the National Knockout at Norton. Read on for match reports from the 1st and 2nd XI Saturday fixtures.
NEPL Division 1 - 1st XI v Tynedale (h)- Won by 9 wickets - Match Report by Phil Haves
Our first home game of the season saw us entertain our long standing rivals from Hexham & having won the toss again Belly asked the visitors to have a bat. Max & Callum similar to last Saturday once again started with a frugal opening spell & picked up early wickets with Max removing both Tynedale’s overseas Thomas Starr & former Hill all rounder Tom Cant as the Hexham outfit slumped to 14/2 in the 7th over. Rainford joined opener Foreman & the pair combined to add 97 before Lee took a sharp return catch to remove Foreman for a well made 63. Having reached 64 Rainford was caught at backward point by Max off Brij, the first of 4 wickets to fall for 24 as Brij, Lee & Warren added to their wicket column. Callum dismissed Byerley & Scott and despite some lusty blows by Crichton we restricted the visitors to 224 all out in the last over. Max 2/26, Callum 2/32, Brij 2/58, Warren 2/53 & Lee 2/36 were the wicket takers.
In reply we started well with an opening partnership of 40 before Rory was bowled by Cant for 8. This was however to be the last success for the visitors as Adam joined Pete & they put together a match winning unbeaten partnership of 184 as Pete completed a chanceless century finishing on 109 not out(13x4 & 1x6) off 121 balls & Adam unbeaten on 84 (9x4) off 106 balls.
The 9 wicket victory maintained our 100% start to the season & next Saturday we visit Lanchester when we hope to continue our good form & be strengthened by the arrival of Sri Lankan Overseas Professional Tharindu Kaushal.
1st XI NEPL Scorecard v Tynedale (h)
NEPL Division 2 - 2nd XI v Chester le Street (h) - Lost by 5 wickets - Pete Jones Captains Report
Another toss won and another chance to bat first in good batting conditions. We lot our 1st wicket in the 1st over and wobbled on after that with only Jyam from our top 4 posting a decent score. His 44 after getting promoted to 3 shows good promise. Things were looking a bit precarious when we lost our 5th wicket in the 22nd over with 96 on the board. Then came the Andy Dawson show. The sweet natured and silver tongued second team stalwart powered his way to 92 from 78 balls and was only dismissed with a couple of overs to go. The rest of the tail provided decent support and we finished on 237-8.
Tynedale is a small ground and last week 270 hadn't been enough so we knew the job was far from done. The home side stayed slightly ahead of the rate for the majority of the innings, helped by some loose bowling. Michael Maclachlan returned the best figures and picked up the key wicket of the set batsman as the game got tight towards the end. The final over saw Tynedale needing 4 to win with two new batman at the crease. When Jyam took a wicket with the 3rd ball, Tynedale needed 3 to win from 3 deliveries. They scampered a two to level the scores then a catch was dropped on the penultimate ball to allow the winning run.
Another silver medal in another tight game. Should we produce a bowling performance to match our batting we will be well placed to get our first win at Ashington on Saturday.
2nd XI NEPL Scorecard v Tynedale (a)
Sunday Fixtures
1st XI National Knockout Scorecard v Norton (a) - lost by 9 wickets
3rd XI NEPL Sunday Scorecard v Newcastle (h) - won by 14 runs
