The penultimate weekend of the season saw the 1s lose by 2 wickets to Castle Eden, in another game they probably should of won, the 2s went down by 75 runs to the same opposition, but the NTCL 3s flew the flag for the Hill with a nail biting 4 run win over former landlords Stamfordham. Read on for the match reports.
NEPL Premier Division - 1st XI v Castle Eden (a) - Lost by 2 wickets - Match Report by Phil Haves
The penultimate game of the season saw us visit Castle Eden and having lost the toss the hosts asked us to bat.
Belly opened with Dave however his stay was brief as he was dismissed without troubling the scorers. Adam was next in and added 32 with Dave before he was adjudged LBW for 9. Ayush and the Pro added 79 for the 3rd wicket with Dave passing 50 before he disappointingly hit a wide long hop to deep point having made a 67 ball 76 (3x6, 9x4). 3 wickets fell in quick succession as we slipped from 159/3 to 164/6 with Sam (12), Woody (1) and Ayush with a well made 46 all dismissed. Ben (30) and Aaryan 38 not out took the total to 205 and with Max adding a brisk 11 and Harpo 7no we finished on 247/8 off our 50 overs.
In reply Harpo with 2 wickets and Max struck early reducing Castle Eden to 10/3. Home Overseas Mandeep Singh once again showed his class and proved to be a thorn in our side for the third time this season as he added 132 with home gloveman Spellman as the home side took control of the game until Spellman was out to a sharp catch by Sam off Woody. With the score on 186 we gained a huge breakthrough when out of the blue Mandeep was dismissed by Dave playing an uncharacteristic poor shot. Dave chipped in with a further 2 wickets after Ben had dismissed the dangerous Bailey for 38. This left the Castle Eden requiring 22 runs off the last 2 overs with 8 wickets down which having profited from a dropped catch in the second last over the home side managed with 1 ball to spare to end the day on a hugely disappointing day for all concerned.
NEPL 1st XI Scorecard v Castle Eden (a)
NEPL Division 2 - 2nd XI v Castle Eden (h) - Lost by 75 runs
It was a disappointing final home league game of the season as they lost heavily to Castle Eden who were well below them in the league table.
The visitors won the toss and chose to bat, and it provided to be a good decision as their openers got them off to a solid start, with opener and skipper Dunn top scoring with 65. The visitors finished on 205 for 9 off their 50 overs, Not for the first time Naz Habibi was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets for 42 off 10 overs., skipper Fletcher and Gabriel Mellor finsihed with 2 wickets each, Jonesy the other wicket taker.
Given the quality of the wickets at NBMS Denton Bank this season, 205 seemed a very gettable score but unfortunately wickets fell quickly and early in our reply, at one stage we were 35 for 6, however a stand of 65 between Seb Fletcher-Woods (41) and Adam Hasan (13) got us over 100, however once Seb's wicket fell it was only a matter of time, and we eventually finished 130 all out.
NEPL 2nd XI Scorecard v Castle Eden (h)
NTCL Division 5 South - 3rd XI v Stamfordham (h) - Won by 4 runs - Vice Captain's Match Report by James Walder
After losing another toss we were asked to bat first against promotion chasing Stamfordham. On a challenging pitch we had reached 50 for 2 (James scoring 36) after 19 overs but the usual collapse saw us at 83 for 7 with only Sahel (22) providing any resistance. We scrambled up to 122 thanks to a partnership of 30 from Nicholas (19) and Oli (13) but it looked a bit under par.
Good opening spells from Nicholas and Naz had Stamfordham at 29 for 3 but we kept taking wickets with Oli, Nirmit and Sahel all bowling well. At 87 for 7 we were right in the game but some careful batting guided Stamfordham to 116 for 7 with 8 overs to go.
The return of Nicholas got us across the line as he picked up 3 wickets for no runs and we bowled Stamfordham out for 118. Nicholas ended with 7.3 overs 4 for 22 ably supported by Naz (3 for 29), Nirmit (1 for 8) and Oli 2 for 20) with the young bowlers really stepping up.
Back to back wins means we could finish as high as 5th and showed we can compete with the teams at the top of the table.
NTCL 3rd XI Scorecard v Stamfordham (h)