It was a case of so near so far for the 1s at Whitburn on Saturday, as a determined last wicket stand from Kieran Waterson and ex hill player Mathew Muchall, denied the Hill a well deserved victory. The failure to take the final wicket costing us an agonising 15 points, however the winning draw was the latest in a series of positive results, which has moved the team to mid table safety.
Batting first we posted 226 for 9 off 52 overs, top scorer was Will Smith with an excellent 69no, next best was Luke Doneathy with 45 and Rory Hanley with 34. Whitburn in reply, finished on 172 for 9 from their 58 overs, wth the last pair surviving the last few agonising overs. Wickets were shared with Max taking 3 for 26 and Callum 3 for 30, Luke Doneathy with 2 and Will Smith 1, the other wicket takers.
The 2s remain second in the league behind South North after a comfortable win in the reverse fixture at the Hill. We batted first and scored 218 for 9 dec, Will Archbold top scorer with 69no, openers Ben Mussett (49) and Joe Moore (36) the other top contributors. We then skittled Whitburn out for 99, with the spin twins of Pete Jones (4 for 20) and Joe Torre (3 for 16) taking the bulk of the wickets, Joe Kilpatrick with 2 and Will Archbold with 1 the other wicket takers.
The 3rd's suffered a 59 run loss at the Mill to Haltwhistle. Darsh took 4 wickets in Halty's score of 174 for 9, Jeff Mason with 2 and Aqeel Tassawar with 1 the other wicket takers, however we limped to 115ao in reply.
3rd XI scorecard v Haltwhistle
There was no Sunday NEPL fixture this week.
