It was a terrfic weekend for the Hill 1st XI as they secured a crucial league win against Philadelphia on Saturday to move second in the league; and then on Sunday overcame Stocksfield in a hard fought game to win the Bobby Smithson County Cup. Read below for all the info :
NEPL Division 1 - 1st XI v Philadelphia (h) - Won by 7 wickets- Match Report by Phil Haves
Saturday proved to be a pivotal weekend in our promotion push as we came away with a 7 wicket victory and coupled with defeat for Whitburn we ended Saturday in second place meaning victory in the last game of the season will see us return to the Premier Division at the first time of asking.
Belly won the toss and as usual asked the opposition to have a bat first. Max again made the early breakthrough bowling opener Smiles quickly followed by Callum dismissing the dangerous Scott Steel. Lee then put the visitors on the back foot by dismissing prolific overseas Pro Murasingh and their captain Blunt in quick succession leaving Philadelphia 45/4. 2 further wickets for Max (2), one for Joe Kilpatrick and 1 for TK reduced Phili to 93/8 before a 40 run 9th wicket partnership took the total to 133. The last wicket added a further 17 enabling the visitors reach 150.
In reply the returning Rory made early inroads into the 151 required adding 50 with Belly(15) before being dismissed for 46. After Adam was out for 9 Pete (28no) and TK (31no) saw through to the target without further loss with 15 overs remaining.
A comprehensive win sets us up for this coming Saturday when it is all to play for in the home game against Sacriston.
1st XI NEPL Scorecard v Philadelphia (h)
NEPL Division 2 -2nd v Tynemouth (a) - Lost by 4 wickets
Match report to follow.
2nd XI NEPL Scorecard v Tynemouth (a)
NTCL Division 5 West - 3rd v Ryton (a) - Lost by 61 runs - Captains Report by James Walder
The 3rd XI travelled to promotion chasing Ryton for their penultimate game of the season.
Having won the toss and elected to bowl first we started well limiting Ryton to 42 for 1 after the first 10 overs. Not for the first time season the young bowling attack struggled to contain some powerful hitting as a fourth wicket stand put on over 80 in just over 8 overs. There were a few half chances but the team fought well to pick up some late wickets as Ryton reached 255/7. Pick of the bowlers were Ed Moody (3/23) and Taylor Matthews (2/38).
Despite a strong pair of opening bowlers we started well with Jack Hutt (52) leading the way supported by James Moody (18) and Gabriel Mellor (19). We never quite managed to stay up with the run rate but a good partnership of 67 from Thomas Hewison (36) and Seb Fletcher-Woods (29) took us past 160 and the maximum of 5 batting bonus points. Some late hitting from Hassan (19 from 12 balls) saw us end up of 194/8.
It was another case of not managing to control the scoring with consistent bowling and fielding and we needed one of our batsmen to score big to help chase down a big score. It’s not quite the end of the season but the young players have all improved and we have been a much more competitive team in the second half of the season so lots to take into next season. The final game is against title chasing Wylam.
3rd XI NTCL Scorecard v Ryton (a)
Sunday 7th September
Bobby Smithson Cup Final - 1st XI v Stocksfield (h) - Won by 8 wickets - Match Report by Scott Williamson
On an overcast afternoon with rain forecast, Stocksfield won the toss and chose to bat in the Bobby Smithson County Cup final, despite the afternoon start the game was 20 overs per side.
Things couldn’t have started better for the Hill with the 1st over from Callum going for only 1 run, then dangerman and ex Hill player Luke Doneathy was dismissed on the 8th ball by Pete Jones, however from that point forward things definitely took a down turn, a combination of drop catches, poor ground fielding, wides (12 in total out of 18 extras), alongside some big hitting from Stocksfield saw the visitors post an excellent 162 for 6 in their 20 overs. Adrian Marrison top scoring with 52 off 37 balls, ably assisted by keeper Sam Beadle (32 off 26), and some useful contributions from Steven Henderson (19 off 14) and ex Hill man William Archbold (15 off 11). Wickets were shared with Pete Jones taking 2 for 37 off his 4 overs, Callum 1 for 34 off his 4 overs, Max 1 for 29 off 4, TK 1 for 30 off 4, and Abu 1 for 14 off 2, the other bowler was Warren who was wicketless but bowled 2 excellent overs in a crucial part of the game and only going for 12 runs.
The rain that fell at the conclusion of the Stocksfield innings continued over the break, meaning a delayed restart, which was then compounded by an aborted start to our innings (1 over was bowled before we went off again). When we did final restart the Hill reply was quickly in trouble with opener Belly and batsmen #3 TK out in almost identical fashion running past one, both getting stumped off the bowling of Doneathy. This left us reeling at 10 for 2 after 4 overs. The dismissals brought together Pete Halliday with opener Mustard (Phil not Rory on this occasion). The pair gradually gained the ascendancy over the next 6 overs to get us back within touching distance, although still slightly behind the DLS par score. However, with the threat of rain gone, what we witnessed in the final 8 overs was nothing more than remarkable, as the pair cut loose, in particular the Colonel (Phil) who hit 6 x 6s and 4 x 4s in a score of 83 off 54 balls, Pete certainly wasn’t out done, scoring 62 off 42 balls with 11 x 4s. We won with 13 balls to spare in a quite extraordinary finish. A great advert for local cricket, in a game that was watched by a big crowd including many supporters from Stocksfield.
1st XI Smithson Cup Final scorecard v Stocksfield (h)
