It was a tough weekend for the 1st and 2nd's who went down to heavy defeats against local rivals South North, however the NTCL 3rd's recorded a superb win over Humshaugh with young Oliver Smalley the star of the show with 6 for 28.
NEPL Premier Division - 1st XI v South North (a) - Lost by 121 runs - Match Report by Phil Haves
Saturday saw a trip to Roseworth Terrace as we visited local rivals and current Premier League leaders. Once again the toss didn’t go in our favour however somewhat surprisingly given our current for and warm sunny morning.
The decision looked vindicated as inspite of losing Hewison, caught by Max off Ben, the home side cruised to 170 without further loss and our bowlers toiled in the heat. Things then changed dramatically as the Bulls lost 4 wickets for 3 runs as Max and Lee, who was enjoying his return to Gosforth took 2 wickets apiece. Things could have been even better had we not missed a couple of opportunities but an unbeaten partnership of 60 between Bushnell and McGee moved the home sides total to 250 before the declaration arrived in the 53rd over.
With 57 overs to chase down the target we felt very much in the game at the interval however the Bulls veteran seamer Wightman had other ideas dismissing Dave in the first over for 0 then taking a stunning caught and bowled off SMJ which left us reeling at 6/2. Ben Mussett followed soon afterwards for 6 (23/3). Morgan attempted to take the game to the home side with a 36 ball 40 (2x6 & 5x4) as along with Sam (29) the pair added 51 for the 4th wicket. Both were sadly dismissed in fairly quick succession leaving us 89/5. The innings then subsided as we slipped to 129 all out with only Ben Cant (28) offering any form of resistance as he was last man out in the 38th over.
With the season half way through we find ourselves anchored to the bottom of the table and in need of a morale boosting positive result from somewhere.
NEPL 1st XI Scorecard v South North (a)
NEPL Divison 2 - 2nd XI v South North (h) - Lost by 5 wickets
A weakend 2nd team minus Captain Joe and Captain of Vice Pete lost to title rivals South North at NBMS Denton Bank by 5 wickets.
The Hill won the toss and decided to bat and depsite being in early trouble managed to post a respectable score of 205 for 9 off 58 overs. This was largely down to a c entury partnership between Aaron Aarmstrong (70 not out) and stand in skipper Andy Dawson (60) which saw us recover from 53 for 7. Ayush (24) and Inyat Habibi (10) they only two other batters to make double figures.
Depsite two quick wickets from Nazif Habibi, South North batters dug in and built some sold partnerships which saw them knock off our score in the 50th over for the loss of 5 wickets. Ayush (2 wickets) and Aaron (1 wicket) the other wicket takers.
Following back to back defeats we have slipped to 4th in the league 75 points behind league leaders Chester le Street. This week we host Tynedale on Saturday at NBMS Denton Bank.
NEPL 2nd XI Scorecard v South North (h)
NTCL Division 5 South - 3rd XI v Humshaugh (h) - Won by 5 wickets - Vice 'Captain's Match Report by James Walder
A slightly more experienced 3rd XI hosted Humshaugh at a warm and sunny Newbrough. For once we managed to win the toss and the decision to bowl first didn't look great at 86 for 2 after 14 overs with Seb picking up two wickets amongst plenty of boundaries.
The turning point was an injury to Cherry in his first over leading to the introduction of Oliver. The Humshaugh middle order had no answer to the flight and spin as Oliver picked up 6 for 28 off his 8.3 overs. There were also two wickets for Jamie FW as Humshaugh were bowled out for 139 in 29.3 overs.
Hopes for a steady start were over with Seb running himself out and then Haroon missing a straight one. Some strong hitting by Jamie Dingle (25) was then followed by a good partnership between Adam (40) and James (32) which took us in sight of the finishing line. It was left to John (13no) and Hass (4no) to see us across the line in the 24th over and a 5 wicket win.
A good team performance and the full 30 points and fingers crossed that Cherry will make a swift recovery.
NTCL 3rd XI Scorecard v Humshaugh (h)
There was no NEPL 3rd XI game this weekend due to the NEPL 2nd XI 100 competition, we hosted Felling and Chester le Street. The day started well with a 8 wicket win over Felling however we lost by 10 wickets to Chester le Street in the decider.
