It was a mixed bag this weekend for senior teams with only the 1st XI getting a win on Saturday, in a close game at Tynemouth, the 2nd's lost the reverse fixture despite a hundred from debutant Arun Phogat and the 3rd's lost in West Tyne league against Newton (for once Archie didn't skittle us out) however normal service was resumed on Sunday, with a win at Tynemouth in the 3rd XI Banks Cup, keeping our hopes alive in that competition.
1st XI - Pete Halliday played a captain's knock in the 1st's 2 wicket win at Tynemouth. It was a low scoring game with Tynemouth posting 147 all ouit in their 40 overs. Callum Harding claiming 4 wickets, Kyle Coetzer 3 Finn McCreath 2 and Rory Hanley 1. We made hard work of the reply and scrapped home by 2 wickets, Pete Haliiday (44 not out) and Phil Nicholson (32) getting the majority of the runs, with useful partnerships all the way down the order seeing us home with 1 ball to spare. The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/4443003
2nd XI (report by Andy Dawson) - we played our third competitive game at home to Tynemouth, which would turn out to be a humbling affair, suffering our first defeat of the season. Having been inserted at the toss by the visitors, the 2s made 191 all out in the 39th over - largely due to a century from debutant, Arun Phogat. During the second innings, the Hill were never able to exert the necessary pressure on the Tynemouth batsmen. Despite a mid-innings revival following a poor start, too many '4-balls' and some accomplished batting from Barry Stewart saw the visitors comfortably home by 5 wickets with 10 balls to spare. The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/4443316
3rd XI West Tyne - were beaten by 4 wickets at Newton. The Hill batted first and posted a modest 80 all out in 27.4 overs, top scorers (the only batters to make double figures) were Zain Ullah (32) and Safit Bhuyian (22). It wasnt plan sailing for Newton in reply who reached the Hill total, with 3 overs to sapre for the loss of 6 wickets. Chris Pounder the pick of the bolwers with excellent figures of 7 overs , 5 maidens, 4 wickets for 6 runs. Aqueel Tassawar and Jeff Mason the other wicket takers with 1 each. The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/4307344
3rd XI Sunday NEPL (report by Barry Pearson) - After two defeats, we won our first game in the Banks up at Tynemouth on Sunday to keep alive their chances of qualifying for the next round. Tynemouth scored 169 for 5 in their 35 overs, once again the opposition recovered following a good start by us to set an imposing total. The wickets were shared around in what was a decent effort with the ball.
In reply, we stumbled to 22 for 4 in the wake of good opening bowling from Tynemouth, before a recovery led by Zain Ahmed with 47 and Harry Reeves with 24 before they both got out with the score on 95, then Jeff Mason with 40 not out and Matthew Lockey with an unbeaten 33 led the Hill home with an unbeaten partnership of 78 and we won by four wickets in the penultimate over. The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/4443339
