It was back to winning ways for Joe Fletcher's 2nd team with a hard fought victory against local rivals Newcastle, the NTCL and NEPL 3rd's also recorded excellent wins over Gosforth Strikers and South North respectively, however the 1st's couldn't build on their excellent T20 win at Chester le Street the night before, losing by 6 wickets at Jesmond. Read on for all the news from each game,
NEPL Premier Division - 1st XI v Newcastle (a) - Lost by 6 wickets - Match Report by Phil Haves
Saturday saw us visit Jesmond on very warm and sunny day, proper cricketing weather.
On winning the toss Belly elected to bat first with Rory and Dave opening up. Unfortunately Dave was out cheaply with the score on 8 however Ben and Rory added 47 before the former was dismissed bowled by Norfolk National Counties player Wilcox with the total on 55. Toby joined Rory,who was batting untroubled and scoring freely, and he continued his good form from the previous evening as the pair crafted a partnership of 62. Rory had passed his half century reaching 69 before he was trapped LBW by Paton who was the pick of the home sides bowlers. The same bowler struck again dismissing Toby for 40 with the score on 147 and Belly fell soon afterwards for 8.
A cameo innings of 20 by Oli added a further 50 with Sam as we passed 200. With Max giving impetus towards the end of our innings with 22 not out off 10 balls and Sam Dinning finishing 48 not out our innings closed on what appeared on the face of it a competitive 245/6.
In reply early wickets eluded us as the Newcastle openers progressed the total to 68 in quick time before the introduction of SMJ made the breakthrough dismissing Doig. Durham County player Hogg was promoted up the order to counter the bowling of Lee and he took a liking to the veteran spinner with a series of savage blows as along with opener Ghumman they added 97 to turn the game in the home sides favour. Max dismissed the opener before SMJ ended Hogg’s innings however by this time the game was effectively over as a contest and although Lee had Wilcox caught behind the home side cantered to a 6 wicket victory with 10 overs remaining.
A sobering and disappointing defeat to end this set of orange ball fixtures as we move into win/lose/draw matches on Saturday with a home game against Felling when a confidence boosting win would help our League position.
NEPL 1st XI Scorecard v Newcastle (a)
NEPL Division 2 - 2nd XI v Newcastle (h) - Won by 3 wickets - Captain's Match Report by Joe Fletcher
Back to winning ways for the 2s on Saturday, in a nail biter against Newcastle.
Having lost the toss and being asked to bowl, we did excellently in restricting Newcastle to 173, some early wickets for Ayush and Abu set up this seasons best bowling performance so far (across all teams) from Aaron Armstrong with 6/20 off his 7.3 overs. The other wickets were shared at one a piece between Abu, Ayush, Jonesy and Jayam.
In response, the wicket proved tough, and another bout of 45-3 left us struggling not only with wickets, but also run rate!
Michael Maclachlan and Joe Fletcher tried to steady things, and take the game as deep as possible, but when they both fell for 41 and 30 in a short space, followed by Andy Dawson dismissed for 2. We still required 60 runs at a run a ball to win.
However, one of the great strengths of this side is our ability to bat deep, and some great hitting, and running between Aaron and Harsh, got us close, needing 15 off 15 balls when Harsh was dismissed.
Jonesy was sent in to slog to the short boundary, and with a 6 off the last ball of the 49th over, we needed 4 off 6! 2 singles followed, and then the man of the moment Aaron slammed one back over the bowlers head for 4 to confirm the win, and finish 26* (17)!
That result leaves us with 4 wins from 5, and a trip to Felling next week, for our first red ball fixture of the season!
NEPL 2nd XI Scorecard v Newcastle (h)
NTCL Division 5 South - 3rd XI v Gosforth Strikers (a) - Won by 104 runs - Vice Captains Match Report by James Walder
The 3rd XI travel out to Haydon Bridge School to play Gosforth Strikers. The start of the match was delayed for 15 mins to allow the home team to fill in some of the many rabbit holes on the ground and square so having lost the toss we were asked to bat first.
Having lost of couple of early wickets James managed to pull his hamstring and required a runner - step forward Seb. The match defining partnership between Nav, James (and Seb) saw us post a score of 190 for 4 with Nav ending up with 45 and James on 78 not out. There was also some powerful late hitting from Hass who reached 18.
It was then over to the younger players (including u12 Thomas fielding for his injured Dad) to apply some pressure on a wicket that had a few demons in it. Great opening spells by Gabe (4 for 8 from 7 overs) and Nicholas (1 for 8 from 5 overs) put us in charge. The other bowling highlight was 3 for 11 from Oliver Smalley and a last wicket run out denied Gabe the chance to pick up his fifth wicket. Gosforth Strikers were bowled out for 80 off 26 overs.
A good team performance getting the maximum 30 point haul.
NTCL 3rd XI scorecard v Gosforth Strikers (a)
NEPL Sunday Division 1 v South North (a) - Won by 5 runs - Captain's Report by Matty Hynd
The NEPL 3rd team made it 2 wins from 3 after a close fought victory over a young South Northumberland team.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first we lost both openers early. Wagh and Armstrong started to rebuild but we lost Wagh for 29 leaving us 56/3. This soon became 78/5 and when Armstrong was dismissed for 24 we were in trouble at 87/6. McConnell dismissed Mellor and Hector Walder leaving us 88/8. However Matt Hynd and Abdul put on 22 for the 9th wicket and then Hynd and Khan 18 for the last wicket before Hynd was last out for 34 from 46, leaving us an under par 128 from 32 overs.
Knowing that South Northumberland had a strong batting unit we knew early wickets were needed. Mellor removed the dangerous Carr for 12, and the introduction of Armstrong changed the momentum as he took 3 quick wickets. South Northumberland were 74/5. A couple of dropped catches as well as some sensible batting sore South Northumberland edge closer before Aaron removed Varun, leaving South Northumberland 99/6. Wagh then took an amazing catch to remove Sam Lee and the dangerous Kalluri was out first ball giving Aaron 5-32, leaving South Northumberland 101/8. South Northumberland dug in and Smith and Harper edged the hosts closer to victory. However Mellor returned and removed Smith and Elliiot Mee leaving the hosts 5 short wirh Leo Harper watching on from the non strikers end 30 not out.
A great all round performance by the team who never gave up and took some fantastic catches. The team have now set a high standard for the rest of the season which we can hopefully build on.
NEPL Sunday 3rd XI scorecard v South North (a)
