ACADEMY SECURE NEPL SUNDAY FIRST DIVISION TITLE AS THE RAIN DESCENDS. Sun 10th Sept 2023: NEPL Sunday First Division: SNCC v Sunderland (h) 40/40

10th Sep 2023

ACADEMY SECURE NEPL SUNDAY FIRST DIVISION TITLE AS THE RAIN DESCENDS.

    Sun 10^th Sept 2023: NEPL Sunday First Division: SNCC v Sunderland (h) 40/40

Sunderland 95 -4 (23o) Brett Hutchinson 35, Louis Dinsdale 31*, Freddie Collins 20: Ben Hobbs 1-19, Simon West 1-25, Jen McDowell 0-7, George Gray 1-31, Gregor Pearce 1-11.

Match abandoned: thunder/lightning/heavy rain. SNCC 5 points, Sunderland 3.

An unfitting end to a successful season as the rain curtailed play in all Sunday First Division games after c1500 leaving SNCC champions on 160 points with Gateshead Fell their nearest pursuers in second on 145.

On Great North Run Day, Sunderland won the toss & chose to bat. Kyle (rh) & Brett (lh) Hutchinson faced the seam of Ben Hobbs (Park) & Simon West (Grove). A good first over from Ben but Simon was punished in over 2 with B Hutchinson pulling & hooking 3x4. 

The score had reached 32 in the 8^th when K Hutchinson (8) lofted Simon to mid-off where George McConnell took a neat catch. An excellent stop in the covers by Will Carr as B Hutchinson cut Ben hard & two balls later a wicket, as Bowman (0) was comprehensively bowled, 34-2. The sky darkened; the grey clouds hovered.

Jen's one over went for 7, 51-2 after 12 overs, & then the spin of George Gray (Park) & Gregor (Grove) took over in very gloomy conditions. In George's first B Hutchinson mis pulled high to mid-wicket where Will took a well-judged catch but injured his hand & was substituted by Jack Netts.

Gregor bowled with excellent control, his 5 overs containing 3 maidens & in over 22 Collins (20) hit hard & high towards deep mid-wicket where Jack made ground taking a very good catch close to the boundary rope, 89-4. After one more over the umpires had seen the lightning & accompanying thunder & advised the players to leave the field as is the new ruling. The sky darkened again & the rain began to fall heavily.

The game was abandoned at 1640 with no prospect of further play. The news from Chester-le-Street (111-3) was that they too were under water so it was a happy team who posed for a photo with the Sunday First Division trophy, which had been returned the evening before by the 2's, who had been playing at Hetton Lyons, 2022 winners of this Division.

2023 SNCC Academy Playing Record: p 14, won 7, lost 1, 6 abandoned/cancelled.

Appearances: 33 players have appeared for the team in 2023.

Runs: 

Angus Southern 432(4x50,1x100), Charlie Wilson 375 (1x50,2x100), Jan Ozmen 175 (2x50), Jacob McCord 144 (1x50), Gregor Pearce 116 (1x50), Ben Sidney-Wilmot 86. Will Carr 76.  

Partnerships: 

173 Jacob McCord/Charlie Wilson v Philadelphia (a)

169 Angus Southern/Charlie Wilson v CLS (h)

158 Charlie Wilson/Angus Southern v Philadelphia (h)

125 Angus Southern/Jan Ozmen v Tynemouth (h)

91 Angus Southern/James Lunn v CLS (a)

Wickets: 

David Cragg 15, Josephine Nkomo 8, George McConnell 5, Jacques Graham 5, Simon West 4, George Gray 3, Gregor Pearce 3, Jen McDowell 2, Will Young 2, Joe Dresser 2, Jack Netts 2, Will Alexander 2, Varun Gudipati, Sadiq Khan, Sam Ewart 1 each.

So many congratulations to the 2023 SNCC Academy Team captained by Ben Sidney-Wilmot for their will to win, especially in the close games at Gateshead Fell & Hetton Lyons.

Duncan.