Cup win vs Ashington but comprehensive league loss at Whitburn for the 2s

10th May 2022

NEPL 2ND X1 20/20 CUP GROUP A Thurs 5th May.

SNCC 144-3 (20o) Tom Seymour 28, Jacob McCord 51* Angus Southern 37*: 

Ashington 101-8 (20o) Sadiq Khan 1-14, Tom Seymour 2-9, Ben Hobbs 1-7, Patrick Hatcher 2-17, Will Harris 0-14, Allan Davidson 1-20, Aadesh Sahadevan 1-17

SNCC won by 43 runs.

Losing James Ruddick at 3 & Sadiq at 35, positive contributions by Tom Seymour (28), Jacob McCord 51* & Angus Southern 37* running well, driving down the ground & steering to third man to rotate the strike, saw the Bulls end on 144-3 after 20 overs.

Ashington lost two early wickets to Sadiq & Tom & never really threatened the home total as 7 bowlers were used. 48-3 became 63-4, 65-5, 81-6, 87-7 & 101-8. Patrick 2 wickets, Ben 1, Allan & Aadesh 1 each, wrapped up a convincing win. The fielding was good.

The Bulls second game in Group A is away at Gateshead Fell & must be played by 17th June.

NEPL Division 2. Sat 7th May at Whitburn.

SNCC 160-9 (50o) James Ruddick 48, Alex Charnley 30, Angus Southern 26, Sam Ewart 21: Ewan Jenkins 3-24, Anthony Chambers 2-27, Ben Kennedy 2-26.

Whitburn 169-1 (36.3o) Matthew Mallaby 45*, Ben Markham 63, Matthew May 36*: Allan Davidson 0-25, Jacob McCord 0-24, James Ruddick 1-42, David Cragg 0-23, Sadiq Khan 0-22.

Whitburn won by 9 wickets 20 points, SNCC 2.

A short boundary towards the gardens presented both opportunities & problems for the teams at sunny, but damp, Whitburn. Winning the toss & choosing to bat, captain James Ruddick & Alex Charnley put on an enterprising 75 for the first wicket when an optimistic second run ended with a direct hit run out of James (48).

This became 80-2 as Nick Tomlinson was caught & 105-3 as Alex Charnley suffered a similar fate. At 119 -4 Alex Weetman departed & Angus Southern (26) who had been batting nicely, was called & sent back to be run out by another direct hit. Two self inflicted wounds.

Sadiq, Jacob & Allan rued shot selection as the innings somewhat imploded ending with Sam (21) also being caught. The innings expired at 160-8 after 50. Not enough on a decent batting wicket.

Mallaby & Markham opened brightly, the left-handed Markham targeting the short legside boundary if the opportunity arose. All the bowlers went at 4 an over, having bowled 7 for 21, including the wicket of Markham (63) bowled at 106-1, James's last suffered 21 more & it was left to the experienced David Cragg whose wiles conceded only 23 in 9.3 overs of slow left arm, to exert the required control. The winning runs came in the 37th over, Mallaby 45*, May 36*.

Disappointing to lose so comprehensively even amid injury & availability difficulties. Senior players must stand up, younger ones must be encouraged to see a single, find the gaps, call well & rotate the strike. Tough game against undefeated Tynemouth on Sat 14 th  May to come but, after training hard, an opportunity to bounce back & show our true form. We can do this !!

Duncan.