Saturday:
Newcastle 1st XI 186/7 (38.5 overs) beat Ashington 1st XI 185/9 (50 overs) by 3 wickets
Report by Phil Hudson:
Newcastle 1s managed to come out on top of another close and hard fought game against Ashington yesterday, with Liam Trevaskis emerging as the hero for the home side for the 2nd time this season.
Newcastle were rocked by two injuries in the warm up with Luke Mussett succumbing to a back spasm and Kieran Trevaskis to a lack of intestinal fortitude. At the request of Will Taylor, a Justgiving page will be set up in due course to fund Kieran’s recovery. With the dressing room resembling a Triage suite, NCC were forced to deploy their vaunted squad depth. Distress signals were sent out to the Heaton and Penshaw areas and George Darwood and Bobby Green arrived to take the place of the injured men, slotting in seamlessly.
Captain Quirk continued his unprecedented streak of winning the toss and invited Ashington to bat. A great start from Darwood and Sinclair limited the Ashington openers to slow progress before Liam Trevaskis came into the attack and removed former NCC player Cameron Steel. Wickets followed at a steadier rate than runs thereafter with Trevaskis picking up 4-21 from his 10 overs and putting the home side in command. Disciplined support from Quirk, Sinclair, Tashkoff and Taylor kept Ashington in check despite the dangerous Ben Harmison remaining at the crease. Newcastle plans managed to keep him away from the strike and stifle progress before he fell to a ‘well judged’ catch by Frankie Collins. At the end of the 50 overs Ashington posted 185-9, a total NCC felt was a solid 40-50 short of par.
Our own openers Mussett and Collins headed out and laid a great platform, playing the Ashington seamers with relative ease and seeking to punish anything over pitched. After putting on 65 for the first wicket, Ashington changed tack and brought their bowling chaos grenade Cameron Steel into the attack. What followed was absolute mayhem. Collins was very unfortunate to be given out caught behind, Mussett unlucky to play the ball and have it spin back on his stumps. Green smashed one into his pad and was given LBW and McBride and Tashkoff came and went quickly. Trevaskis was stood at the other end watching this carnage unfold but found some nuggety support from Will Taylor, who occupied the crease and allowed NCC to recover from 90-5. This partnership ended with Taylor run out to a direct hit from Harmison. Trevaskis by this stage was into his stride and was moving through the gears with some crisp hitting, particularly square of the wicket. He had been joined by Jonty Barnes who continued the counter attack, hitting several clean boundaries and racing Newcastle to the target. There was still time for one more twist in the tale as Barnes succumbed to delusions of grandeur in attempting to hit the winning runs inside out over extra cover to depart for a well made 25. However, Trevaskis was very much in the zone and saw the side home by smashing the winning runs off Steel to finish 76*.
All in all a good win against disciplined and competitive opposition. The bowling attack had a good day and set the tone by making themselves difficult to score off. Batting wise a clearer plan was perhaps needed; but our depth got us over the line. DoC MOTM goes to Liam Trevaskis – his 4 for and 76* completely hammering my decision to remove him as captain of my fantasy team earlier in the day.
Sunday:
Newcastle Academy 235/3 (40 overs) beat Gateshead Fell 3rd XI 110 All Out (26.2 overs) by 125 runs
Report by Ali Poll:
The Academy hosted a resurgent Gateshead Fell team who hadn’t lost since the opening day of the season. Losing the toss on a wearing pitch Newcastle were asked to bat. With weather potentially a factor later on, Newcastle knew they would need a good total on the board to keep run rate pressure on. Frank Cook and Ali Poll continued their opening partnership success, with another watchful start interspersed with boundaries, pouncing on anything loose from the Fell openers. The pair went past 50 for the third time in four innings together, bringing up the 50 partnership in the 10th over. While Cook continued to manipulate the strike well from one end, Poll went on the offensive, bringing up his 50 in 41 balls. Despite good control from Meek (0-24 from 7), runs continued to flow, and Newcastle reached 110-0 at the halfway point. A tiring Poll brought up with 100 in 79 balls with an exquisite plink for one over cover, as the partnership went past 150. Poll was eventually out in the 32nd over for 124 (sponsored by Tenzing®? energy drinks) to end a 177 run opening stand. George Darwood (16) came in and looked to continue to aggression, and was there as Frank (63) passed a very well deserved 50. Both young batters fell looking to up the run rate towards the end, leaving time for short cameos from Fellows (11*) and Ryan (9*) to see the total up to 235-3. This was a good total on a fairly tired pitch, but Newcastle knew that a good start was crucial to defending their total with a young seam attack.
The defence started well, with 14 year old Thom Holland opening the bowling with an excellent first over. The breakthrough came in just the second over, as his opening partner, 12 year old Chas Darwood, saw reward for attacking the stumps and pitching the ball up, swinging one late past the Fell opener’s defences to claim his 5th wicket for the Academy this year. Thom (1-27) got reward for a good opening spell, bowling Brandon for 18 just as the Fell number 3 was looking to up the rate. After some consolidation between Lugsden (23) and Rutledge (18), Alex Sinclair was brought into the attack with instant success, claiming a caught and bowled to remove Rutledge. From there, Newcastle never looked back, with wickets falling regularly. Ed Holland’s (2-17) hostile bodyline tactics proved successful, with catches completed by brother Thom and George Darwood. Alex continued to attack the stumps well, picking up wickets regularly, and when he switched ends to replace Holland, a catch at mid wicket saw him pick up an excellent 5-for, finishing 7-0-18-5. The introduction of crowd and fantasy team favourite Kev McNab didn’t bring the wickets so many were longing for, with Kev forced to switch to a more defensive left arm over line after struggling with foot holes bowling round the wicket. Chas Darwood returned in true opening bowler fashion to pick up the final wicket and finish 2-32, as Gateshead Fell were bowled out for 110, giving the Academy their fifth win on the bounce.
An excellent performance all round, with our batters proving yet again that valuing your wicket up front pays dividends later on. Our bowling was fantastic, especially given the young nature of our attack – all 10 wickets picked up by bowlers under 16 years old, and the opening pair of C Darwood and T Holland with a younger combined age than their skipper (which upsets him greatly). We howled in good areas on a wearing pitch, forcing errors from the batters, and mostly backed this up well in the field. Another great win showing how promising the future is at NCC, and we look to extend this run of form next week away to Tynemouth. Thanks to Fred Procter for scoring.
