Lee Weldon’s weekly round-up from the wicket…
Saturday 24th August – NYSD Division 2
Marton 2nd XI v Newton Aycliffe 1st XI – weather was mild and sunny. Newton Aycliffe won the toss and chose to bat first.
Newton Aycliffe 1st XI 137 all out after 45.4 overs
Chris Palmer 54, Will Dearden 25 and Tom Dearden 23
Marton 2nd XI 143 for 2 after 25.1 overs
James Layfield-Carroll 2 for 14
The first team were well beaten by eight wickets away at Marton 2nd XI in a poor performance.
Club stalwart Chris Palmer (sponsored by AccScents Aromas) top scored with his second half century of the season, eventually being dismissed for a fighting 54 off 103 balls and his gutsy innings included eight boundaries.
James Layfield-Carroll picked up the only two wickets to fall in the Marton reply finishing with 2 for 14 off his seven overs.
After 19 games, the first team have 155 points and remain 2nd bottom of the NYSD 2nd division table, massive 50 points adrift of safety behind 3rd from bottom Stockton, with just 3 games to play.
Saturday 24th August – NYSD Division 4
Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI v Rockliffe Park 2nd XI – weather was mild and sunny. Newton Aycliffe won the toss and chose to bowl first.
Rockliffe Park 2nd XI 157 for 4 after 40 overs
Leo Mercy 2 for 42, Leon Patel 1 for 25 and Matty Greaves 1 for 31
Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI 149 for 5 after 40 overs
Patrick Howe 66, Leo Mercy 27 and Adam Shaw 21
Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI put in a tremendous performance and almost pulled off a stunning victory at home to top of the league Rockliffe Park, but ultimately ran out of overs and so had to settle for a very creditable draw.
Patrick Howe scored his second consecutive half century and was eventually dismissed for a superb 66 off 97 balls and included nine boundaries.
Credit must also go to all rounder Leo Mercy who finished with 2 for 42 from his ten overs when the visitors batted and then scored 27 off 77 balls when Aycliffe replied.
Bank Holiday Monday 26th August – NYSD Division 4
Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI v Billingham Synthonia 2nd XI – weather was cool and overcast. Billingham won the toss and chose to bat first.
Billingham Synthonia 2nd XI 111 all out after 32.5 overs
Ramzan Hussain 3 for 26, Matty Greaves 2 for 13 and Jai Sander 2 for 22
Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI 110 all out after 34.1 overs
Patrick Howe 29, Dan Weldon 20 and Leon Patel 15
The 2nd team put in a tremendous performance at home to league leader’s Billingham Synthonia and were desperately unlucky to suffer an agonising defeat by the narrowest of margins, just one run.
Leon Patel had an excellent game, firstly holding on to a couple of catches and forcing a run out in the visitors innings. He then batted superbly under real pressure and nearly won the game for Aycliffe when he was eventually the last man out for 15 off 42 balls in a very tense finale.
Matty Greaves (sponsored by Athena Gymnastics and Britannia Fire) also deserves credit for an excellent ten over spell of spin bowling which yielded figures of 2 for 13.
After the weekend double header Aycliffe 2nd team have now played 21 games and have 177 points and drop to 10th place in the fourth division table, with just three games left to play.
This week’s senior cricket fixtures:
Saturday 31st August at 12.30 pm – NYSD Division 2 – Newton Aycliffe 1st XI v Shildon 1st XI
Saturday 31st August at 1.00 pm – NYSD Division 4 – Preston 1st XI v Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI