Lee Weldon’s weekly round-up from the wicket…
Saturday 6th September – NYSD Division 3
Newton Aycliffe 1st XI v Yarm 1st XI – weather was mild and overcast. Yarm won the toss and chose to bat first.
Yarm 1st XI 161 for 6 after 40 overs
Leo Mercy 2 for 15, Matty Greaves 2 for 51 and Ben Howard 1 for 43
Newton Aycliffe 1st XI 110 for 9 after 40
Tez Smit 33, Leon Patel 13, Leo Mercy 13 not out and Ben Howard 10 not out
Newton Aycliffe’s 1st team, sponsored by Franks the Flooring Store, came away with a hard earned draw at home to third in the table Yarm 1sts.
Yarm had chosen to bat first and scored a respectable 160 for 6 from their allotted 40 overs despite some good bowling from Leo Mercy (sponsored by Yvonne and Bob Wood), who finished with 2 for 15 from his ten overs and Matty Greaves (2 for 51 from ten overs).
In reply, the ever reliable opener Tez Smit, helped get Aycliffe off to a decent start scoring 33 from 36 balls, but the hosts still slipped to a perilous 88 for 9 with 11 overs still remaining.
However, a stubborn unbeaten tenth wicket partnership of 22 by Leo Mercy, pictured above (13 not out off 58 balls) and Ben Howard (10 not out off 29 balls) saw their side safely to stumps in a tense finale to earn an unlikely draw for the home side.
This draw drops Aycliffe down a place to fifth in the NYSD third division table with 274 points from 21 games played with only one game of the season remaining.
Saturday 6th September – NYSD Division 4
Yarm 2nd XI v Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI – weather was mild and overcast. Newton Aycliffe won the toss and chose to bowl first.
Yarm 2nd XI 240 for 4 declared after 36 overs
Jon Tait 2 for 58, Shashank Garg 1 for 50 and Will Moffatt 1 for 53
Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI 73 all out after 23 overs
Will Moffatt 22, Dan Weldon 16 and Matty French 10
Aycliffe’s 2nd team were well beaten by 167 runs away at Yarm 2nds.
Fifteen-year-old Will Moffatt had a good all round game for the visitors when he followed up taking 1 for 53 with the ball in the Yarm innings, by top scoring in the Aycliffe reply with a senior career best score of 22 from 35 balls faced, reaching the boundary on four occasions.
Special mention must also go to Veteran Tony Travis (sponsored by John Wardle) who snuffled a couple of sharp catches when fielding in the gulley, proving that his eye to hand co-ordination is still functioning well despite being in the latter stages of his long cricketing career.
This week’s final senior cricket fixtures of the season:
Saturday 13th September at 1.00 pm – NYSD Division 3 – Thornaby 2nd XI v Newton Aycliffe 1st XI
Saturday 13th September at 1.00 pm – NYSD Division 4 – Newton Aycliffe 2nd XI v Bishop Auckland 2nd XI