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Ton-up Jon Robinson relishes run feast

On a lovely Sunday afternoon at Close House playing Ponteland, with nearby Hexham under floodwaters, Jon Robinson scored his first century for Genetics. Losing the loss and batting first, Genetics overcame the early loss of Mike Gardner for his customary soft dismissal at Close House, and settled in to score steadily, if somewhat cautiously. Raj Rihal was the next wicket to fall for 17, always looking uncomfortable against the spin. Andrew Porteous made a solid 27 before he was dismissed, and Mark Buckley was run out for 21. In the meantime, Jon was continually clubbing the ball to all parts of the boundary, especially cow corner in front of the scorers, where a gaggle of Ponteland fields were congregating along the boundary, were trying in vain to stop the ball hurtling past them. At one stage it looked as if Andy Goulding would hog the strike and Jon would be denied the chance the get into 3 figures, but finally in the last over, Andy took a single, declining the chance to run 2, and Jon took the strike. His four took him to 103, and was greeted by a rapturous applause from his teammates. He was out next ball but his runs (and Genetics’) were on the board, and Ponteland were left chasing 218 to win. The Ponteland innings started brightly enough, with their openers looking very competent, putting on 120 for the first wicket. However, once they were out the innings and the run rate fell away, and two wickets by Gary van Doorn and some good fielding meant that Ponteland fell 23 runs short of the target.

Ale tastes better after victory

A well timed innings by Andrew Porteous led to Genetics recording their second league win in three days. Aletasters batted first and were quickly in trouble, losing a wicket to Chris Mee in the opening over. They were further restricted by the tight and miserly bowling of Chris Mee and Brian Taylor. Although Aletasters had not lost any more wickets at the halfway stage of their innings, they had only scored 28 runs. The batsmen started playing their shots more when the change bowlers came on, and managed to bring their score up to a respectable 109 for 4 after 16 overs. The Genetics opening batsmen were far more positive and although cautious, had managed to reach 50 for 1 after 8 overs with Andy Jeffery falling for 25. Jon Rob made a typically quick fire 11, and although Genetics lost 2 more wickets, Andrew Porteous timed his run perfectly, and the winning runs were scored off the last ball of the innings, leaving Andrew to pick up his second man of the match award for the week.

First league win for Genetics

Genetics finally broke their duck for the league with a well deserved win over Merz McLellan. Electing to bat, Merz were slow to get going and were 49 for 2 after 13 overs. However, 24 runs off the last over bowled by Gary van Doorn made things a little interesting. It was good to see the fielders getting in the spirit of things with balls lobbing over fielders heads, and running in the opposite direction when the ball headed towards them on the boundary line, and run out chances going begging, and catches being dropped.
Chasing 73-2, the Genetics innings also got off to a slow start with both Merz opening bowlers bowling a very tight line and length. However, the lack of depth in their bowling meant that they could not contain the Genetics batsmen, especially Andrew Porteous (35) and Andy Goulding (26) who put on an unbeaten partnership to see Genetics home over the line.

Two matches played at Close House

Genetics took on their old nemesis Uni Staff at Close House and bowled superbly to bowl them out for 53, thanks mainly to Chris Mee (8-3-8-4) and John Featherstone (6-2-13-4). Genetics took only 9 overs to make the 54 runs required for victory, thanks to Jon Rob (10), Andy Goulding (14), and Andy Jeffery (23). At this stage, the time being only 4:30, another 20 over match was to be played, and in the Genetics innings of a leisurely 84 Gareth Taylor (that’s right) top scored with 17 not out off 4021 deliveries. Ok, it was only 31 but it felt like it was a lot more. Andy Jeffery chipped in with 13, and Davy Heslop made 10. It was never going to be enough, and staff made the runs with an over to spare.

Genetics defeated by Fenham at Blue Flames

Genetics managed to lose their second league game on the trot by losing to Fenham at Blue Flames. Fenham batted first and made 117 for 7, Andy Goulding bowling superbly taking 5 for 17 off 3 overs. In reply Genetics could not handle the pace bowling of Fenham and could only manage 89 for 5 in reply. Andrew Porteous made 17, Simon Whitehall top scored with 21 not out, and Dion Krishnan and Andy Goulding chipped in with 11each.