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CCC Progress in Cup

By Peter Finkill
In awful conditions Greg won the toss and decided to bat in what looked like a flat true pitch with a short boundary on one side. We thought 140/150 would be a par score but as it turned out the very strong wind, variable bounce and slow wicket made scoring quite difficult. We finished on 112 with notable batting from both Greg and Matt P. We then skittled them for about 90. Matt P taking the key wicket of their opener who realistically looked like the only batsmen capably of chasing down the score for them. Both Guy and Eshan bowled good spells too, the two of them chipping in with a few wickets a piece.

CCC and Fenham Square Up

By Nick Tomlinson

I lost the toss and Fenham decided to bat on a slick surface hoping to take advantage of the wet outfield. They raced along to 50 in 5 overs until helpfully losing the newish ball that had been rocketing to the fence, and first ball after being replaced with 150 overs old cushion we took the big wicket of Mukhtar (who had previously survived a chance to Greg that came down with snow on it). The run rate went steadily downwards after that as good spells from Guy, Chandra , Fiaz and Eshan all included wickets. Notable mentions to a fine catch from Si standing up to Guy and a sharp run out from Guy, neither of which would have been given out had we not been playing with umpires. They only scored around 10 runs off the last three overs to end on 117-7 which we were well happy with after the flier they had got off to.

I started off decided to slog as I couldn’t run due to a knee injury and lost my off stump aiming an ambitious carve over cover with the score around 15, Fiaz joined Peter and batted superbly despite his reluctance to actually run between the wickets. Peter departed with us needing around 60 off 5 overs and Greg and Fiaz upped the scoring rate significantly. We looked home and dry needing only 13 off two overs, however some good bowling and suicidal running left us needed 5 off two balls with Si and Muddy at the crease. Simon hit a lovely shot straight to the man on the point boundary and the game looked lost. What followed was one of the most bizarre pieces of cricket any of us had ever witnessed – Mudasser scunts a drive into the ground which trickles to mid on. It should be game over but the fielder needlessly throws the ball in hard on the half-volley to the bowler who fumbles. Si comes back for the second and the bowler then fires another awful throw past the keeper to fine leg and Muddy comes back for third overthrow. Mudasser then starts celebrating, not realising that he probably could have come back for the 4th given how far the throw had gone! Game tied.

9 Points for 9 pins

Report by Greg Tomlinson

A rusty start to the season for CCC as recently relegated Nine Pins claimed victory at Swalwell. Winning the toss and electing to bat on a decent wicket with one very short boundary, Nine Pins posted a very large total of 163 from 14 overs. It seemed like most of the CCC players had misread their emails and had in fact had nine pints before the game. A rusty bowling and fielding performance pretty much all round.

Chasing the large target CCC got off to a bad start with Greg missing a straight one trying to hit it out of Tyneside and then Eshan was well caught at slip. Newly promoted opening batsmen Peter steadied the ship at the other end and scored regularly and looked on for his maiden fifty.

In the end he was caught and bowled for 37 but still a very good effort and his top score for CCC. Mudasser fell cheaply which brought Simon Edwards to the crease, Simon was batting well and had reached 18 before having to retire with a finger injury and departed to A&E. This brought newcomer Chris Nicholson to the crease along with Guy, some excellent lower order hitting and running from the pair lead to us ended only about 25 short of our target as Chris hit a remarkable 48 off about 20 balls including an all ran 6.

Sadly we simply didn’t bowl and field well enough and let Nine Pins get too many runs as we didn’t cope well with the short boundary.

Cap: Chris
Duck: Mudasser

CCC All At Sea Against Oceans

CCC enjoyed a useful pre-season friendly against Division 3 title favourites Oceans at Swalwell CC on Thursday.

Oceans, including in their rank former CCC favourites Rian, Ratty and Usman bowled first with a pace attack that is unlikely to be equalled in the league this season. Greg, dropped on nought, accumulated 40 before retiring, whilst new boy Eshan scored a good 27, and Guy and Gurjit provided some fun and games towards the end as CCC set a reasonable 123-5 from 16 overs.

An early wicket in reply was something of a false dawn as Rian scored quickly before retiring on 37. However it was Araheem, the opening bowler, and a quick scoring batsman who scored 38 from 14 deliveries who took the game away from CCC. With a quick 35 from Koreshi Oceans cantered home for the loss of 3 wickets inside 10 overs.

CCC: Simon E, Greg, Jared, Ayan, Eshan, Alan, Guy, Gurjit, Shoaib, Chandra, Gerry

SEASON ENDS IN DISAPPOINTMENT

An eventful season for CCC finished with a missed promotion opportunity and a poor friendly defeat to Mallards.

Victory over relegated Paddlers in the final game would have seen CCC promoted to the top flight on results against Adders, however an organised and assertive batting display by the visitors at Heaton saw a tough target of 115 from 12 overs posted. This was too much for the home team whose batting subsided early on in the face of much improved Paddlers bowling from Chappell and Foster, both of whom were absent in the Monday game.

Only Matt (37) and Ewan (21 not out) made any inroads as CCC fell 19 short.

In the friendly against Mallards the following week 8 man CCC batted first on a vegetable plot of a pitch at Riding Mill. Only Jared with 41 really got going though Chandra and Mohammed Shoaib batted well. The target of 100 was not enough as Mallards romped home by 7 wickets.

So ended an eventful season for CCC which was actually their most successful ever with 82 points obtained (and then 5 deducted for Quigley-Gate). The outcome of the Fenham affair is yet to be decided. CCC finish 4th out of 8 6 points off promotion. Adders repeated their amazing run to promotion of 2 years ago despite looking like relegation fodder when CCC demolished them twice in a week. A total of 36 points out of 40 was taken from the two teams finsihing immediately above CCC, Adders and ORPs. Mitford deserved the title with their excellent four-pronged bowling attack. CCC will look to a mid-season week where they lost narrowly to West End and Seaton Burn as crucial in their failure to win promotion.