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Close Call with YAARS

The weather looked like closing in at Ulgham where Rowlands hosted YAARS. Sure enough it started to rain soon after Davo won the toss and elected to open with new boy Richie Straughan. He and father gary had stood in at the last minute to replace the unavailable Brian Dickenson and Adam Tait. Richie showed promise and pushed DAvo to run quick singles but was unfortunate to play on for only 1 with the score on 17. Davo was inspired and hitting good boundaries. He was joined by Roy and they pushed on to 58 when Davo was bowled Mirza for 48 (5 fours and 2 sixes). Roy was caught for 29 (3 fours) to see Ralph and craig at the wicket. Ralph made a big 58 with 4 huge sixes and 4 fours before being bowled and Craig ended not out on 14 (2 fours) with Phil Hornsey 2 not out. The score of 176-4 off 14 overs in steady rain but with the pitch staying firm was a terrific total. This should have been enough to win a game at last?

YAARS lost Shaz Alvi bowled Richie Munro second ball and Richie took a second for 3-0-43-2 as YAARS went for the runs. Davo bowled tighter overs at the other end with 3.1-0-44-1 thanks to a catch by Craig. YAARS were keeping up with the run rate and exceeded it with Ian Pratt 2-0-41-0, with a dropped chance by Don on the fine leg boundary, and Don 2-0-37-0 as Billy Ahmed took control. He was dropped early on and survived a very strong lbw appeal off Don when on about 60, well supported by keeper Roy but not the YAARS umpire. Gary managed an over for 13 at the death as Ahmed went on to 110 not out and Bilal Ahmed 29 not out. Victory by 7 wickets with 1.7 overs to spare for YAARS on a wet night. Seven out of seven lost by Rowlands and next up is Blue Flames, there on Thursday.

Rowlands still waiting for first win !

Playing against GEM at Ulgham, Davo won the toss and elected his opening partner as Andy Robson whilst Niall Penfold completed the arrival process. It was a slow start against accurate bowling, apart from the first over which brought 10 runs. After 5 overs only 23 were on the board. Andy was smartly c&b by A Ali for 9 (1 four) to bring Niall to the crease. Davo was caught off Amna for 21 after 2 fours and 13 singles. Also in the seventh over Niall was caught off Amna (4-0-27-2) for a quicker 19 2 fours and a six). 50-3 off 8 was not looking so good. Time for the Roy and Ralph show perhaps? The bowling still proved tight and GEM were getting good bounce out of the wicket to make big shots difficult. However, Ralph opend up with a MoM winning 40 (4 fours and 2 lost ball sixes!) Roy took a lot in the mid drift before gloving one to the keeper after 6 singles. Craig 6* and Peter Wilson 3* saw out the 15th and 16th overs. The total of 116-5 was reckoned to be about 20 short of a good target and so it proved to be.

Richie opened up with superb aggression which saw good pressure catches to Niall and Roy, on the point boundary precisely where Davo had just placed him! This took out both openers Krishna and Kamran Mansoor. At the other end Andy was proving unplayable with high lifting balls just outside off, well handled by Ralph. After 3 overs of Andy on came Don to keep up the pressure. Richie bowled M Khan for 19 and Rowlands were well in the game. However, GEM have a long batting line up. Ian Pratt soon bowled K Khan for 9 after relieving Richie and then Don trapped Faizal Ahmed plumb back foot lbw for 10. Good work brought a run out and saw Amna and Haris together with 6 down with 46 needed off the last 4 overs. Don and Pratty were getting movement and chances were going mainly to spaces as Davo protected the boundary. Andy took a catch of Harris (18) on the mid off boundary off Don and then came on to bowl a tight 15th over. He has 9th man caught by Ralph at the wicket but the occasional boundaries meant that only 7 were required off Pratty's last over. An adjudged wide narrowed the margin and singles with a final boundary off the 5th ball saw GEM narrowly home with Amn on 25*. Bowling: Richie 4-0-21-3, Andy 4-0-26-1, Don 4-0-27-2, Ian 3.5-0-33-1. Rowlands string of league defeats is now six in a row but we are getting ever closer to a first win!

Close call at Beamish

Rowlands batted first at Beamish on a soft wicket. Davo and the welcomed back Niall Penfold opened up well. 51 came off the first 4 overs until Niall was out caught for 34 (3 sixes and 2 fours). Ralph Appleby was then also caught in the fifth over, for a duck off Gary Johnson. James Welch joined Davo and the pair moved the score on well until Davo was caught off the slower Dixon in the 12th over for a MoM 51 including 2 sixes and 6 fours with the score up to 110. Roy hit a quickfire 11 with a no ball 6 and a 4 and Peter Griffin clobbered 15 also with a 4 and a 6. James Welch scored 23 with 3 fours and lots of worked singles, Richie was 3 not out and Ian Pratt sacrified on the last ball of the 16 overs, run out for 1.Rowlands made 150-7 with Dixon taking an economical 3-25, Johnson 2-37 and Young 2-45. Opener Richard Deacon bowled recorded 0-34. Alan , Brian Dickenson and Don were not required to bat on this occasion!

The Beamish reply had to contend with in form Richie Munro who clean bowled Anthony Ward for a duck in the first over. Richie went on to record 2-19 off 4 good overs. Ian Pratt bowled a variable first over which went for lots including 4 wides but he recovered well to lodge 1-57 off 4 overs as Alan persevered. Peter Griffin took an impressive 3-26 off his 4 overs and Don went for several boundaries in 2-0-28-1 with a stumping by Alan. Beamish were pegged back for much of the innings as wickets fell with Rowlands men Roy, Davo and Ralph taking good catches. However, Paul Lumley scored 30, Ryan McVitie 23 and Glen Craig 48* won the game. Niall bowled a tight 15th over for only 5 runs and Davo 5 balls of the last over with 3 runs being the required target. Beamish were home with 3 balls and 2 wickets to spare after a few heated controversial moments when Rowlands were denied a run out with Craig's ninth wicket partner intercepting a throw to the wicket via his bat. Certainly a close game

Rowland draw another blank at Ulgham.

Alan won the toss and elected to bat. Davo and Matt walked out confidently to Colin Tait's firm Ulgham strip but found difficulty in timing the ball. Davo was well caught at point off Richard Crawford for 4 singles. Colin himself came out and scored 10 including a valuable boundary before being bowled by Hussain. Craig was frustrated to be out to a simple caught behind by Amrit off Mir for 1. This brought Alan to the crease and he recorded twelve singles and a 4 through the covers before he retired to preserve a suspect hamstring. Meanwhile Matt was struggling on against the odds and some keen Kirkwood fielding to reach a MoM 43 (3 fours) before being caught off Usman. Chase Evans was run out 3, Adam and Richie both 1 not out as the innings petered out at the 14 overs mark. 96 for 4.5 wickets was never going to be enough unless the bowlers achieved insatant penetration. M Hussain figures of 6-1 off 2 overs summed up Rowlands frustrations.

The Kirkwood reply start on the back foot with a superb maiden over by Richie. Ian Pratt then had 10 knocked off a promising over as the left handed M Yaseen came to life. Next overs: Richie went for 11, Ian for 15 and Richie for 14 but then bowled Yaseen for 43 (5 fours and a six) so that Kirkwood were past the 50 mark at the end of the 5th over. Time for Don who bowled opener Mohammed for 8 with his second ball and completed the wicket maiden. Richie completed 4-1-34-1 and Parag Chauhan then took a liking to Don's second over that went for 14. Chase bowled a reasonable over for 13 runs and Don completed with 2.7-1-21-1 and Kirkwood were easily home with 8 wickets and 4.1 overs to spare. Numbers 3 and 4 bats made speed with Parag with 24 (3 fours and a six) not out and Usman 19 (2 fours and a six) not out. No contest this one but some highlights for Rowlands was a superb stop at square leg by Colin and some enthusiastic fielding by Adam and Chase. Thanks to Brian Dickenson for making up the full team at very short notice.

Rowlands rocked by Pins and continue league losing streak.

Alan won the toss and elected to bat, sending in confident new opener Fenwick Friskin with Davo. The pair put on 69 for the first wicket when Davo was caught behind for 13 (1 four) in the 6th over. Fenwick continued to dominate in the next partnership with Swalwell renegade James Welch. The pair scored steadily and batted through the remaining of the 14 overs. Fenwick impressed for his MoM 91 which included 7 fours, a five and 3 sixes. James made 27 (2 fours) in the total of 148-1.

The Pins were initially well restrained by Adam McTaggert and Richie Munro with about 40 coming off the first 6 overs and Alan standing up well behind the stumps. Adam had a reward with a catch by Davo. Alan then brought on Roy and Don and at this point Mark Gray began to open up, taking a stance outside of off stump and proving difficult to bowl to. Roy went for 30 off 2 and Don for 37 off three but had Michael Armstrong securely caught by Gary Hall for 22. Back came Adam whose last over was a disaster with boundary wides and two sixes from Gray to give him 4-0-57-1. Richie was back, still tight as ever to finish with 3.5-0-22-0, clearly yet again the best bowler for Rowlands on the night. Gray scored an undefeated 86 with his brother R Gray 26 not out as Pins came home by 8 wickets with more than an over to spare. Ten men Rowlands had expected to win this but it all turned very Gray!