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Much Banter at Beamish!

Rowlands won the toss at the Thunderdrone and Davo asked our vocal hosts to bat first. With extremely short boundaries, huge scores are likely and surrounding houses get peppered most nights! The scene was intimidating but Rowlands two youngsters Sam Thornton and Jack stood up well to the occasion. Richie and Davo opened the attack. Richie bowled a fantastic spell of 3-0-4-3 with Archie behind the stumps taking a smart catch to dismiss Ward for 12, a super-swift stumping to get Craig for 4 and the middle stum of opener Nixon uprooted for a duck. davo bowled a good line and length with 2-0-17-2 so that Beamish were on 29-3 off 5 overs. Ian Younger entered the attack and bowled a useful 4-0-40-0 in the circumstances and was unlucky with two chances dropped and being denied several hopeful LBW appeals well supported by the ever alert Archie but not the umpire! On the other hand, Don only lasted one over that went for 20 and claimed two sets of roof tiles! Roy took over from Don and his first over went for only 5 but the second for 18 with two more houses hit. Davo returned to complete a competitive 3-0-25-0. Richie bowled the last over which went for only 7 and claimed THREE more wickets: Ryan McVittie caught by Ritzy for 48 (2 fours and 3 sixes), Young caught by Sam for a duck and Chris Bowes bowled for a duck. Richie won man of the match with an incredible 4-0-11-6. Gary Christie was left on 50 not out (3 fours and 3 sixes) with Beamish pegged back at 126-6 off 14 overs.

Rowlands suffered an early blow when Ben was caught for a duck on the square leg boundary after chipping rather than hitting Adam Tinnion off a ball on his leg stump. The banter in the field went up by many decibels! Ritzy and Davo who joined him then took the score on well in a superb partnership against aggressive bowling. Davo had his best innings of the season for Rowlands with 43 (6 fours and a six) when he was bowled by the spin of Richard Deacon. Deacon also accounted for Roy who score 3 after struggling to see and time the ball as the gloom descended among the surrounding trees. Ritzy battled on bravely, patricularly against the pace of Christy to survive with 48 (6 fours and a six). Colin Thornton hit 6 singles but the run chase faltered in the final overs as Beamish turned the screw, upped the volume and used all their experiences of the home venue to their advantage. This was a good effort by Davo and Ritzy but 114-3 saw Rowlands lose by 12 runs. We gained 3 points with 7 going to Beamish; not a bad effort and thanks to the youngsters who did the scoring.

For the record: Beamish bowlers were: Tinnion 3-0-29-1, Christie 4-0-23-0, Deacon 4-0-24-2, Bowes 2-0-22-0, Ward 1-0-6-0.

Safety for Ulgham as O'Brien hits a ton.

Adders won the final toss of the season at Ulgham and Rowlands were more than happy to be inserted. Ben and Chris both opened up with typical intelligent aggression and moved the score on well. Chris was bowled by Dan Clark for 42 (six 4s) with the score on 67 in only the 7th over. Davo joined Ben and played second fiddle to student of the magnificent drive. Ben ammassed 111 not out with an array of shots of which Nelson would have been proud. This included ten 6s and five 4s and three lost balls. Davo gave up most of the strike with a series of singles in his 15 not out. Rowlands accumulated 175-1 off 14 overs with Andy Bryant going for 45 off 4, Dan Clark 1-30 0ff 4, Young 36 off 2, Kevin Doyle 48 off 3 and Kevin Hudspith 16 off 1.

The Bomarsund strike pairing of Craig Robinson and Adam McTaggert introduced via team coach Colin Thornton opened up sharply and took out the first 4 Addermen despite some sharp chances behind off Craig going down. Craig claimed 2-15 off 3 and Adam 2-16 off his 3 overs. Alan had stood up well to the challenge of these speed merchants and for once we had up to two slips and a gully! This was power play from Rowlands with secure catches by Ben and Gary. Time for the so-called spin twins next with Don and Ian mopping up the rest of the innings. Don took 2-11 off 3 thanks to a fine catch into the sun by Gary and Ian 3-12 off 2.4 aided by his own catch of the night behind umpire Steve Flanagan's right ear. Otherwise all wickets were bowled and there was no need for LBWs, only that Adders had one man missing. The fielding was keen as ever with Roy and Phil showing they were still fresh after their appreciated scoring duties! Rowlands consolidated their staus with a 10 points to 1 win with Adders dismissed for 70 and victory by 105 runs!

Trap door beckons as 152 not enough!!

At Cowgate Alan elected to bat and sent in the returnnig Ben O Brian with the now regular Chris Robson. The pair opened uip well and runs flowed. By the 5th over, the score was on 54 but Chris was run out for 23 (four 4s). Davo came in at 3 and the pair batted through for 152 hit mainly by Ben, especially two sixes in the last over to add to his previous four 4s in 76 not out. Davo was restricted to a series of singles as he kept picking out fielders with his correct strokes; he made 34 with two 4s. Rowlands posted 152-1 held up mid innings by A Ali with 25-0 off 4 and Choudry 0-20 off 3.

The Kirkwood response got off to a fast start with 13 coming off Davo's first over. This set the scene. The book is confused but these are the deduced figures.
Davo 3-0-33-1
Chris Robson 4-0-33-2
Adam McTaggert 3.4-0-20-2
Ian Younger 4-0-30-2 (who keeps up his record of a wicket in every match he has played this season !)
Don 1-0-17-0

Kirkwood's batsmen shared the runs; all were aggressive and they made the total with 4 balls to spare with a boundary just beyond the catching hands of Ian protecting the short side of the field. Pick of the bowlers was Adam, guest brought along by Colin Thornton. Don got the worst of Abdullah's aggression (35) and there were many specialist fielders on the night. Chris took 2 catches and James Slater who did some superb stops for the cause one catch. Kirkwood's 153-7 included Choudry's 26, A Kak 23 and Amjad 18 not out.

Rowlands took 4 points to Kirkwood's 7. Three games to go!

Rowlands Tumbling towards trap door.

Alan lost the toss and Genetics decided to bat. Jonny Bennet was the mainstay, making 54 before falling in the 13th over with the score then 99-6. Richie Munro bowled 4-0-19-2, bowling danger man Andy Jeffery for only 6. Chad Koen bowled his 4 overs off the belt with an impressive 2-22, one bowled one LBW. Then it was the turn of the slower men. Don was expensive with 4-0-36-1 but Ian who also went for 30 took 4 important wickets with 4-0-30-4, including two smart stumpings by Alan. Otherwise LBW seemed to be the order of the day with cross batting not paying off. Genetics set their target of 116-9.

Alan shuffled his pack for the reply but failed to produce the aces at the right time. Openers Bob Tulip and Chris Robson mixed boundaries with caution against a respectable attack, particularly Johnty Tarbuck, until he lost line and bowled some wides. Chris was out to a stunning catch by Dave Heslop for 23 (five 4s) and Bob made 27 (a 6 and three 4s). There was a guest appearance from Gary Hall at 3 who made 2 and when Bob was third out the score was 65 in the 10th over. Game still on but bowling was accurate. Brian Taylor off a short run, Andy Goulding slow stuff and finally Krisnan kept the brakes on. Roy was caught for 11 (two 4s), Phil 16 with two 4s, Craig 8 including a six, Alan 4 leaving Ian 5 not out (a 4) and Richie who had 2 balls to hit 12 runs a four not out. Genetics won by 6 runs. Rowlands 110-7. The hard hitting Chad and the irrepressible Don did not bat.

Rowlands Slip back to losing ways at Ulgham.

With rain around Ulgham threatening but not interfering with play, Rowlands fell to a second defeat by Old Record Players; this one much closer than at Bullocksdreads. Rowlands batted first with Chris Robson and Davo looking a confident opening pair. However, the bowling was good with Xohaib Shahid and Colin Quigley bowling a full length. Davo fell to a good catch low down on the off side off Quigley for 11 including two 4s. Matt joined Chris and the pair progressed to 41 in the 5th over before Chris was unhappy to be sawn off LBW to Quigley. Chris made a reasonably fast 23 with two 4s. Matt only hit one boundary in a slower 17 before being bowled by Digvijay with the score on 88 in the 13th over. Meanwhile Bob Tulip, slightly tired from 6-a-side exertions and responsibilities the day before, had built an innings based on sporadic hitting and well worked singles. He and Roy completed the innings with both batsmen frustrated by the guile of Tony Glover. Bob made a MoM 38 not out (three 4s and a 6) and Roy 13 not out with two consecutive 4s early on. Rowlands posted 119-3 off 16. Bowling for the Players was Xohaib 0-35, Quigley 2-15, Digvijay 1-37 and Glover 0-24.

Could Rowlands contain the aggression expected from the Players? Unfortunately not quite and especially with the start they got. Ayan Charravartty launched into the bowling of Richie Munro and extracted 24 off his second over. Davo had 12 knocked off his second over to bring up 52 off the first 4. Time for Don and he had Adam Holroyd facing. After 2 promising dots the third ball was hit to the silver birch tree at cow corner where Roy found his fingers were not quite long enough. However this was 6 and out in the same over as Matt took a stumping. With Ian Younger also keeping runs down at the other end, Rowlands were steadily coming back into the game. Don trapped Jason Tenniswood for 8 after unsuccessfully claiming the same victory over Ayan who was still going well. However, Ian dismissed him in the same manner for his 43 which included seven 4s and a 6. Don completed 4-0-20-2 with accurate full length bowling (despite two 4s and that 6) and Ian an effective 4-0-26-1 (three wides and three 4s). Players were by now on 98-3 off 12. Richie finally arrived when recalled! He took out the middle stumps of Quigley (9) and Murray (1) although 7 and 6 runs were taken off his second spell to give him 4-0-44-2. Davo had the task of bowling a very tight final over, with only 3 required, but Xohaib hit the winning boundary off the fifth ball, bringing up 123-5. Davo recorded 3.5-0-25-0 with the ball zipping through low to Matt.

Three points were gained in a fascinating encounter but the end result was a disappointment with perhaps some slack fielding the difference; or was it not enough runs; or was it the lack of early penetration? Perhaps they were just better than us on the night, especially MoM Ayan, it can happen!