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Rowlands put out the Fire!

Rowlands met the Firemen in a Cup Preliminary Round tie at Tynemouth and faced two stars brought in for the night by Andy Lineham. The presence of Barry Stewart and Grant Lindsay suggested formidable opposition. The Firemen elected to bat first and soon lost both of their openers. Chad bowled Peter Hamil second ball and then Don took out Collins, bowled in an opening wicket maiden. The Lineham and Stewart combination settled in first then the big shots came to see off Don 3-1-20-1 and Chad 4-0-40-1. Phil Morse was up to the challenge and had Lineham comfortably caught for 33 (2 fours, 3 sixes) by Alan and continued with a mean spell of bowling. Davo accounted for Stewart 35 (4 fours, 1 six), well caught in the deep by confident Craig. When Craig also caught Lindsay in the deep off Morse the Firemen were never going to reach a high score. Phil picked up two cheap late wickets thanks to alert stumpings by Dave Gowland to record the Man of the Match figures of 3.8-0-10-6! Davo took a catch for Phil and recorded 3-0-21-1 as the Firemen succumbed to the excellent bowling and Alan's ever shuffled pack of fielders.

The target was 97 to win but would the newly recruited fire officers do the damage? Shepherd and Hamil opened the bowling attack but their efforts were well dealt with by Matt and Davo who pushed the score on rapidly. 35 runs came off the first 4 overs and then Colin McGuire and Stewart joined the attack. Boundaries came off McGuire who claimed Matt given out LBW by Hynd Snr. for a valuable 18 (2 fours). At the other end Stewart bowled slow stuff that was much enjoyed by Davo who hit three towering sixes and the tiles on the pavilion roof! Davo went on to make 65 not out including 8 fours and those 3 sixes. Phil came in to hit 1 run not out as the target was reached in only 8.5 overs; Linday having been confined to duties on the boundary. Rowlands must now return to Gateshead Fell to progress from the first round proper