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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.
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