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29th June. Rowlands faced Aidan House at Bullocksteads on a gloomy evening and agreed to a 14 over game. Skipper Matt Hynd was nervous that the novel look RCA side of a bare ten, including three new faces from Tynemouth would not be good enough for a full blooded encounter. However, Aidan House themselves were below strength, also partially to do with the ODI at the Riverside. Matt won the toss and elected to bat, putting himself in the driving seat with welcomed back Nick Tomlinson as co-pilot. Unfortunately Nick was not so slick this time and went for a cheap 3 in the second over. Runs were clearly going to be difficult owing to a dodgy pitch and thick grassy outfield. Guy Scholes came and went for 5, Adrian Conway chipped in with a valuable 8 but only Matt was able to score consistently through a series of quick singles and with 2 fours. Justin Smart ducked out to a snorter first ball and then the Tynemouth contingent of Brian Smith, Peter McLeod and Omer Mahmood added a useful few runs but when Matt was caught at the wicket for 28 it looked like the score would be well short of something decent. A single batting point was teased out in the final total of 76-8. The early tight bowling of M. Brown and A. White, both 4 overs 1-13 was surpassed by Steve Felton who rattled through 3 overs with 4-12.
The unusual opening combination of Jeff Thomson and Don Catley cut straight to the jugular of Aidan House. Wickets fell at the rate of approximately one per over during these opening four over spells with Jeff taking 3-17 and Don 3-13 to leave the Housemen struggling at around 30-6 and well behing the low asking rate. Omer Mahmood and Nick Tomlinson finished off the job and the game was over after 10.3 overs and by 8:15, well ahead of the forecast heavy rain. There were excellent catches from Justin Smart, Jeff Thomson, Brian Smith and Adrian Conway which helped to accelerate the demise of the hosts and secure 9 points to push Rowlands well ahead at the top of the League.
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