Darlington and District Cricket League
A Division Cup final
Raby Castle 128-8
Haughton 119-7
RABY turned the tables on Haughton to claim the first silverware of the season.
Haughton had run out comfortable winners when the two sides met in the league five days before this 20-over clash, which was played at Feethams.
Asked to bat first after losing the toss, opener Simon Lee hit a brisk 36 from 29 balls, while skipper Dan Lee chipped in with 22 as Raby posted 128.
It was a decent, if not imposing, total and while Haughton openers Sam Bainbridge and Danny McGuire were on their way to adding 70 for the first wicket, it looked well within the side’s reach.
But while the wickets did not come early, bowlers Mark Humble and James Forster kept things tight, both going for less than a run-a-ball.
After first McGuire (33) and then Bainbridge (42) fell, the scoring rate had risen considerably and Simon Lee took full advantage as his slow left armers claimed 4-31 and Haughton were left nine runs adrift.
While Dan Lee picked up the cup, brother Simon lifted the man-of-the-match award for his all round effort.
League round-up
BARNINGHAM’S bowlers were put to the sword by Aldbrough St John’s in-form batting line-up on Saturday.
After taking 311 off Catterick’s bowlers the previous week, the ASJ top order was in no mood to let up and scored at just under seven an over to reach 275-6 in their 40 overs.
Matthew Brown (37) and Martin Ferguson, who went on to make 95, put on 98 for the first wicket.
Carl Irving’s three wicket burst helped Barningham back into the game before Tom Pickering smashed an unbeaten 69.
Irving finished with 4-71 from his ten overs, while Charles Metcalfe bowled eight tidy overs picking up 1-25.
Barningham’s struggles with the bat continued and for a second week they were indebted to skipper Rob Stanwix for ensuring they did at least reach respectability.
Stanwix made 70 out of his side’s all out total of 132, with five batsmen failing to trouble the scorers.
With no game for Raby Castle this week, Haughton took advantage to stretch their lead at the top of the table with a straightforward win against East Cowton.
Cowton won the toss and chose to bat first, but were bowled out for 107, which posed few problems for the Haughton top three and the leaders romped to a nine wicket win.
Middleton St George moved up to third place with a comfortable enough win against Cockerton.
Stars of the show for MSG as far as the batting was concerned were Sam and Josh Binks.
Sam smashed 87 while Josh added 72 as MSG posted 240, with the last wicket falling in their final over.
Gary Warr picked up another four wickets for Cockerton and there were two each for Matthew Gill and Josh Evans.
In reply, opener Simon Broughton hit 85 off just 78 balls to keep Cockerton in the hunt, but there was no other significant contribution and the innings closed on 199.
At the bottom of the table, there was a low scoring thriller between Catterick and Witton-le-Wear.
Joe Oselton’s spell of 5-9 in 4.4 overs looked to have settled affairs as Witton-le-Wear were dismissed for 85 in just 23.4 overs.
However, Adam Nelson hit back with four wickets of his own and, amazingly, Oselton hit 60 as Catterick crept home by just two wickets.
In the B division, Lands were awarded the points for a win and stay top after Ingleton-based King James conceded the fixture.
Middleton-in-Teesdale got back to winning ways against ten-man Haughton II.
Anth Coatsworth returned from injury to top score with 47 as Middleton posted 208-6. There were useful contributions from Piers Burgess (36) and Hamish Carter (35no).
Carter then took 3-39 and James Wood 3-47 as Haughton were dismissed for 139.
At Oxbridge, the hosts lost just two wickets but only scored 131 in their 40 overs against a Raby Castle II side which featured a couple of the players who had lifted the A division cup earlier in the week.
However, Oxbridge’s total proved to be enough as Raby could only reply with 119, despite Joe Beadle’s 62.
Wayne Birch was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with 4-26.
At Cliffe, Ian Hamner batted through for an unbeaten 58 as the hosts closed on 193-3, a target which proved too many for Richmond V, who were bowled out for 130.
Sam Potter hit 51 in Eryholme’s 178-7 – but Spennymoor reached the target thanks to a sixth wicket stand of 96 between Neil Parkin (49) and Neil McGough (46no).
In the C division, Chris Bennett made 55 as Etherley were bowled out for 137 by Middleton Tyas.
Try as they might, Etherley’s bowlers could not make the breakthrough at Tyas won by ten wickets as skipper Matt Hutchinson finished with 63 and Phil MacMahon 39.
l The B Division cup final between Lands and Richmond V, which was due to be staged this week, has been put back to Tuesday, July 13.
The league management committee agreed to the switch because the fixture clashed with England’s final group game in the Euro 2020 competition.
Junior cricket
Raby Castle U13 v Evenwood
RABY U13s maintained their unbeaten start to the league season when they beat a Covid and injury depleted Evenwood side by more than 100 runs.
Raby won the toss and decided to bat first.
Despite the early loss of a couple of wickets, Raby’s middle order batsmen Noah Hoyle (32 not out) and Alex Payne (32 not out) batted well and then a rapid 21 not out by Reuben Gillhespy saw Raby reach 148 off their 20 overs
In reply, a very young Evenwood side found runs hard to come by and their innings closed on 35.
William Poole, with 3-2, Beth Poole 2-3, Reuben Gillhespy 2-4, Will Page 1-3 and Alex Payne 1-4 were the Raby wicket takers.
Alex Payne was man-of-the-match for his all round performance and Rueben
Gillhespy took the fielding award for his bowling and a terrific catch.
