County Durham leagues
Jul 14 2008 The Journal
KIMBLESWORTH completed a superb weekend in spectacular fashion yesterday by destroying Willington – whose spell in second place lasted just 24 hours.
Adam Cochrane (120) continued his own purple patch with a glorious innings that quickly took the game away from the visitors, and with Aron Andrich (67) and Lee Wright (45) also flying Willington were left facing a mammoth score of 286-5. Unsurprisingly they fell well short as Andrich (4-33) and Kevin Dixon (3-25) completed the rout to cement Kimblesworth’s position as league leaders.
Esh Winning reclaimed second spot as John Carmedy (77) overcame the wiles of Sachin Rana (6-38) to help Esh post a score of 164. Then Tudhoe completely collapsed to 37 all-out.
Shildon moved into third place as they won a tight contest with Mainsforth. Phil Timmens led the Railwaymen to a score of 167-8 with an unbeaten half century, and then despite West Indian Brian Yearwood hitting 64 in response the visitors fell 19 runs short of their target.
Crook Town were yesterday’s top scorers with a massive total of 293-6 against Hylton, Faisal Hussain unbeaten with 147 to his name, and Omar Shahid hitting the ball a long way in his knock of 83.
Hylton were always on a hiding to nothing after that and Jamie Robinson (5-42) duly applied the finishing touches for Crook.
At the opposite end of the table, Langley Park secured a crucial victory over Brandon to pull well clear of the relegation slot. Brandon had no answer to the bowling of Fahman Ahmed who whipped out five batsmen for just 13 runs to leave the visitors with just 94 to their name, a total passed with eight wickets to spare by Park.
In yesterday’s other game Ushaw Moor overwhelmed Etherley as Scott Nattrass (5-8) and Ian Corrick (5-22) ran riot to bowl the home side out for just 31, a total Moor passed without loss.
On Saturday Kimblesworth had beaten champions Esh Winning to replace them at the top of the table.
A delayed start couldn’t halt Willington as they swept aside Langley Park to go Neil Davies (4-19) and Gary Cummings (3-14) were responsible for closing Park down for 94.
It was then over to ‘super Sam’ as New Zealander Wells (61) continued his form with nine fours and one six in his unbeaten knock. He then took the hosts through to a 10-wicket win in 18 overs.
And Shildon gained their expected win over bottom club Brandon.
All six matches started in the Warmseal Durham Senior League on Saturday, but they only served to widen the gap between the top two and the rest as Burnmoor and Hetton Lyons were the only teams to win, with the other games ending in stalemates.
Burnmoor collected another 29 points beating visitors Horden to go clear at the top.
John Tindale led the run spree with a 70 that included eight fours and two sixes and with Graham Wright (50) and Barry Dews (36) lending support, Moor reached 206-4. Scott Birks stuck to his task with the ball, taking three wickets in 15 overs.
The home team’s attack proved too good for Horden who folded for 79. Ian Conn bowled 13 overs and collected four wickets, while Michael Callaghan ended with 3-7 from 3.4 overs, the innings wrapped up in 33.4 overs.
Hetton Lyons, despite conceding billing as joint leaders, secured 27 points to remain two points adrift of the champions. Paul Riddle (74no) and Ryan Pringle (40) gave the hosts a solid start against Eppleton, but then Matthew Jane went through the home line-up, his 5-43 turning the game as Hetton went for 165.
Any thoughts Eppleton had of tweaking the Lyons’ tail were dispelled by Surappulige Malinga who proved almost unplayable. Four quick wickets, three to Malinga, knocked the stuffing out of the visitors and with Malinga finishing with 6-33 Lyons roared to a 69-run victory. The leading pair are 53 points clear of the field.
With Castle Eden frustrated by the weather in the 3D Durham Coast League Ryhope missed a chance to forge ahead at the top when they slipped to defeat against Boldon CA.
CA had scorers throughout the order as they put on 183-8. Then Karl Bellerby shattered Ryhope dreams as he blew away the hosts’ top order. Stephen Wright, at number eight, conjured hopes of an escape as he blasted an unbeaten 84 before Bellerby claimed the winning wicket to end with 6-73.
Murton suffered more than most last week when they had both league games washed out and lost ground on the two leaders. But they still hold the only unbeaten record after disposing of Easington.
It was the tried-and-trusted bowling duo of Joe Dodd and Calvin Stephenson who were the tormentors. They bowled unchanged, Dodd with 14 overs as he picked up 5-42, and Stephenson with 5-36, his 13-over spell including a hat-trick.
Gary Ward did his best to ruffle the Murton feathers with two wickets but there were not enough runs in the bank for Easington as the visitors eased to a seven-wicket win. In the only other game played an undefeated half century from Anthony Gale and a five-wicket haul from Mark Ewart spearheaded Dawdon’s 41-run win over Silksworth.
CHRIS WEST
