The Banking Crisis

Sadly, another wonderful NEPL cricket season is reaching the final straight. With 3 league games to go, the top and bottom of both divisions is not as yet decided, but the likely outcomes are becoming clear. In the Premier, South North look to be in pole position to regain the title, which would be their eleventh out of the 18 years the competition has been in existence. Newcastle are in with a shout, having the bottom 3 sides left to play, but realistically South North would need to lose a game for it go as long as the final day as they hold a 42 point advantage. The relegation issue is tighter; South Shields are bottom, 14 points adrift of Felling and 16 of Whitburn, who have been in a dreadful run of form recently. I’d back Felling to get out of this because of the fight and spirit they’ve shown for most of the campaign and warrant there wouldn’t be many tears shed for the demise of the Westovians.

In Division 1, Sacriston hold a 30 point lead over Burnopfield with Bournmoor a further 4 points back. No-one would deny Sacriston the right to play top division cricket, especially after the manner of their final day heartbreak against Felling last year, when the umpires took them off for bad light with victory in sight. Down at the bottom, Mainsforth’s 2 year stay in the NEPL looks likely to end soon. They can catch Seaham Harbour, but probably won’t. Meanwhile, the race to replace the wooden spoonists continues apace. Rather than simply allowing another Durham League team in, as has been the case previously, the NEPL have decided that the winners (or runners up if the winners don’t want promotion) of the Durham League will play off against the winners (or runners up) of the Northumberland and Tyneside Senior League, where Swalwell and Shotley Bridge are engaged in a titanic tussle. Both have expressed an interest in promotion. I’ve not been to Shotley Bridge, but Swalwell’s new, if windswept, facility is good enough to host Northumberland one day games, so it’s good enough for the NEPL.

I have actually seen Shotley Bridge this season though, the final of the Tyneside Charity Bowl. Having lost the toss, the home side were invited to bat by a determined Shotley Bridge side, who fielded magnificently, restricting Tynemouth to a less than intimidating 92 all out. In that modest total, only club professional Khan, with a fluent 34 and captain Ben Debenham (21) showed any mastery of the conditions. However, some magnificent bowling by Khan, who took 4 wickets and a tight spell by Finn Longberg meant Shotley Bridge fell well behind the asking rate. That should not detract from the heroics of David Hymers, whose hat trick as part of 4 wickets in the final over, meant Tynemouth were able to claim victory by 18 runs as Shotley Bridge subsided to 74 all out. It’s always great to win some silverware and Shotley Bridge showed the determination and organization to suggest they could do more than simply survive in the NEPL.

In the Durham League, Castle Eden are currently top, but the rumours are that no club wants to make the step up, so we shall see what happens. One rather brilliant eccentricity is that if weather prevents any play-off game happening before 30^th September, the NEPL management will do a paper based audit to decide who deserves the Division 1 spot. Marvellous eh? As regards the knock-out competitions, the First XI 20/20 was won by South North, who have now made it to the national club finals. The Second XI 20/20 saw Washington, conquerors of Tynemouth, take the title. The 3^rd XI Cup went to Seaham Harbour, while Chester le Street took the Midweek Shield and Gateshead Fell the Midweek League. The First XI Salver saw Newcastle beat Benwell Hill in the final, while the Second XI Bowl sees South North, conquerors of Tynemouth in the semis, host Sacriston on Bank Holiday Monday. The three Sunday divisions are also nearing completion, but I’ll return to them next time, as I’d like to spend a bit of time discussing the Banks Salver, which has been inordinately controversial in some quarters.

 

I’ve been quite lucky in seeing several games in the Banks Salver this season. After my last cricket blog, in which I talked about Tynemouth’s fraught success at Eppleton and Newcastle’s demolition of Sunderland, the situation was that we had reached the semi-final stage; Tynemouth were at home to Benwell Hill and Newcastle entertained Burnopfield, with the winners of the latter tie having drawn the right to host the final, with Sunday 20^th August identified as the date. The semi-finals were supposedly on Sunday 23^rd July, but Newcastle’s game didn’t even get started. Meanwhile, Tynemouth were thwarted by the weather. In the Banks Salver semi-final, the home side had Benwell Hill in a measure of distress at 96/5, courtesy of a pair of wickets each for Tahir Khan and David Hymers, after 26 overs when torrential rain washed the contest out, which finally gave me a chance to have a catch up in the pavilion with Phil Nicholson, Hill batsman and Twitter mainstay. As per the rules of the competition, the score was expunged and the sides started afresh the week after. Being invited to bat this time around, Tynemouth made a very poor effort, registering 147 all out with Chris Fairley top scoring with an obdurate 30 not out. The only other scores of note were a breezy 26 by Matt Brown and determined knocks by David Hymers and Andrew Smith of 16 apiece. In reply, Benwell Hill strolled to an effortless 8 wicket win with 25 overs to spare with Kyle Coetzer and Sameet Brar batting with fluency to build on an explosive 35 from 4 overs by opener Nick Jones. Frankly, the chance for Tynemouth had come and gone the week before and it was a depressingly one sided game, lit up by the stroke play of Coetzer and Brar. Still, well done to the Hill, who are a great club.

The Newcastle v Burnopfield semi-final didn’t take place until 6^th August, as Northumberland were playing at Jesmond the last weekend in July. Sadly, I’ve not been along to any of the Northumberland 3 day games this season, mainly because I felt less than compelled to do so after being unceremoniously blocked by their Twitter account; this may seem childish, but I found it a very disappointing way to repay my enthusiasm and attempts to publicise the team over the past few years. Instead, I stuck with club cricket, watching Tynemouth’s loss to Benwell Hill instead. This did mean I could get to see the second semi-final when it took place on a heavy, overcast afternoon.

Things were all well and good early on as Newcastle posted an impressive 231/5 from a reduced 33 overs, with Alastair Appleby’s 84 the star turn, though Josh Phillippe’s 48 and an unbeaten 49 by Sean Tindale helped set a testing 7 runs an over. This was perhaps a little skewed in Newcastle’s favour as they’d benefitted from 15 overs “Power Play,” an ugly term but we’ll go with it, because the game started on time and the first 15 overs were bowled without interruption. That said when the rain came to curtail the Newcastle innings, things looked so bleak I cycled round home to watch the second half of Newcastle’s friendly with Hellas Verona through the club website. It was dull, but thankfully the afternoon and the weather perked up, as I received tweets from JDT, Oli McGee and Phil Hudson to say the game was restarting around 4.30.

 

Cycling back down, I happened upon a sight similar to the current state of diplomatic relations between DPRK and the Great Satan. Any fractious enmity was not about the recalculated total (141) or number of overs available (20; the minimum required to constitute a proper game), but about the length of the Power Play. Like many things, the conditions of play for the NEPL Banks Salver are a starting point for discussion rather than a definitive set of answers, which will no doubt see retrospective semantic nuancing for next year’s competition. Debate ranged from whether the Power Play should be 6 overs, as per the instructions for games of 20 overs, 15 overs for full games of 45 overs or the potential compromise of 9 overs, as that was about the same percentage as Newcastle had enjoyed in their innings. The browbeaten umpires had JDT in one ear and Burnopfield’s Gareth Breese, who at close quarters looks like the sort of bloke you’d best not push in front of in a Bigg Market taxi queue on Christmas Eve, in the other. Hard competitors, not giving an inch; arguing their respective corners with steely determination. Breese won the debate and Burnopfield chased the runs down with 3 balls to spare, courtesy of a 15 over Power Play that, in all subsequent debate about the game, I’ve yet to find a single person who believed it to be a correct decision, either in the laws or spirit of the game. At the end of the game though, sportsmanship thankfully prevailed, albeit reluctantly, and handshakes were exchanged, followed by a social hour in the bar.

However, the story was not to end there. Newcastle, having been informed by a senior umpire who knows about these things, that they had grounds for appeal, engaged the services of Hudson and Hudson Cricket Attorneys. The NEPL upheld Newcastle’s complaint and decreed that the game would have to be replayed on Sunday 20^th August. To me, it seemed an eminently sensible decision, but Burnopfield demurred and withdrew from the competition immediately. I’m unsure if this was in a fit of pique, or whether it was because they’d struggle to get a side out, as a number of senior players had already committed to attending Paul Collingwood’s testimonial game at the Emirates and swanky dinner afterwards. Their choice, but Burnopfield’s loss, as Newcastle and Benwell Hill played out a magnificent game that must be the best I’ve seen all season. One wonders, of course, what Burnopfield would have done if they’d been required to play the final on the date stipulated.

Batting first, Newcastle started methodically after losing Alastair Appleby for 1 and Cameron Steel for 17. JDT came to the crease and hammered a quick-fire 35 before Coetzer had him LBW. At this point, Josh Phillippe went through the gears; after scratching his way to 30, he suddenly unleashed his inner Chris Gayle, reaching 162 not out from 119 balls with 15 fours and 9 sixes, most of which required lengthy stoppages to rescue missing balls from the graveyard or Osborne Avenue gardens. Messrs. Du Toit and Coetzer would have surely admired the young Aussie’s effortless savagery, though the Hill would have been alarmed at an intimidating final total of 284/8. Sadly Ben McGee was unable to play, having been required to work in his job as a TV licence detector van drone. His brother made the most tremendous entrance to the field of play when batting. The enthusiasm he carried was too much for his little legs to take and he almost careered face first into the turf after a Harold Lloyd style stumble. Well done Oli.

To give Benwell Hill full credit, they made a hell of a good fist of it, falling only 31 runs short. At the top of the innings, Phil Nicholson contributed a dogged 56, but wickets kept falling. When Sameet Brar quickly followed Coetzer, caught behind by that man Phillippe from the bowling of Steel, back to the changing rooms, it seemed as if Newcastle would win with something to spare. Enter Hill pro Haseeb Azam who smashed 63 from 43 balls to put his side back in contention until JDT intervened; a run out, a pair of catches and a couple of wickets, the last fittingly a catch by Phillippe, saw Newcastle home. It was a game where the casual spectator was caught up in the beauty, the intrigue and the drama of events; one left the ground with palms smarting from generous, repeated applause as to the efforts of all involved.  The only drawback being the endless retelling by A Trotter Esq of his dismissal of Marcus North the day before which, as the afternoon progressed and libations were enjoyed, took on the kind of semi-mystical aura of Warne against Gatting in 1993.

 

In all seriousness, it was a wonderful advert for the local game and, while it was a pity that Burnopfield chose not to accept the offer of a replay, the fact is they would almost certainly have lost against Newcastle in the first game if the Power Play had been correctly applied. Followers of other clubs, who tearfully raged over social media with banal impotence in an unpleasantly personal manner about the supposed favouritism shown by the management committee’s decision, ought to take a long hard look at themselves and shamefacedly apologise for their immoderate language and rampant paranoia. This is cricket; uphold and respect the traditions of the game please. Either that, or consider your response in light of, or properly in darkness of, a certain FA Vase floodlight failure last season…

So, where else have I been? Following Tynemouth mainly. On the day after the Shotley Bridge cup win, Stockton visited Preston Avenue. When Tynemouth had faced Stockton away earlier in the season in the North East Premier League, they’d shaded a tight contest by 2 runs and the margin of victory at Preston Avenue was almost as tight in the return fixture. This did not seem to be likely when, in a rain reduced contest, Finn Longberg’s superb spell of bowling (5/15) restricted Stockton to 102/9 declared. In response, the home team were cruising to victory on 91/3, with Stewart Poynter, who had already taken a pair of the finest, most athletic catches of the season, contributing an elegant 53, when he was controversially run out. A sense of collective panic then afflicted the middle order, with the game up for grabs at 96/7. However the Bearded Brothers, Hymers and wicket keeper Chris Fairley saw Tynemouth home without further mishap, to move the team up to 8^th in the Premier Division at the two thirds point of the season.

The week after, it was South Shields away, which gave me a chance to cycle to the game; down the Fish Quay, across on the Ferry rather than biking on water, then through the parts of Laygate, Chichester and Westoe the guidebooks don’t tell you about; the hideous pubs, dilapidated housing and beautiful Mosque. Wood Terrace is undoubtedly the worst ground in the Premier Division, in terms of facilities. While lacking the confrontational brusqueness that can be prevalent at Eppleton for those of us with north of Tyne addresses and accents, Shields isn’t a place I enjoy visiting, mainly as it just looks like it’s falling down, which apparently will be the case when they move to a new sporting hub athwart the John Reid Road at the Temple Park end. Hopefully the grass on the new outfield will be shorter, as if it was your next door’s lawn looking like that; you’d be on the phone to the Environmental Health.

Tynemouth were hampered by a weakened attack; Sean Longstaff was making his Blackpool debut and Finn Longberg was out on the gargle. As such, Shields had made a leisurely 92/3 at lunch, when I headed off to see Northern League new boys Jarrow at home in a final pre-season friendly against Washington. Their Perth Green ground on Inverness Road in the Scotch (not Scottish) Estate is functional and improved; lights, hard standing and a small stand like Ryhope CW. Their team wasn’t bad either, destroying a totally disorganized Washington side 4-0, for whom former Whitley Bay striker Adam Shanks was a shadow of his former self.

Full time and I head back down to the cricket; it wasn’t a game to last long in the memory. The home side made 160/9 declared after 56 overs. Luke Elliott was top scorer with 45, while Andrew Smith (3/42) and Martin Pollard (3/20) proved to be the most effective bowlers. In response, Tynemouth never seriously challenged the seemingly less than imposing total, though the Wood Terrace ground is notoriously difficult to score on. Nevertheless, to be 91/7 was a sign of poor batting and with 20 overs to go, defeat seemed inevitable. Thankfully resolute batting by Andrew Smith (29 not out) and Chris Fairley (17 not out) staved off another loss. Indeed, if it weren’t for the pair’s totemic obduracy, then it could have been a second loss of the season to Shields and the cause for much wailing and breast beating up High Heworth Lane.

 

The football season returned on 5^th August, so I was detained at Benfield 1 West Allotment 0 in the FA Cup, before arriving at Preston Avenue just on tea. We’d made 166/7 and that seemed positively dashing when compared to Whitburn’s response. Despite being dangerously close to the relegation spot, they made no attempt at getting the runs and crawled to a funereal 71/3 after 37 overs when the rain thankfully intervened. It rained for a couple of days; indeed on Tuesday 8^th August, Whitley Bay 4 Seaham Red Star 1 was like a November night, with driving rain and howling winds. Scarcely believably, 24 hours later saw a glorious sunny evening for the oft-delayed quarter final of the Roseworth Trophy at Preston Avenue. Visitors Boldon 2nds batted first and made a respectable 135/5, but some virtuoso hitting by Marcus Turner and Graeme Hallam saw an 8 wicket win with overs to spare. Sadly, the 2nds came up short in the semi-final away to Ryhope CC.

 

As Laura and I were celebrating my birthday with Sunday lunch at Dave and Heather’s, there was no game for me on 13^th August or 19^th either, because I was down in Goole watching Benfield win 2-1 in the FA Cup. Consequently, the only other game to mention is the remnants of the Newcastle v Tynemouth game I caught after travelling back from Benfield’s astonishing 7-3 win at Bishop Auckland. Having made 136/8 on another rain ruined day, I get there with Newcastle 55/2. Tynemouth try their best, but lose by 5 wickets. JDT is out for 0, but he got 150 for Northumberland the next day. Such a shame I wasn’t able to see it.

So, it’s 42 games at 15 different grounds at the time of writing. Sadly, it doesn’t look possible to complete the whole of the NEPL this year, what with Burnopfield withdrawing from the Banks, Mainsforth being almost inaccessible and Brandon and Willington being washed out on the day I wanted to visit. That said I intend to make 50 games by the middle of September, weather permitting. I’ll let you know if I do. Or even if I don’t.