Drowning, not Waving

Wet and miserable times for Tynemouth 3s during the rainy season...

Saturday 8^th July:

The Mouth of the Tyne Festival may have brought many visitors to Tynemouth for a joyous weekend of musical entertainment, but for Tynemouth Cricket Club, the results on the pitch were as gloomy as the skies overhead, with two games washed out and two others seeing heavy defeats. The first XI hosted Whitburn while the second XI made the reverse trip down the coast to the Village Ground, with severe rain putting paid to the chances of a result in both contests.

At Preston Avenue, Whitburn batted first and, in the 33 overs possible before the deluge, made 120-2. This comprised a century opening stand by Ethan Chivers (68*) and Lee Henderson (32), which ended on 107 when the latter was dismissed by Andrew Smith, who was soon back in the thick of it, catching Muhaymen Majeed from the bowling of Tshepo Ntuli, immediately before the weather intervened. The 2s fixture saw Tynemouth bat and reach 154-8 from 35 overs. Top scorers were Barry Stewart (40) and Sam Robson (34).

Both the Saturday and Sunday 3s saw their games played to a conclusion and perhaps wished they hadn’t been. At Heaton Medicals on Saturday, skipper Chris Grievson lost the toss and saw Civil Service decide to bat first. Two rain delays saw the game reduced to 34 overs, from which the home side posted a score of 170-6. Asik Miah (4-35) produced his best spell for the club, but there was a sense that the total was an imposing one, especially as the game had been played in farcical circumstances before the second delay, allowing Civil Service to get away from the visitors. This proved to be an astute prophecy as Tynemouth’s innings never get started, lurching from one disaster to another as they were bowled out for 60 in 20.2 overs.

Sunday saw scarcely better fortunes, as a trip to Hetton Lyons provided little succour, other than Sean Aditjandra’s impressive 5-23 as the home side made 205. In reply, Tynemouth were skittled for 90, with only Joel Hull-Denholm’s battling 31 offering any true resistance.

 Let us hope for better weather and better fortunes next weekend.

I’m not putting out any spoilers here when I tell you I haven’t scored a run or taken a wicket since I last blogged on cricket. This afternoon’s performance was textbook trash from me. On a day when we dodged showers and really did well to snatch defeat from the jaws of an abandonment, losing our last wicket about 10 minutes before the heavens opened for a 12-hour spell of torrential rain, I contributed an unbeaten 0* from 2 balls. In the context of our 60 all out, that wasn’t so bad. However that was barely relevant when placed in the context of the single, wretched over I bowled with a bar of soap, that went for 17 runs. All of them were scored by a powerful left-hander, who clubbed me to the fence for each of the first 4 balls of the over, aided by 2 incompetent bits of fielding that turned singles into boundaries, then tickled a single, allowing me to bowl a maiden ball to a studious right hander who played me correctly back down the pitch. It wasn’t much of a consolation, or even a pyrrhic victory. Rather typically, it took place just as Shelley was arriving to see me play at her first ever game of cricket. It’s a good job she loves me, otherwise she may not have been so enthusiastic about slogging it back up to the bus stop on the Coast Road in a downpour on a Saturday tea time.

Saturday 15^th July:

For the second successive Saturday, rain ruined play for Tynemouth’s three teams. The first XI travelled to Felling, where only 4 balls were possible before the skies opened. In that time The Croons advanced to 3-0. The reverse fixture saw Tynemouth 2s, having already seen their NEPL T20 group game away to Ashington cancelled on Friday evening, host their Felling counterparts. In the 8.4 overs at Preston Avenue, Felling made 21-1. The sole Tynemouth bowler to take a wicket on Saturday was Neil Bennett, though Dan Storey of Tynemouth 3s may have cause to rue this. On the back field, visitors United Stars had reached 43 without loss from 8.3 overs when the deluge hit. During this time, Storey was denied a wicket when ian cusack made a woeful hash of a straightforward chance at square leg. Thankfully, he only endured reputational rather than material damage courtesy of this drop.

The Sunday 3s, on a bright and breezy afternoon, enjoyed a comfortable 7 wicket win over Philadelphia Academy. The visitors batted first and were dismissed for 115, with every bowler picking up at least 1 wicket and Sean Aditjandra (3-25) again returning quality figures. In response, top scorers were Joel Hull-Denholm (60* from 70 balls, including 9 fours and a six) and Hamish Swaddle-Scott (41).

Additionally this week, Tynemouth 2s crushed Littletown in the second round of the James Bell Memorial Cup. Batting first, Tynemouth bludgeoned 185-2 from their 20 overs, with Swaddle-Scott (76*) and Hull-Denholm (69) doing the damage. In reply, Littletown were dismissed for 77, with promising youngster Chris Beever (3-9) the pick of the bowlers.

What can I say? Another incompetent attempt at clutching a swirling, skied effort saw me saw on my arse, muttering apologies to Strez. The fact that a biblical thunderstorm swamped the ground meant my drop became irrelevant, but I should have taken the catch. In the context of the day, I think most of my team mates will remember Adam Blake almost being blown away as the covers billowed in the howling gale, as he sought to retrieve his bails. Enduring image. Not captured, sadly.

Saturday 22^nd July:

All games rained off.

We were scheduled to play Newcastle away, but as they sublet the back field at TCC, it would have been at home, so to speak. I didn’t make the team for this one, so I’m kind of ambivalent as to the intervention of storm clouds. Instead I took in Percy Main 1 Jarrow 5 in a pre-season friendly; let’s just say it was a good workout eh?

Saturday 29^th July:

 

On the last Saturday in July, Tynemouth 246/9 beat Chester Le Street 113 all out by 133 runs. A superb all-round team effort including a player of the match performance by Matthew Brown were the main reasons behind this win against a strong Chester Le Street side on Saturday. A win that lifted the team out of the relegation zone and should give confidence for challenges ahead.

Conditions were pretty kind with a blustery, yet warm and sunny morning greeting the players and spectators as they arrived at the lovely Ropery Lane ground in Chester Le Street. Proper ground, proper Club.  Home skipper Ash Thorpe won the toss and decided to let Tynemouth have a bat first on a flat wicket with a good tinge of green about it. Understandable after another wet week. It proved to be a wicket with a bit in it for everyone and provided a good contest between bat and ball all day.

Ben Debnam and Matt Kimmitt opened up for Tynemouth and were quickly into their stride . Kimmitt fluent off the front foot and Debnam looking to pull anything short moved the score on nicely to 50 when Kimmitt drove a ball uppishly to mid wicket and was caught by Ross Whitfield Jnr off the bowling of John Richard Harrison for 18. Debnam continued to show good form and was well supported by Tshepo Ntuli at the other end. With 100 up on the board and Tynemouth bossing the morning session Debnam was adjudged lbw for 49 on the stroke of lunch walking across his stumps and caught in front by Amaan Ulhaq.

Matty Brown joined Ntuli for the afternoon session and they put on another good stand of 61 before Ntuli was bowled by Ulhaq for a determined 47. Brown, who had escaped a routine boundary chance early in his innings was beginning to take control and everything pointed towards a big first innings score. However the middle and late order batting disappointed with only Joe Snowdon’s 17 offering any real support to Brown who was in great touch. 161-2 became 216-9 as the medium pace of Richard John Harrison ( 4-56) and the off spin of Ash Thorpe (3-21 ) surprisingly proved too good for the Tynemouth batsmen. The last wicket though saw Brown really open up producing a flurry of fours and sixes as his skipper, Martin Pollard, defended well at the other end and when the end of the innings came after the full 58 overs had been batted Brown had moved on to an excellent 85 not out and a final total of 246 looked above par.

With all of his Seamers missing Pollard needed a cunning plan as to how best to use the new ball. Whereas Baldrick’s cunning plans invariably failed this one most certainly didn’t as he paired man of the moment Matthew Brown to bowl some seam up at one end with the guile and accuracy of Tshepo Ntuli’s off spin at the other. Ntuli was straight to work first bowling opener John Coxon for just 4 and then striking again next ball with the wicket of England Under 19 player Ross Whitfield Jnr. Brown was running in with great enthusiasm - a young pup off the leash - and clean bowled the dangerous Andrew Smith for just 5 with a beauty. Chester were 41-3 and in trouble. Pollard then had Stu Wilson brilliantly caught above his right shoulder by keeper Stu Poynter and in the next over Brown had the excellent Jacob McCann lbw for 35 and the Keets were in big trouble at 65-5 at tea. Brown’s spell of 11 overs 2-33 was impressive. All bowled with the joy of a young kid on Christmas morning!

A minor recovery after tea by George Harrison and Robbie Dawson gave a glimmer of hope to the home side but the returning Ntuli had Harrison caught by Ed Foreman and the game was up for Chester at 104-6. The current format of play though requires a side to bowl out the opposition for a win and Tynemouth still needed 4 wickets when Pollard brought on Josh Koen who produced a high quality spell of medium pace bowling taking all of the last 4 wickets himself. This was classic line and length bowling with a hint of movement. A slow and steady strangulation of the batsmen in the corridor of uncertainty that proved too much for the home sides tail. 4-17 off 8 overs. Chapeau!

An important win for the side and one that was thoroughly deserved on a day the weather Gods decided to smile on the region’s cricketers again.

Meanwhile Tynemouth 2s. having seen both of their midweek cup games washed out by the torrential rain, welcomed Chester le Street 2s to Preston Avenue. Unfortunately, as in the game between the respective first XIs, it was the away side who triumphed. Batting first, the visitors posted 217-5 from 51 overs. The pick of the home bowling was Sam Robson, who returned a more than respectable 3-46 from his spell. In reply, Tynemouth were never really in the game, falling to 20-5 at one stage, before Barry Stewart (66) Robson (39) showed some resistance, before the innings was completed with the home side 160 all out.

The 57 run margin of defeat was disappointing but was dwarfed by the crushing 227 run loss endured by an unfamiliar Tynemouth Saturday 3s in their home game against Leadgate. Stand-in skipper ian cusack won the toss and inserted Leadgate, which proved to be an astute tactical masterstroke as this enabled the Croons to accrue some bowling points. This was achieved by Rohan George’s excellent, accurate spell of 9-1-38-2, including a double wicket maiden. Both dismissals were caught by Simon Bogg, whose second victim saw a glorious full length dive that drew applause from both sides. At 100-2 at drinks, Tynemouth were in the game, and even more so when young pace bowlers Oliver Hiscott and Leo Tierney took a wicket each. Sadly, the lack of a full bowling attack, which saw cusack pressed into action, only to return an abject 6-0-44-0, allowed Leadgate to amass an impressive 256-4 from their 40 overs. Perhaps the less said about the home side’s innings of 29 all out the better.

Oh how I wished it had rained for this one. An incredible 35 players were unavailable across the club, meaning the 3s were in danger of conceding on Friday evening as we were down to 8 players. Some incredible efforts by Chris Fairley saw us manage to scrape together 11 humans, if not players. Almost incredibly, and for once my age has nothing to do with this, I was the longest serving player available. Consequently, I had the poison chalice of being captain. I won the toss, which was about the best point of the day. I inserted them as I didn’t fancy the game finishing before 3 o’clock. From that point on, things got worse. I did another drop at square leg, from the usual misplaced skier, bowled 6 overs of filth for a million and made a single ball 0* as we were all out for an appalling 29, to lose by 227 runs. Perhaps the tin hat was put on proceedings when I got home to see Linaz had already emailed out the match fees due invoice. A day when I thought about giving up on life, not just cricket.

Saturday 5^th August:

All games rained off.

By Friday afternoon we’d learned that our short trip to Priors’ Park for the Lions game was out the window. A shame, as I’d been selected for this one. Instead, Shelley and I took in Whitley Bay 2 Garforth Town 1 in the FA Cup extra preliminary round. It wasn’t a brilliant game and the crowd (287) was surprisingly small, but we enjoyed some lovely Two By Two Snakes Eyes Pale afterwards in the Left Luggage Room and then The Ticket Office. I think the fact we journeyed between the two by rain, without paying for tickets, counts as a Metty Mission in young peoples’ speak…

Saturday 12^th August:

A disappointing batting performance from Tynemouth CC first XI of 132 all out, was followed by a masterclass from Bajan Professional Shane Moseley as South Northumberland cruised to victory at Roseworth Terrace on Saturday.

Home skipper Sean Tindale won the toss and asked Tynemouth to bat first on a day when rain threatened but didn’t arrive. It was good to be playing again after several recent washouts and the hybrid wicket played well, with a bit of carry and turn for the bowlers to work with and good pace and consistent bounce for the batters to enjoy.

Ben Debnam opened up with Matt Kimmitt for the visitors, but both were dismissed early leaving their team at 8/2. Tshepo Ntuli and Joe Snowdon looked to repair the damage with a partnership of 20 before Ntuli hit one to Jonathan Wightman at mid-on off the bowling of Sean Tindale. Worse was to come for Tynemouth with Stuart Poynter adjudged lbw second ball for a duck from a delivery that seemed to hit bat first.

At 28/4 Tynemouth were in big trouble when 15 year old Robbie Bowman joined 18 year old Joe Snowdon at the crease. The two youngsters both batted well. Snowdon watchful, but always looking to score when the opportunity arose, and running well between the wickets. Bowman played a lovely innings.  Full of power and timing. A player of real promise. Someone with talent but also who is learning how to build an innings and is improving rapidly as a batter as a result. A partnership of 68 lifted the spirits of the Tynemouth players and spectators before Snowdon went for 29 and then Bowman shortly after for 42. Having recovered to 96/4 at one point, the middle order and tail rather collapsed as a final score of just 132 was all that was mustered. Ed Foreman dug in for a determined 17 not out. Sean Tindale and Simon Birtwistle took 3 wickets each for the Champions elect.

Skipper Martin Pollard decided to open the bowling with the pace of Andrew Jones and the spin and guile of Tshepo Ntuli, but neither could get the early breakthroughs necessary. Indeed former West Indies Test Player Shane Moseley took a liking to both and quickly took the match away from the visitors with a quite brilliant exhibition of positive batting. A tall left hander, Moseley defended with some panache and quickly pounced on anything off line or length. A series of crunching extra cover drives were his signature shot but this was a high class knock from the man from Barbados and Tynemouth had no answer. Ntuli did dismiss Birtwistle but that just brought the impressive Nikhil Gorantla to the crease. Gorantla finished on 25 not out and Moseley was also undefeated on 87 off just 76 balls as the pair reached the target in just 20.2 overs.

Next Saturday the team return to Preston Avenue after 3 away games on the spin and will hope to register a win against Ashington. The start is at 11.30 and it’s a 50 overs a side game.

Meanwhile the 2s hosted South North 2s in the reverse fixture. The visitors batted first and compiled 213/9 from their 45 overs. For Tynemouth, the elegant James Carr (3/37) and Shamsul Oraikhil (3/38) were the pick of the bowlers, backed up by the frugal parsimony of Richard Hay (1/17) and Joel Hull-Denholm (1/30). It was an interesting, but as yet unanswered question, when Tynemouth had two bespectacled opening bowlers, as was the case with Carr and Hay today. In reply, Tynemouth came up short with 197/9, with skipper Chris Fairley (67) and Sam Robson (42) keeping the contest alive until a flurry of late wickets swung the game decisively in the direction of South North, as the run chase became firstly desperate and thence eventually fruitless.

On the back field, Tynemouth Saturday 3s produced an excellent display of bowling and fielding, other than catching of course, to dismiss visitors Annfield Plain 2s for 124. Despite hostile and impressive opening spells by stand-in skipper Ed Snelders and Lewis Hurst, the visitors had reached 61 before a double bowling change made a massive difference. Dom Askins (2/18) and the returning Evan Hull-Denholm (2/25), who took a wicket with his first competitive ball for almost 2 years, brought Tynemouth back into the contest. An unprecedented 4 run-outs, as well as an eye-catching spell from the fiery Asik Miah (2/8), saw Annfield Plain dismissed in the last over.

Sadly, as ever, the batting performance by Tynemouth 3s was borderline inadequate. Hull-Denholm (27) did his bit, but once he was dismissed, any hope of victory, or even running the visitors close, went out the window as Tynemouth subsided to 74 all out with 10 overs still remaining. It was a sad undoing of all the good work in the first innings and leaves TCC rooted to the bottom of the table with 5 games remaining. Survival looks a tough ask.

Bleary-eyed and hungover, I crawled out of bed after my 59^th birthday carousing and rejoiced at the incessant rain outside. Sadly, it abated by noon, we started on time and lost, in a bitterly disappointing fashion. For once, I didn’t make a rick in the field, but my attempts with the bat were shameful. I didn’t even see the ball that bowled me, which was probably more because of its pace that my receding hangover. Still, at least we got into the pavilion in time to see the second half of Newcastle demolishing Villa, which was nice.

So, 5 weekends left. We need to win a minimum of 2 games to stay up. Tough ask.