Newton Aycliffe Cricket Club’s 1st team team sponsored by Franks The Flooring Store were well beaten away by promotion rivals Barnard Castle by 7 wickets in the 2nd division of the NYSD league.
Electing to bat first, Aycliffe were skittled for a very disappointing 104 after 37.1 overs, despite good innings from Matty Atkinson (28 runs), Pritpal Grewal (21 not out) and Luke Telford (17 runs).
In reply the home side romped to victory after just 20.5 overs with only Aycliffe’s Ross Dixon emerging with credit after taking 2 wickets for 9 runs with his medium pace bowling. This result saw Barnard Castle leap frog Newton Aycliffe into 2nd place in the table with a 15 point margin between the two teams.
The 2nd team played superbly winning a second consecutive league game at home to Yarm 2nd XI in the 3rd divison of the NYSD. Being asked to bat first, the visitors found 16 year old leg spin bowler Patrick Howe in unplayable form, as he destroyed the visitors batting line up taking a career best 6 for 48 from 15 overs.
He was given good support from Danny Weldon, who bowled well to take 2 wickets for 31 runs from his 14 overs as Yarm were restricted to 136 for 9 from their allotted 50 overs. In reply Aycliffe captain Adam Gittins scored an excellent unbeaten 46, including six boundaries and he received good support from Tom Wickins (26 runs) and James Brown (13 runs) as the home side reached their victory target with 5 wickets and 3.1 overs in hand.
Newton Aycliffe’s under 18’s team were beaten in a much improved performance by just 20 runs away at Crook in the quarter final of the Bob Hay cup. Chasing 85 for victory, captain Tom Wickins followed up his two wickets in the Crook innings, with an excellent innings of 26 and James Skerret scored 12, as the Aycliffe reply was restricted to 64 for 7 from 20 overs.
The under 15’s team lost by 24 runs away at Langley Park in the County Durham junior league. Ryan Patrick took two wickets as the home side were restricted to 89 for 5 in the 20 overs. Aycliffe batted in the rain for a while and reached a creditable 65 for 6 thanks to an excellent unbeaten 33 from captain Josh Pearson and 11 runs from Arran Taylor.
The clubs under 13’s team lost at home to a very strong Darlington team, however Adam Lamb still managed to smash 23 runs for Aycliffe, including a huge six that sailed out of the ground and captain Dylan Tribley chipped in with 12 runs.