Newton Aycliffe Cricket Club’s 1st team, sponsored by Franks the Flooring played away against Darlington 2nd XI in the NYSD 2nd division and came away with their second defeat of the season by 84 runs. The home side chose to bat first and scored a challenging 225 for 4 declared after 47 overs with Luke Telford (3 for 39) the pick of the Aycliffe bowlers. In reply Aycliffe were bowled out for a disappointing 141 after 40 overs with only Jack Slatcher (sponsored by Mr & Mrs Greaves), who scored a superb 60, Graham Telford (37 runs) and Michael Howe (20 runs) emerging with any credit.
The second team played Sedgefield 2nd XI at home in the NYSD 4th division and put in an improved performance, but were eventually defeated by six wickets. Batting first, Aycliffe scored 127 all out after 35.3 overs with Joe Haines (40 runs), Dan Bowmer (35 runs) and Arran Taylor (12 runs) the top scorers. In reply the visitors reached their winning target in the 24th over with Joe Haines taking 2 for 21 for Aycliffe.
The u17’s played their first game of the season at home to Darlington in the NYSD junior league and gave a good account of themselves despite losing by 50 runs. In reply to the visitors score of 142 for 0 from 15 overs, Aycliffe batted with positivity and finished their 15 overs on a very respectable 92 for 5 thanks to good innings from Jack Lowery (20 runs), Arran Taylor (15 runs) and captain Ryan Patrick who also scored 15 runs.
Our u15’s put in a tremendous performance but were still beaten at home to Norton by just 11 runs. The visitors batted first and scored 121 for 7 from their 20 overs despite some fantastic bowling from 11 year old Leo Mercy, who finished with the second best bowling figures in Aycliffe’s history of u15’s cricket when he took 5 for 29 off his four over spell. In reply Aycliffe made a great team effort to reach their winning target but fell agonisingly short at 110 for 7 after 20 overs with some excellent contributions coming from captain Lucas Pilling (37 runs), Kieran Shingler (12 runs) and Charlie Cayless (10 runs).
Aycliffe’s u 13’s lost at home to Sedgefield by 65 runs despite an excellent all round performance from Josh Imerson, who took 3 for 12 from his 4 overs and then top scored with 14 runs in the Aycliffe innings.
The club’s u11’s put in a much improved performance but were still beaten by 21 runs at home to Stockton. Thomas Dearden played well for Aycliffe, taking one wicket for just 2 runs and then top scoring in the Aycliffe innings. The u11’s also lost away at Norton despite Thomas Dearden again impressing with the bat and top scoring with 16 runs, including three boundaries, and Brandon Grant taking two wickets for Aycliffe.
