No consistency in Tynemouth’s mixed summer
TYNEMOUTH’S weekend win over champions Chester-le-Street was a major highlight in what has been a summer of inconsistency at Preston Avenue.
The coast club claimed a fivewicket victory in a match which yielded almost 600 runs, producing one of their best batting displays of the season in doing so.
While delighted with such an impressive win, captain Ben Debnam was left to reflect on what might have been after an up-and-down campaign.
He said: “It was a great game of cricket against Chester-le-Street, a marvellous advert for the NEPL, but in many ways typical of the season we have had.
“We had our full batting line-up available, including Durham’s Stuart Poynter, and when we have we are very strong in that department.
“However, the following day we had players unavailable for the Smithson Cup final and lost to Benwell Hill by 10 runs.
“That has been the story of the season really - inconsistency of results and not having key players available at certain times.
“We finished third last year and basically played the same 11 every week, whereas this year Stuart has not been available as much and two of us - including myself - have missed games due to becoming fathers.
“We are not a club which has strength in depth so when key players cannot turn out we tend to struggle a bit.”
There was no struggle on Saturday as Debnam’s men enjoyed the better of a Ropery Lane run chase.
The Cestrians made a healthy 2678, Kyle Davis, (97), Andrew Smith (52) and Liam Simpson (46 not out) the big hitters. Henry Malton took 5-66 and Tahir Khan 3-63.
Tynemouth amassed the runs required (268-5) thanks mainly to 86 from Matthew Brown, 56 from Poynter and 39 from Debnam.
At the top, South North need just 20 points from their last two games to win the title after seeing off Benwell Hill in a high-scoring game.
The home side were asked to bat first and Simon Birtwisle became only the third player in the league’s history to reach 10,000 runs.
This came during his 14th century in the league, when he scored 116 not out - including 16 fours and a six off 136 balls.
Fellow opener Marcus North added 104 with 15 fours off 157 balls in a partnership worth 225 runs.
Callum MacLeod then hit 41 off 22 balls to record their score of 285-1.
Jonathan Wightman then claimed 3-32 and MacLeod 4-56 to ensure another vital win for the Bulls.