Barney see off Stokesley to claim first Kerridge Cup win

THEY were celebrating in Barnard Castle on Sunday night after their cricket team won the nationally renowned Kerridge Cup for the very first time in their history.

Barney defeated Stokesley, who themselves had won it for the first time four years ago, in the game played at Park Drive, Hartlepool, the winning margin being 33 runs in a match largely dominated by spin.

Just 24 hours earlier Stokesley had handed out a heavy league defeat to Hartlepool at the same venue, and having won the toss they asked their opponents to bat first, and the opening stages saw the Castle openers pinned down by the Stokesley pacemen.

But having weathered the new ball Aussie amateur Ben Turner and Simon Tennant began to build their team a strong foothold, putting on 87 for the first wicket before the introduction of James Beaumont suddenly changed the complexion of the game.

Beaumont bowled Turner when the opener tried an extravagant reverse sweep, but he had made 40 valuable runs in an innings which included 4 boundaries. When Stokesley skipper Andrew Weighell then had Tennant caught for 44 there was a mini collapse as Beaumont’s turn began to cause real problems, and Barney lost five wickets for just 14 more runs to slide to 101-5.

Pakistani ‘pro’ Aamer Sajjad (31 from 36 balls) and Ben Usher (26 from 31 balls) then began the rebuilding job, putting on a crucial 48 runs for the sixth wicket, and helping Castle post a final total of 162-8. Beaumont finished with the outstanding figures of 6-39 from his 11 overs.

Barnard Castle then went with spin from the off, a tactic that paid off handsomely as the Stokesley batsmen found it hard to dominate, their main hope coming through a fourth wicket partnership of 45 between Jonny Weighell (21 from 36 balls) and Will Brown (43 from 76 balls). But when Weighell went to a flying Finch catch the Barney attack took complete control, and with James Quinn (4-36 from 15 overs) and Tennant (3-59 from 17 overs) in the ascendancy the innings petered out to 129-9.

The post match presentation ceremony saw the Darlington Building Society’s David Copland handing out the awards, while international umpire Michael Gough presented Barnard Castle’s Simon Tennant with the man-of-the-match accolade after his top scoring 44 and 17 outstanding overs.

DG Trophies Cleveland Cricket League

THE Cleveland League Kerridge Cup final took centre stage last weekend with Nunthorpe taking on Cowpen Bewley at the neutral venue of Dormanstown.

Nunthorpe took first knock in the 25 overs per side contest, Michael Clarke setting the tone with an opening 31. But the Bewley bowlers began to take a grip through some tight bowling, Marc Price pegging Nunthorpe back with a six over spell of 3-20 before Shazad Rashid and Mark Caldwell both made 18 to push the total up to 117-6.

Cowpen’s reply was soon in disarray, the first three batsmen only managing four between them as Paul Hardy tore into them with a penetrative opening salvo. A period of consolidation was required and slowly the innings gained some momentum with S Matloob (20) and Irfan Mahfooz (20) engineering a comeback.

But this proved too little too late as Niall Ryan (2-20) and Paul Tweedy (3-27) provided admirable back up for the vintage Hardy who ended up with match winning figures of 4 for 15 to see Nunthorpe raise the cup by 14 runs. In the league action the previous day, runaway leaders Loftus entertained bottom side Smiths Dock B and the gulf between the teams was all too evident. Incredibly extras was top scorer for the visitors with 9, as wickets tumbled with Chris Morrison (4-9) and David Verrill (3-13) proving to be an irresistible force with the ball, dumping Dock out for just 36. Loftus then knocked off the required runs in just 5.4 overs, the whole match lasting just 22 overs in total.

The Kerridge finalists also met in league action on the Saturday with Nunthorpe once again in the ascendancy.

Nesir Mehmood’s 4 for 23 consigned Cowpen Bewley to 84 all out before Arif Ramzan’s unbeaten 33 saw Nunthorpe home by eight wickets.

Dormanstown travelled to Smiths Dock Park to take on the A team and came away with the spoils. Runs were hard to come by with Dale Peacock in good form with the ball, bagging 5 for 22, but with Steve Johnson, Jordan Stonehouse and Phil Lloyd all making scores in the twenties the visitors were able to make a respectable 142 for 7. Smiths got off to a steady start in their reply, but then the introduction into the attack of Tony Lloyd saw him sweep away the middle order with 5 for 22 to clean up the home side for 102.

In the other two games Paragonians crushed Nunthorpe B by 102 runs thanks to Michael Williams’ fantastic, unbeaten 161, and there was another centurion at Boosbeck where Gary Hood (106 not out) set up a 140-run victory over Loftus B.