NEPL

Hetton Lyons drew their game at Eppleton, after asking the home side to bat first. They scored 250-9, with Alexander Simpson hitting 50, Joseph Coyne made 62 and skipper Dean Musther crashed 70 from 92 balls.

The Lyons made 206-8 in their reply, with opener Matthew Whaley making 45, Dominic Thompson 30, skipper Jarvis Clay with 37 and Josh Coughlin 42. Despite Jandre Erasmus taking 3-44 and Joseph Coyne 3-57, they could not get the last two wickets.

Champions Chester-le-Street travelled to newly promoted Felling and had a convincing 100 run win, after asking the Cestrians to bat first and they made 217-5 declared, after 55 overs. George Harrison with 47 and Andrew Smith with 45, were the backbone of their innings, plus skipper John Coxon made 30 not out and Christopher Carter smashed 43 towards the end, with Craig Stephenson returning 3-60 in the Felling bowling department.

When Felling batted, they only managed to score 117, with Mark Turner making 35 and Freddie Simon 29 not out, towards the end. On the bowling front, Stephen Cantwell, John Harrison, Quentin Hughes, Andrew Smith and Ollie Barrett, all got in the bowling act, taking two wickets each.

Stockton were defeated by just two runs, at home to Tynemouth, in a closely fought match. The visitors batted first and made 218-9, with solid batting from Ben Debnam (33), Nick Armstrong (60), Matthew Brown (43) and Andrew Smith (50), with Chris Hooker taking three late wickets, returning 3-38.

In reply, Stockton managed to come up just two runs short, scoring 216 all out. Although their top six batsmen all made double figures, only Joe Hewison went on with 62 not out, Matthew Gill with 30 and skipper John Ward made 48. Bowling wise, Andrew Smith with 4-69 and Tahir Khan 3-36, did their jobs well.

Durham Academy lost by 77 runs away at South Shields who made 161. In reply the Academy were skittled for just 84 runs, with Matthew Muchall taking a brilliant 6-12 off 13.1 overs.

NTSL

Consett went down by 90 runs at Swalwell, who scored 232-5, with Lloyd Anderson making 98 and Mark Gray 68 not out, with Dan Milligan returning 3-56. Only Robbie Winn resisted with 54 not out and Nick Phillips was brilliant with the ball, taking 5-35.

Shotley Bridge, hammered Leadgate by ten wickets at The Spa Ground. Leadgate batted first and made just 68, with Mick Allen taking 4-19, in his opening spell and Billy Gibson returned 3-28, to tear the hearty out of the visitors batting.

Shotley Bridge then made short work of the small total, with Jack Rowley making 30 not out and Kieran Milburn 35 not out, to win the game easily, for their team.

DCL

Castle Eden made 224-5 in their drawn game with Dawdon. Keith Bailey top scored with 66 not out, ably assisted by James Wilkes-Green who made 54. In reply Steven Gale made 50 and Nathan Newton 46, to frustrate the visitors.

Durham City were nine wicket winners at home to Horden, thanks to a brilliant century (101no), from Jacob McCann. Earlier, Mark Davison had taken 4-53, to restrict Horden to 202-8, with 68 coming from Jamie Greenwood.

Whiteleas continued their excellent start to the season, with a massive 124 win at Esh Winning. They batted first and made a commanding 255-4, with Andrew Potts scoring 62, before having to retire hurt and Richard Dowens making a brilliant 109 not out, off 109 balls, including 10 fours and 4 sixes.

In reply, Esh Winning could only make 131 all out, with Steve Moralee resisting with 31, but Chris Nichol took the bowling plaudits, with 4-46.

Steve Clarke