Stanhope vs. Tantobie
Unthank Park, 16th August, 2008


Well with adverse and severe weather warnings all looked set for yet another of the great British washout weekends. The Met. Office was predicting heavy rain in the middle of the afternoon which would mean an abandoned game. Stanhope's recently acquired Covers did the trick and ensured that play could start at Unthank despite the previous weeks rain fall. It is thanks to these essential items of ground equipment that Stanhope's game against Tantobie was the only game played in the Roseberry Group North East Durham League Division Two. All other games were abandoned as the various grounds were deemed to be unfit for play.

Eyes once again turn skyward by both teams but at start of play, and for most of the match it was cloudy with occasional patches of blue. Wind was light to moderate and all looked set for at least a few hours of play. Also in the background was the music from the rave going on less than a mile away to provide a rhythmic background to the day. Some spectators were moved to remark, "we could be in the Bahamas" only to be brought down to earth by a sudden gust of wind!

Tantobie opened the batting, with strike bowlers; R. Pringle and A. Robinson, being called upon to lay the foundations of the Stanhope attack. Pringle stuck gold with the second delivery of the day to remove M. Taylor by removing middle stump. All the omens were with Stanhope. In the fourth over Robinson picked up the second wicket of G. Harris as he edged a catch to the safe gloves of F. Stephenson. Things settled down for an over when Pringle struck again with a successful LBW appeal to claim the wicket of D. Proud. This effectively put Tantobie on 15 of 3 after 5 overs.

Whilst the batting of Tantobie was not at fault, the simple fact is Pringle was bowling like a man on a mission, his line and length was such that the batsmen were forced onto their back feet and could only defend. Ultimately Pringle was able to post figures of 3 wickets for only 9 runs. Robinson from the River Wear end seemed to be struggling to find his line and length, the crowd speculated that a late night previously may be the reason. Still Adam picked up a vital wicket of the number 3 batsman quickly which meant that Tantobie were quickly under pressure with the middle order being required to build a total for Stanhope to chase. To there credit the Tantobie middle order did stem the flow of dismissals, but ultimately with high scoring batsmen only able to post totals of 29 (R. Gibson) and 9 (G. Harvey) the visitors were always going to struggle to reach that magic barrier of 100 runs.

I. Muse for Stanhope was able to build upon the success generated by Pringle, claiming 4 wickets for 36 runs. Supported from the Railway Line end by the cunning Kiwi S. Campbell they slowly removed the tail end of Tantobie very cheaply. It was nice to see the father and son combination proving all doubters wrong when S. Muse held onto a fine catch to his fathers bowling, so no pressure on Muse junior then!!

All out for 105 the teams huddled in their respective groups for Tea to go over game plans and hope that the build clouds did one of two things.

The openers for Stanhope were rather predictably Robinson and Pringle. Robinson in particular told all who listened that he wanted to be at the crease until the very end, and that was his game plan. A slow and steady batting performance building a score in a controlled manner taking runs when the delivery dictated. Pringle was bowled by D. Proud for 0, as revenge for being trapped LBW by Pringle earlier in the day.

S. Muse walked to the Crease with arms waving as he loosened his shoulders to join Robinson and start the run chase. Not much happened for the next hour or so, except that runs were made at a steady pace. No heroics or swinging the bat just a succession of singles and two's. Occasionally the boundary was reached but these two put on a display of control and discipline that has been wanting at times this year.

With the developing gloom due to some very angry clouds this pair decided to up the pace, this lead to Muse being run out on 49. A silly run to attempted, but he cannot be criticised to harshly, as the game was to all intents over, Stanhope were 11 runs or so short of victory with 8 wickets in tact and 25 overs still to face.

Frank Stephenson walked out to accompany Robinson and all expected a slow progress to the winning line. As with all successful partnerships, when one goes the other usually follows shortly afterwards. Today was no different, as Adam was removed to a fine catch for 37 runs. The cunning Kiwi strode out at number five, only to return soon afterwards after being bowled by S. Down for 0. It fell to K. Skinner to help Stephenson take Stanhope to a well worked victory by 6 wickets.

So how does the title chase look now, well Stanhope remain firmly on top with 213 points, and Coxhoe who did not play picking up 5 points have fallen away slightly and have 181 points. So with 32 points the difference and three games left to play our knights in white are edging close to their goal. The next game sees Stanhope host bottom of the league Kibblesworth at Unthank Park on Saturday 23rd August. First ball delivered at 14:00hrs.