Stanhope vs. North Bitchburn
Well the Knights in White have finally put to rest a disappointing start to the current season, a win in the First Division; yes they picked up 20 points. The match against North Bitchburn was a close affair with both teams battling against some excellent bowling. Given the amount of rain that had fallen during the week the batting surface was never going to do any favours for the batsmen. As is so often Unthank Park caught out all the front line batsmen, leaving the middle order/tail to resist all attempts at early dismissals. I guess we should rename the ground, Unthankless Park!!
North Bitchburn were always going to struggle as they were a player down, and it was probably this fact that ultimately tipped the balance in favour of the home team. It was a bright sunny afternoon in Stanhope and the visitors batted first. R. “Ironman” Pringle must have sensed something was in the air, as he found line and length from his first delivery. Last ball of his first over he trapped N. Dalton LBW for 0, only to repeat the feat in the third over of match, albeit with the penultimate delivery, forcing ever dependable “Gloves” Stephenson to take a fine catch behind the wickets. The next over saw C. Wearmouth trap the number 2 batsman, J. Allott, LBW. The damage was done, in the 6 over of the Innings the scoreboard read as follows; 3 runs for 3 wickets from 6 overs – nice.
There then followed a number of overs of controlled bowling from Stanhope, and after words of encouragement from C. Wearmouth, “come on Ritchie lad, hit the stumps,” he did just that removing the bails and C. Atkinson for 6 runs.
It was not all Stanhope’s way however, R. Snaith and D. Nevins decided to enjoy the summer sun and take the game by the scruff-of-the-neck. Between them these two posted half the eventual total of North Bitchurn. Snaith scored 16 and Nevins 22 runs, before T. Nixon removed both fairly quickly.
The North Bitchburn tail was frustrated by S. Campbell who bowled I. Tennick on 5 runs. This left the way for Nixon and Wearmouth to finish the Innings in style by taking the wickets of S. Pratt and D. Gibson both on a single run each. At tea North Bitchburn were 61 all out after 32.1 overs. Stanhope’s bowling figures looked good; R. Pringle 12 overs, 4 maidens, 16 runs, 3 wickets, C. Wearmouth 6.1 overs, 2 maidens, 7 runs, 2 wickets, T. Nixon 10 overs, 5 maidens, 24 runs, 3 wickets, S. Campbell 4 overs, 0 maidens, 10 runs, 1 wicket.
So in the late afternoon all was set for a quick chase you might expect, but remember the Unthankless Wicket. Opening for Stanhope was T. Nixon and C. Wearmouth; both capable with the bat and all the safe money on them being at the crease for the winning shot. Well not the well made plans etc. etc. The bowling of G. Lee was able to unravel the batting of Stanhope with relative ease- or so it seemed. The first 5 wickets fell for 19 runs with Lee claiming 5 wickets of an eventual total of 6. With the Stanhope score on 19 for 5 Campbell played a masterful move, out came E. “The Roc” Rowell to steady a very shakey ship. Rowell did what he does best and refused to be intimidated or rushed. Well apart from a few rash strokes, we all road Rowell’s luck with him. But he simply decided to take his time as there were a good number of overs remaining and Stanhope only needed o score a 1.5 runs on over.
Accompanying Rowell for a good while was S. Campbell, who according to his mother should start to “find some gaps for Heavens Sake.” This Campbell did and with less than 4 runs to go was bowled by Lee for 22 runs. So F. Stephenson walked to the crease looking to score the winning runs, of which 3 were needed for victory. Well he managed a quick 2 before Lee forced Frank to launch a catch to D. Gibson. Out walked Pringle just needing a single for victory. This was achieved through a misfield and Stanhope picked up a much needed victory at home.
This report may seem bias greatly in favour of the home team, but at last we have something to shout about after weeks of disappointments.