1st XI - Morpeth Fail to Build Partnerships
 

After a promising start to the season with a comprehensive opening day victory at Benwell and Walbottle, Morpeth’s first XI took on a strong Tynedale outfit on Saturday in their first home game of the season.

On a sunny April day the wicket looked white and hard for April and having won the toss Tynedale’s skipper Richard Darling had no hesitation in choosing to bat first. Mark Turnbull took the new ball and nearly got a breakthrough with the first ball of the game with Tynedale opening batsman Clark nearly chopping on and it was Turnbull who made the first in roads in to the Tynedale batting line up when he had fellow opening batsman Hunter caught by M Craigs for 6 after some very unconvincing shots through the slip cordon. Turnbull then picked up his second wicket when he had Clark caught brilliantly by Jonny Craigs who took a diving catch to his right in the gully.

This left Tynedale on 30 for 2 in the 9th over, a cracking start by Morpeth’s new ball bowlers. This had brought B Stewart and debutant M Parton to the crease. Jack Palmer bowled with pace and bounce and was very unfortunate not to pick up any wickets in his first spell beating the bat on numerous occasions. However it was Tynedale’s batters who began to make hay as they drove the ball well waiting on the bad ball and with a partnership of 77 and Stewart and Parton pushed Tynedale’s total to 107 for 2.

Stewart and Parton looked comfortable with M Craigs bowling without any joy at one end Morpeth’s skipper Reagan turned to Paul Elliott to bowl off spin. Paul bowled with great control and with M Craigs bowling good areas at the other end the two managed to build good pressure in the middle section of the innings with Craigs finally getting the break through by dismissing Stewart caught at deep mid on by Turnbull for 48. This brought Crichton to the wicket who was dismissed by P Elliott LBW for nought and Morpeth were back in the match with Tynedale 113 for 4 after 28 over’s.

Scandle managed 11 before he was caught by Turnbull as Reagan entered the attack bowling off spin in tandem with Elliott. The spin was working well as Maxted caught Parton behind off the bowling of Elliott for 44. This brought Tynedale’s Captain Darling to the crease alongside Alder. Alder played some good shots and finished on 40 not out, Darling pitched in with an important 22 before being well caught by Reynolds on the boundary off Reagan who finished with 2 for 39 off 11 with Elliott finishing with 2 for 36 off 12.

A strong finish from Tynedale’s lower middle order had pushed there total to 203 for 7 from there allotted 50 overs.

Morpeth’s openers Reynolds and Leason took to the task of chasing down the total well, being watchful early on against the new ball and punishing anything short. The openers pushed the score along to 34 before Leason fell to a mistimed drive which was well caught by Armstrong off the bowling of Darling. Jonny Craigs followed quickly, after following a short ball and edging to 3rd slip Hunter off the bowling of Stewart. Matty Hall and Reynolds were left to try and rebuild a partnership which they did watchfully against the spin of Pringle and Armstrong however they both fell bowled in consecutive overs with Hall being bowled by Armstrong for 9 and Reynolds being bowled by Pringle for a watchful 29.

This brought skipper Reagan and Maxted to the crease who looked to rebuild again slowly, with the overs passing by the required run rate was climbing quickly. Reagan tried to take on the spinners but only managed to find Parton on the deep mid wicket boundary, falling for 14 and Palmer tried exactly the same too early on in his innings, also caught by Parton without worrying the scorers.

This left Morpeth really struggling on 95 for 7. Maxted looked to work the ball around, however a culmination of a defensive field and some good tight spin bowling from both ends meant scoring opportunities were limited. Maxted fell for 19 trying to work the ball when he played on via his pad. M Craigs followed shortly afterwards for 8 trying to hit over the top and this left the game all but over for Morpeth on 111 for 8.

Turnbull, Harbottle and Elliott managed to ad an important 19 runs which meant an extra batting point for Morpeth. However, the match was won easily by Tynedale in the end, by 73 runs as Morpeth were all out for 130. A mixture of some poor batting and good bowling sealed the win for Tynedale in a chase the Morpeth batsman would have fancied getting on a good wicket. Morpeth ended with 5 points from the game and leaves them mid table after two games. They are at home again next week against Lintz where they will look to push on.

Man of the Match was Paul Elliott for a very good bowling performance returning to the first team. Morpeth CC would like to thank our sponsors St James Place Wealth Management and Develop Solutions for their continuing support.
 

Match Report: Ben Maxted

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