2nd XI - Derby Goes to the Wire
 

As far as local derbies go, you couldn’t have wished for a better occasion than Saturday’s match up between Morpeth and Ponteland which provided a spectacle that would have had Sir Allen Stanford watering at the mouth from his Texan prison cell. The two sides went into the game in 2nd and 3rd place, but with Ponteland holding a 17 point advantage over their rivals, defeat for Morpeth would almost certainly have paid rest to promotion hopes for another season. The weather was glorious, with unbroken sunshine for the entire day, and the track looked a batsman’s paradise. It was a crucial toss to win, and fortunately for the boys from Longhirst, Maxted called correctly and duly instructed his boys they would be batting first. Let the games begin!

The Morpeth innings got underway with Jimmy Ingram returning to the top of the order alongside Stephen Cowell, but things got off to an auspicious start as Ingram was yorked early on, giving the home side a much-needed early boost. This brought Sandy Meikle to the crease, and the tone for the game was set with a blistering knock by the young batsman. Meikle took no time whatsoever to make good advantage of the trueness of the pitch, and began despatching the bowling attack to all corners of the ground in an utterly dominant batting display, which was no slogging effort, but a brilliant spectacle of fantastic cricket stroke play. With Cowell sensibly farming the strike to the more aggressive player, Morpeth quickly racked up the runs and had reached 80-1 by the 9th over and looked set to post a mammoth total. The first ebb of the day for Morpeth occurred as Meikle chased a wide ball and got a bottom edge straight into the gloves of the wicket keeper and departed for 57, having registered his 50 in only 26 balls. This wicket brought Loz Brown to the crease alongside Cowell and a period of consolidation for the visitors.

Brown and Cowell batted conservatively for the next 10 overs or so, with both men running well and keeping the scoreboard ticking. Boundaries were still plentiful with Cowell hitting a number of glorious cut shots and a straight hit for a maximum, while Brown played some sweet cover drives from the slow bowlers. Just as the partnership was beginning to pick up pace, Cowell got a stinker of a decision as he clearly edged a straight ball into his pads, only for the umpire to raise the finger and give him leg before for 38. The momentum that had been building was now lost, and Morpeth stuttered for a few overs with Jones running himself out and the Pont boys starting to turn the screw. Brown and Wonders looked to regain the initiative with some big hits, the most notable being a magnificent club by Brown over long-on and over the roof of the 2-story Ponteland clubhouse. Brown reached a fantastic half century, only for himself and Wonders to depart in quick succession leaving it to the tail to chip in to take the total past the 200 mark. Quince, Wright, Maxted and Clow all contributed to take the final score to 227-9 from their 45 overs, perhaps 30-40 runs short of what they looked like they might achieve at one stage.

Morpeth knew they would have to work hard in reply, against a side who had only lost to leaders Lanchester all season. Wright and Maxted opened up, but with very little in the pitch, the Ponteland openers set about their task with good authority. Although the bat was beaten on a few occasions, there was little in terms of genuine chances, and it took a quite brilliant catch by Wonders to break the stand, as he dived low to his right at mid-off to cling on to a powerful drive by Mclean. The wicket did little to stem the flow of runs, however, as the Ponteland 1 & 3 went about their task with aplomb. They got to 100-1 by the 22nd over, and barely looked troubled as Maxted rotated his bowlers bringing Jones and Dhugga into the attack to try and prize a precious wicket.

As the heat and lack of wickets started to induce some sloppy fielding from the Morpeth side, there was a growing feeling that the home side were in control of proceedings. The run rate was still at a reasonable level, and Morpeth began to lose their discipline. The crucial breakthrough eventually fell to Dhugga, who trapped the number 3 in front, but this didn’t halt the flow of runs as the opening batsman passed his 50 and continued in the same vein, smashing a number of huge maximums off Dhugga. With the required runs below 100 and quickly falling, something special would be needed, and so Maxted turned to his vice-captain and batting hero Brown with essentially his last throw of the dice.

Brown and Dhugga both got breakthroughs as the pressure began to tell for the home side, with two of their middle order chipping up catches to Wright at mid-wicket, but with the required runs now down to less than 30 and the opener celebrating a brilliantly-crafted century it looked out of Morpeth’s hands. Promotion seemed to be slipping away from Morpeth’s hands as early as the end of May, until the critical moment of the game where the pendulum finally swung back towards Morpeth’s direction. Brown flighted a ball just outside off, and attempting to cut the ball behind point, the Ponteland centurion tickled one behind to Clow who took a sharp chance. With the new batsmen at the crease looking to knock the remaining runs off as quickly as possible, they began to throw away their wickets as the pressure built up. One batsman spooned a catch up to Wonders off Brown, while two needlessly ran themselves out in a desperate attempt to get the runs. The final over arrived with Ponteland needing 5 runs, but with only one wicket in hand. With the third ball of the over Brown trapped the number 11 lbw and Morpeth had miraculously snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

It was a fantastic afternoon of cricket with two good sides putting on over 450 runs in 89.3 overs. The spirit of the game, despite it’s importance was fantastic, with Morpeth showing fantastic character for refusing to give up and seizing their opportunity when Ponteland started to wobble. Man of the match has to go to Loz Brown for his 50 and match-winning 5 wickets, but spare a thought for the Ponteland opener who ended up on the losing side after a chanceless century. The season stays alive and with two home games coming up against Chopwell and leaders Lanchester the next few weeks could prove crucial in the race for promotion for the boys from Longhirst.
 

Man of the match: Loz Brown

Match Report: Tom Wright

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