BEST BULLS BOWLING & FIELDING PERFORMANCE IN VICTORY OVER NEWCASTLE

30th May 2026

Newcastle City 117ao (41.4o) Malik Javed 47, Farhan Mohammed 22: Allan Davidson 2-31, Will Young 1-12,Hamish Barrie 0-32, Joseph Dresser 0-15, James Lunn 3-16, Will Phillips 2-4.

SNCC 118-2 (25.5o) Sam Ewart 38, Angus Southern 65: Joy Saini 0-20, Jawad Khan 0-20, Farhan Mohammed 0-18, Akshay Saharan 0-5, Subhan Shahzad 0-26, Z Tahir 1-19, Malik Javed 1-6.

SNCC won by 8 wickets- 29 points, Newcastle City 0.

On a sunny day at Roseworth Terrace the Bulls put on their best bowling & fielding performance of the season to restrict the visitors to 117 all out. Then an opening partnership of 84 between Sam Ewart & Angus Southern set up the win in the 26^th over.

City chose to bat Javed & Saini faced the seam of Allan Davidson (Grove) & Will Young (Park). Javed drove nicely down the ground but at 19 in the 6^th Will Young bowled Saini (0). 4 maidens in in the next 6 overs, 40-1 as Hamish Barrie (ob) entered the attack & then 2 wickets for Allan in his 8^th over as both Gaggar (11) & Saharan (0) were lbw, 48-3.

The fielding had been good, Angus at mid wicket, w/k Sam saving down the leg side, Joseph at square leg, Will Y backing up to prevent an overthrow,

In Joseph Dresser's first over he was unlucky not to take a low catch, diving forward on follow through. 61-3 after 20 overs which included 8 maidens. Overs 21- 30 saw the total rise to 78 for the loss of Ravulapalli (12) run out as Allan's throw to Hamish defeated his retreat. Hamish's controlled spell to  this point was 9-4-14- 0. James Lunn (ob) began with a maiden.

At 79 in the 31^st over Javed (47) called for a single off Lunny to mid off but was defeated by a superb direct hit from Ben to the bowler's stumps. Lunch was taken, but two balls into the afternoon session Ahmad (0) edged Lunny to Ru at slip & in his next Soman (0), heaving, was bowled, 84-7.

The captain's fielding almost got even better as he made good ground to wide long on in the 36^th &, horizontal in the mid air dive, just failed to cling onto what would have been a wonderful catch off Hamish. Lunny bowled another maiden. Will Phillips saved runs athletically at deep mid wicket.

Then in the 39^th Mohammed (22), who had hit hard to leg, launched Lunny to deep mid wicket where Will Young took a well judged catch, 105-8. In Will Phillips first Tahir (0) skied to cover where Angus Southern obliged.

In the 42^nd Shahzad drove Will P towards mid off where Ben, walking in, ran forward 4 paces & diving, took another very good catch close to the ground. Exhilarating to watch !!

In reply Sam & Angus faced the seam of Saini (Grove) & slow left arm of Kahn (Park). A controlled partnership of 84 ensued. Sam sweeping, punching off the back foot through cover & launching to mid wicket, Angus glancing fine, an all run 4 to backward square leg, driving over cover or straight, the calling was clear, 73-0 at drinks after 16 overs.

At 84 in the 19th, Sam (38, 54b, 7x4 1x6) rather unexpectedly drove Tahir's off spin to Ahmad at mid off. Angus reached 50 with a sweep to square leg in the 22^nd over. Olly kept him on his toes with some adventurous calling ! Then in the 26^th Angus having stroked through cover off the back foot, launched high to win the game but skied for Ahmad to run around from mid on to take the catch, Angus (65, 82b, 9x4) his first innings of the Bulls season.

Will P (2*) cut his first ball past point to win the game, Olly 8*.  There will be tougher challenges but the standard of bowling & especially fielding has been set, let us maintain that please.

The Bulls now in 5^th place in Div 2 on 94 points, behind Castle Eden (99), Hetton Lyons (112), Benwell Hill (138 ) & leaders CLS (155).

Onward to:

Fri 5^th June SNCC v Blaydon (a) Roseworth Trophy 20/20 from 1800.

Sat 6^th June SNCC v Ashington (a) 110o win/lose/draw from 1100.

We hope you can be there.

Duncan.