BULLS DEVASTATE THE HILL BY 10 WICKETS - DAVID EDWARDS & SAM  EWART SHARE OPENING PARTNERSHIP OF 192 IN ONLY 24 OVERS.

2nd Jun 2025

BULLS DEVASTATE THE HILL BY 10 WICKETS - DAVID EDWARDS & SAM  EWART SHARE OPENING PARTNERSHIP OF 192 IN ONLY 24 OVERS.

                                  Sat 31st May 2025: NEPL Division2:

                    SNCC v Benwell Hill (h) 105 overs win/lose/draw.

Benwell Hill 188-9 (55o)  Ayush Chakraborty 29, Warren Poxon 30, Abubaker Siddique 31, Jake Robson 18, Liam Hynd 25, Peter Jones 23*: Allan Davidson 1-49, Danny Collins 0-30, Ru Fletcher 1-13, Will Young 1-28, George McConnell 3-20, Archit Upadhye 2-41.

SNCC 192 -0 (24o) David Edwards 73*, Sam Ewart 112*: Warren Poxon 0-51, Michael Maclauchlan 0-28, Ayush Chakraborty 0-35, Peter Jones 0-35, Gabriel Mellor 0-18, Abubaker Siddique 0-18.

SNCC won by 10 wickets - 29 points, Benwell Hill 2.

A sunny & breezy day, the Hill chose to bat at Roseworth Terrace. Chakraborty & Haxon faced the seam of Davidson & Collins. A wicket in over 1 as Haxon (1) defending, lost his middle stump to Davidson. No further alarms as both Chakraborty & Poxon made good progress, 50-1 after 10 overs, but in Fletcher's first, Poxon (30) drove to cover where Collins juggled but it stuck, 50-2.

6 maidens between overs 12 & 22, 4 bowled by Will Young, & only 1x4, but in the 17^th Chakraborty (29) drove Will to mid off where Andrew Doig took the catch, 62-3. Going at 4's George McConnell (lm) & Archit Upadhye (lb) bowled overs 25 -35. George striking in the 29^th as Kaushal drove to mid on where Ru obliged, 90-4.

Siddique & Dawson were positive but then 3 wickets fell in three overs. Dawson (9) which included a maximum, defending, was bowled by George from around the wicket, Siddique (31) was  beaten in the flight by Archit & stumped by Sam & then Maclauchlan (0) was caught by w/k Sam off George, 118-7 after 37 overs.

3 more maidens as Archit & Danny maintained control but Robson (18) attacked  until at 145 in the 46^th he was bowled, off bail, by a beautiful Archit leg break. Archit's 11 overs went for only 41 with two wickets, a lovely, sustained piece of controlled leg spin bowling from an U15.

Will Young & Alan Davidson finished the final 5 overs as Jones (23*) & Hynd attacked such that in the last over the total had risen to 188 when Hynd (25) was run out, beaten by a Danny Collins throw.

The Bulls response was emphatic but was not without chances spurned. In over 2 David Edwards edged Maclauchlan high to slip but the chance fell to earth. Poxon & Maclauchlan both suffered as Sam targeted the short leg side boundary 4,4 then 4,6 in consecutive overs & David drove through the offside 3x4 in over 6.

55-0 after 9 overs then in over 11 Sam went into overdrive striking Poxon for 24 - 4,6,4,6,4 pulling to mid wicket including one over the houses !! Sam using feet well to get to the pitch off the spinners, David joined in with a maximum off Chakraborty (ob). Running well & putting away the bad ball the total, rose to 123 after 16 overs.

Peter Jones (sla) had entered the attacked & in his third over, the 17th, was unlucky to see both batsmen dropped, one at cover & a skier back to him he will feel he should have taken. Mellor & Siddique bowled two overs each  between overs 21 & 24  as Sam accelerated to his century.  The end came in only over 24 as Sam struck 6 then 4, for the Bulls total to reach 192 with no loss.

Sam 112* (84b, 13x4, 6x6), David 73* (60b, 8x4, 2x6) a consummate display by both, aided by a little fortune. The second 10 wicket win after the opening day win against Castle Eden of 170-0.

Onward to tough games beginning on Sat 7^th June:  SNCC v Newcastle (a) 1200, 105 overs, win/lose/draw. We hope you can be there to cheer the team on.

Duncan.