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Bentley Cup
On Thursday evening, the 2^nd XI travelled to Burnt Yates for the 1^st round of the Peter Bentley Cup. It was a sunny but draughty evening. We batted first and got off to a good start making 103 for the first wicket where Nathan Barrett perished having taken 32 balls to score 58 which included 8 fours and 2 sixes. His fellow opener, Gareth Wooler, fell in the next over for 44 also made off 32 balls including 6 fours and 1 six. We had five overs to push and make a decent score. We closed on 155 for 6.

Their opener Jack Saville was in sparkling form and crashed the ball to all parts of the ground. He lost one partner with the score at 58 in the eighth over and another in the tenth over – 78 for 2. He was joined by his skipper who also played some big shots. Saville finally fell for a stunning 83 which included 4 fours and 8 sixes from just 45 balls. The score was 148 for 3 with just one over to go. Sadly, for us, they only needed four balls to reach their target. So, we lost by seven wickets with two balls to go.

1st XI
On Saturday the 1^st XI entertained Thornton-le-Moor (which is between Thirsk and Northallerton) at the Billy Bob’s Ice Cream Parlour sponsored Robinson Memorial ground.

They won the toss and elected to bat. They found it hard going from the start. They struggled to 72 for 5 in the 25^th over against some accurate bowling and cracking fielding. The last five wickets fell for the addition of 35 runs which left them 107 all out at the end of the 40^th over. Haroon Ali took 4 for 25 off his 10 over allocation, Struan Mackenzie 2 for 17 off 10 overs, and both Sam Arkwright and Jack Kitching took 2 for 28 again off ten overs each.

In our reply we lost Mo Saghir for 4 after 4 balls. Joe Holt was joined by Tom Stead and the former blasted his way to 68 not out in 37 balls which included 8 fours and 4 sixes. Meanwhile the latter didn’t hang about either as he made 30 not out of 29 balls which included 6 fours. Victory by nine wickets was achieved in the 12^th over.

As stand in skipper, Sam Arkwright, quipped after the match “all done and dusted in quick time and in the pub for 5pm!”

We gleaned 20 points and sit in top spot, 4 points ahead of Whixley as leaders North Stainley lost and drop to fourth.

Next Saturday the 1^st XI are at home to Middleham with the game sponsored by The Elm Tree Inn and R N Wooler Ltd.

2nd XI
On the back of the disappointing defeat on Thursday, the 2^nd XI suffered horribly on their travels to Killinghall in a top of the table clash.

In beautiful sunny and warm conditions, we won the toss, and elected to bat and dashed to 37 in the 9^th over. From there we got bogged down. Although we didn’t lose a wicket the openers found it hard to get the ball away. We lost our first wicket at 78 in the 23^rd over, Gareth Wooler making 41. His partner Nathan Barrett helped the score to 99 where he was dismissed for 46. From there Jago Bean made 21 as we lost six wickets adding only 30 runs.

Their openers T Stanford and S Copley set about our bowling with gusto. The former made 75 not out from 83 balls and the latter 38 not out from 43 balls! Defeat by ten wickets – probably our worst performance since we joined the league.

We drop to third in the table 16 points behind leaders Killinghall, with Whixley in second spot.
Next week we travel to Burton Leonards 2nds.

Trevor Coe – Chairman