In an excellent four days for the club, Richmondshire has recorded three important victories.
Rain payed a significant part in the weekend games and Richmondshire were able to take advantage.
Often in the past Richmondshire’s position at the edge of the Pennines has meant they have got the worst of the weather but on Saturday it was Teesside that suffered.
Richmondshire’s game at home against Great Ayton was unable to start until mid-afternoon and a rain affected wicket made life difficult for the batsmen.
Richmondshire made a confident enough start with Tom Dowson (19) and Bob Carr (25) putting on 45 for the first wicket.
But wickets then fell steadily and Richmondshire’s total of 127 for nine declared didn’t look particularly impressive.
The Great Ayton batsmen found life even more difficult and after an early wicket for Shaun Charlton the Richmondshire spinners got to work.
With Craig Marshall taking five for 23 and Ajay Mandal three for 12, Great Ayton were dismissed for 70.
The game between the other of the top three teams, Hartlepool and Barnard Castle, was abandoned without a ball being bowled restricting them to six points each.
Richmondshire’s 25 points leaving them two above Hartlepool at the top with Barnard Castle 21 points back.
On Sunday Richmondshire travelled to Marske in the 40-over Kerridge Cup quarter final.
The forecast promised thundery rain so there was an added urgency to score quickly to get the game completed. Put into bat Richmondshire set off at a great pace.
In the absence of regular opener Tom Dowson, Mike Layfield moved up to partner Bob Carr. They put on 76 for the first wicket before Layfield was out for a rapid 34.
A partnership between Carr (74) and Ajay Mandal (95) then put on a further 116.
With Gary Pratt adding 46 not out and Matty Cowling 27 the Richmondshire total reached 295 for five after 40 overs.
With thunder getting ever closer the Marske innings also set off at a rate with the urgency to get to enough overs for Duckworth Lewis to apply.
There score had reached 58 for two when the inevitable rain arrived and a revised total of 80 from 10.4 overs was set.
After a long delay play resumed and when two quick wickets fell Marske could only reach 65 for four. Richmondshire going through to a semi-final against Barnard Castle.
Clashes with these old rivals are becoming a feature of the season and they met again on Tuesday evening in the new Premier Hundred competition.
Put in Richmondshire again lost no time in setting about the opposition bowling with Tom Dowson back in the team scoring 52 from just 22 bowls.
With a final score of 161 Barnard Castle needed a good start but professional Samarth Seth was out third ball of the innings and they never really recovered.
Brief resistance from James Quinn with 31 was ended by Sam Wood who went on to take four for 19 as Barnard Castle slumped to 95 all out.
None of the other Richmondshire teams saw any action over the weekend as rain washed out all the other games.
Games played at Richmondshire’s Hurgill Road ground are now being live streamed and can be seen on the clubs You Tube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCyuZlWoPrcvFYK-4iQ-GSqg.
