There was disappointment again for the 1st XI losing to in form Great Ayton. Great Ayton won the toss and put Richmondshire in, their innings followed what is becoming a predictable pattern, falling away after a good start.
The first wicket fell at 88 when Gary Pratt was given out lbw on 41, fellow opener Andy Fleming following shortly after on 48.
The innings then got bogged down for a while and it took an excellent 50 from Steve Mather and a final flourish from Sam Wood to get the score up to 235 for 8 after 50 overs.
On an excellent batting strip this always looked likely to be thirty or fourty short of a challenging target.
This proved to be the case as Great Ayton raced away to over 200 before the second wicket fell, with opener Chris Batchelor going on to his century.
Great Ayton always looked in control with plenty of wickets in hand but a flurry of late wickets and some tighter bowling by Richmondshire took the match into the last over before a big six produced the winning runs.
This gives Great Ayton 20 points and Richmondshire 7, leaving Richmondshire 35 points 35 points behind league leaders Stokesley three games into the season.
The 2nd XI were away to Great Ayton 2nds this week and in cold overcast conditions Richmondshire lost the toss and where put into bat by the home team.
After a shaky start losing two quick wickets the in form Rich Carruthers came to the crease and looked to steady the ship but unfortunately, he kept losing partners and Richmondshire where in a sticky situation at 107-6.
This brought captain Tom Stockton to the middle to try to help Rich set a respectable score, Rich and Tom put on a partnership of 156, Rich continuing his form scoring 91 and Tom top scoring with 97.
This put them in a strong position in the game with other scores from Owen Kelly (31) and Ross Whelpdale with some fireworks at the end of the innings getting the score to 290 declared after 47 overs.
Richmondshire had 54 overs to bowl the home side out and got off to a great start with Owen Kelly and Shaun Charlton using the new ball to great effect and taking a few quick early wickets which put Richmondshire in a sound position as the ball got older the spinners came into play with Ross Whelpdale picking up 2 wickets at critical points in the game.
Richmondshire managed to get Ayton eight down but then struggled to get the last two wickets with a few catches getting dropped, the game looked destined to be a draw but giving the ball back to Owen and Shaun proved a good move as they both took a wicket a piece giving Richmondshire seconds another 25 points and leaving them joint top of division 1.
Owen finished with 4 wickets and Shaun who is coming back from second knee operation took 3 wickets and bowled 16 overs which is promising signs for the 2nd 11.
The 4th team travelled to Cockerton and came away with 20 points from an eight-wicket victory. Cockerton scored 170 for 5 in their 40 overs, with both Andy Dade and Dion Wood very effective at restricting the scoring rate on a ground at which scores can be high. In the Richmondshire innings, Clive Layfield scored 75 not out, Dion Wood 66 and Tom Spensley flexed his muscles for a quick 21 not out as the runs were knocked off with 11.3 overs to spare.
The 5th team were at home to last year’s C Division champions West Park RA and took a bit of a pasting. West Park’s success last year was built on a high scoring pair of opening batsmen who carried on that way on Saturday with a partnership of 117, before “Whiled Thing” Peter While took the first of 5 wickets in an uncharacteristically accurate spell of bowling that included a hat trick. West Park finished on 215 for 6. In response, the 5th XI managed only 52 all out. Youngsters Dan Baines and Uchenna Anyadiegwu showed some good resistance but the Richmondshire innings contained no real highlights.
The 3rd XI game vs Barnard Castle 3rd XI was a thrilling finale to the weekend’s cricket as Barnard Castle took Richmondshire’s final wicket when the scores were level to tie the game. Richmondshire won the toss and put Barnard Castle into bat first. Barnard Castle got off to a good start reaching 115-1 and 176-2 before a couple of quick wickets slowed the pace. Despite some belligerent hitting, Richmondshire restricted the visitors to 244-6. In the run chase, Richmondshire kept pace with the required rate early on, but a steady fall of wickets meant that at drinks, they were 98-3, Clive Layfield being the 3rd batsman out after looking set on 39. What followed was some fireworks from Julius Glasgow as he tore into the Barnard Castle bowling attack, scoring 73 from just 49 balls. Contributions from George Spink and Tom Spensley (23 runs apiece) drew Richmondshire close, and with the scores level and 11 balls remaining, it looked like it was in the bag for the hosts. Barnard Castle dug deep and took 2 wickets in 4 balls to tie the game and share the spoils. Remaining top of the Sunday Division One table being the only consolation for a weary Richmondshire team.
In this week’s junior games, Richmondshire U15s played Wolviston away on a “fresh” early season evening. Batting first Richmondshire scored briskly with 35 on the board after five overs through Tom Dowson and James Kelly. After losing these two soon after the innings was steadily rebuilt by Tom Ward and Uchenna Anyadiegwu. A final flourish from Griff Bewell and Ben Dale saw Richmondshire post 89-7 off their 16 overs.
In the field Richmondshire started well with a sharp catch from Angus Potter off James Kelly’s bowling removing their in-form opener in the first over. Captain Dowson shared the bowling around shrewdly and with all the bowlers keeping it tight runs were hard to come.
Wolviston eventually finished on 47-8 for a Richmondshire win by 42 runs. Fielding highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Harry Mawer’s quality one-handed catch casually taken at square leg with the ball going like a rocket.
The Under 11 played at Barnard Castle who won the toss and elected to bowl.
Joe Syddall and Jake Percival opened the batting making a great contribution of 18 for Joe and 11 for Jake, another solid performance from all in the middle order ending with a good partnership from Max Percival & Thomas Wooff, Richmondshire only losing one wicket in the innings to finish on 296 net.
