Richmondshire retained the Macmillan Cup with a tense 12-run win over Saltburn in Sunday’s final.
Asked to bat first Richmondshire lost two early wickets, with Mike Layfield leg before for one in the second over and Gary Pratt following bowled for 12 in the fifth. A stand of 53 between Dan Hodgson (39) and Connor Blaxall-Hill (35) got the innings back on track.
Dan fell caught and bowled with the total on 75 and captain Bob Carr lasted just two balls before he was trapped leg before. Matty Price (22) joined Connor to add 43 with a couple of trademark big sixes.
Entering the final overs with the need to add quick runs players started to fall to catches on the boundary or stumpings. Connor was caught on the boundary with the score at 118, Sam Wood had scored six d from three balls when he was stumped. Brandon Glover lasted just one ball before he was caught and Matty Price was stumped one run later leaving Josh Dowson to face just one ball and add a run.
The innings ended at 126 for eight, a respectable but not massive score by T20 standards and meaning a good bowling performance was going to be needed.
Harvey Websdale (two for 19) got things off to a good start cleaning bowling one of the openers in the second over. This brought in Saltburn’s professional and top scorer More and he made an ominously fast start with a couple of fours in the third over. However, the over ended with Harvey having him caught behind.
Opener Ben Ainsley (51) continued to score freely but tight Richmondshire bowling kept the other Saltburn batsmen quiet and they started to fall behind the required run rate. As they started to try to up the scoring wickets started to fall regularly. Josh Dowson taking three for 25, Jonny Carr two for 13 and Connor Blaxall-Hill one for 14.
At the end of the 17th over 32 was still needed from the remaining three overs. Josh Dowson the removed top score Ainsley and accounted for one more from the final ball of the over. Jonny Carr went for six with the first ball of the next over but struck back with two more wickets. With 21 now needed from the final over Josh Dowson just needed to restrict the scoring chances and with Saltburn only able to add nine victory was Richmondshire’s.
Winning the Macmillan Cup qualifies Richmondshire to play in the National Club T20 competition and they will play in the area finals at New Farnley C.C. on Sunday 6th August.
Only the 1st team were able to play any cricket as rain forced the cancellation of most games. The 1sts game at Middlesbrough was interrupted several times but a result was managed via a Duckworth Lewis calculation.
Richmondshire batted first to make 191 all out. Gary Pratt made 48 but a middle order collapse had left Richmondshire on 113 for six before Sam Winter (18), Steve Mather (36) and Josh Dowson (21) recovered the innings.
Rain interruptions meant Middlesbrough were set a D/L target of 124 in 24 overs. Having made a good start to be 87 for two Richmondshire took the next six weeks for nine runs. Josh Dowson taking four for 29, Jonny Carr three for 10 and Sam Wood one for 33. This left the game finely poised with 28 needed with two wickets left. Unfortunately, Richmondshire wouldn’t get another wicket and the target was reached with four balls remaining.
