By John Phelan
The Bishop Auckland C.C. First team closed their season with a tidy win over Northallerton at Kingsway last week.
Bishop batted first and shuffled their batting order around so Dan Conway and Lewis Garnett opened. Unfortunately both were dismissed cheaply, Conway for 0 and Garnett for 3.
Craig George at number three also went for 0 and Matthew Cowling at number four for 5 to leave Bishop in a little bit of trouble.
Things started to improve with number five batsman Nigel Turner hitting 10 runs, number six Dan Hardaker also 10 runs and Jack Conway at number seven 17 runs. Graeme Wrightson only made 8 runs and professional Gary Pratt 10 runs but Phil Holdsworth at ten continued his fine run of form with 62 runs to leave Bishop on 145 all out.
Thankfully their opponents did not shine with the bat either as Jack Conway claimed 5-31, Dan Conway 3-20 and Gary Pratt 2-41 leaving Northallerton with Bishop close the season with a score of 106 all out, 39 runs short of the Bishop total.
The Second team were at Barnard Castle but they cut no ice in a five wicket defeat. However the Third team beat Norton away on the Sunday.
Norton batted first in this game but they could not cope with the spin bowling of father and son Keith and Callum Oldfield. Keith returned 3-26 thanks to two great catches in the outfield by Christopher Stones and Alan Lamb. Lamb’s catch a fine one-handed effort.
Callum returned 5-78 and he was helped by a fine catch by Jack Thompson. Ross Lamb also took 2-20 as Norton posted 156 all out. In reply Bishop made 159-3 with David Taylor making 33, Alan Lamb 28 and Ben Thompson 28 not out.
Only the Third team have fixtures to play and this Saturday, September 18th they entertain Redcar at Kingsway and on Sunday they travel to Stokesley.
Both games start at 1.15pm. Next Saturday September 25th they travel to Stokesley again.
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
