After a week without any cup fixtures, Shildon 1st XI travelled to Redcar hoping to build on last week’s win against Saltburn. With the sun beating down, the side were surprisingly put into bat having lost the toss.
After losing skipper Greg Upton early for 14 it might not have looked the worst decision, however, from there it became the Australian show as overseas amateur, Cordie McKendry and local Aussie, Jacob Dinger shared a magnificent 248 run partnership scoring 117 and 96 respectively including 19 fours and 4 sixes between the pair.
It was McKendry’s first hundred, and was thoroughly well deserved through an array of drives, flicks and a belting 6 on 94 to get him to three figures.
Dinger was due some runs after an uncharacteristically quiet start to the season and deserved a hundred, but ultimately fell short although after this innings another hundred for the club won’t be far away.
From there the rest of the team chipped in, swelling the score to an impressive 307-8 at the end of the innings, one of the rare times you see a score over 300 in club cricket.
McKendry and Crabtree continued as the opening duo with ball in hand, with the former perhaps feeling the effects of his earlier 100 in the blistering heat and Redcar got off to a decent start of 54-0 after 10 overs.
However, from there Shildon got on top with Joe Knowles the pick of the bowlers returning 3-47 from 14 overs along with a fantastic direct hit run to leave Redcar 98-5.
Ste Forster, McKendry and Carl Crabtree all took wickets as it looked like Shildon would complete another routine win, only for Redcar to painfully bat out for the draw, falling well short of the 75% draw criteria, to frustrate the Railwaymen.
Shildon still managed to claim 16 points by way of a winning draw, and remain 9 points behind Darlington in the promotion places.
Next week the firsts are away again to Middlesbrough hoping to get back to winning ways.
Meanwhile, the 2nd team entertained high flying Haughton at a blistering BR and winning the toss, Captain Clegg wisely chose to bat.
Once again short of a full XI, the 9 men of Shildon looked to set some sort of total to bowl at.
It was, however, Haughton who struck early with Little bowling Marquiss with the score on 5 and Lawson and the usually reliant Young followed swiftly to leave Shildon 9-3 after just five overs.
Clegg (9) was aiming to just stick around and see off the dangerous Gale and he was joined at the crease by Paterson (32) who, despite being away for a few weeks, looked in good nick, playing some solid defensive strokes and some lovely drives.
The pitch proved a tricky one to negotiate with balls keeping low and then randomly popping off a length.
The pair did well to add a further 22 before Clegg was caught off the bowling of little with the score 31-4.
Wicketkeeper Moseby came to the crease, buoyed by a solid midweek knock and aimed to bat some overs out with Paterson. And that’s what the pair did.
Both looked to play the conditions and look to punish the bad ball and both played brilliantly before Paterson was caught off Newton out on the boundary by deep mid-off with the score on 73 – a partnership of 42.
Moseby and Jacobs got the team to drinks in the balmy heat, but sadly after drinks the wickets fell rapidly.
Moseby (16) was bowled by Newton and Jacobs and Waites both fell without troubling the scorer leaving Reynolds (4no) stranded. Shildon were all out for 82.
While far from a big score, the team felt they competed well and knew, with a win a very tall order, bowling bonus points were a real possibility.
With Young (1-22) back in the side he opened with the reliable Clegg (1-20) and it was the former who struck first.
Bowling quickly and aggressively whilst mixing up his length, Young yorked Reid all ends up to leave Haughton 12-1.
Clegg struck soon after, trapping other opener Naisbitt LBW with the score on 23, the batter far from happy with the umpire’s decision.
With new batters, Mansfield and Little getting set, Clegg changed up the bowling with spinner Lawson (2-18) and young Thomas Jacobs (0-24) replacing himself and Young.
It was Lawson who picked up the two wickets to give Shildon another precious bowling point. First he clean bowled Mansfield with the score on 46 and then had Little caught spectacularly on the boundary.
Little launched Lawson to deep mid-on and running round, Young took the ball at waist height one handed. It was a terrific catch – one for the fielder’s showreel.
Haughton were 72-4 and whilst keeper Moseby was sure he had Caldwell stumped late on, Haughton reached the winning score comfortably with six wickets in hand.
The team made Haughton fight for the victory and confidence in the camp remains high ahead of a big basement clash against MSG this weekend.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
