It was a week of mixed results for Shildon 1st XI in the last week.
On Wednesday (2 July), Shildon travelled to local rivals Newton Aycliffe in the hundred competition, and as last year’s finalists, Shildon have high hopes of again getting to the latter stages.
After winning the toss on a wet pitch Captain Upton elected to bowl first. It proved to be the right decision on a challenging wicket as all the bowlers did their jobs to restrict Aycliffe to 57 all out.
Wickets were shared across all the bowlers. Stand outs were Shane Rowley’s 3 for 10 from his 20 balls, and Carl Crabtree’s 3 for 4 from his 15 balls.
Shildon then stuttered slightly getting across the line with only Stephen Forster (18) and Sam Telford (17) reaching double figures, eventually finishing on 58-5 albeit with a comfortable 48 balls to spare.
Next in the competition is a home tie against Sedgefield on Wednesday 16 July, starting at 6.15pm.
Unfortunately, Saturday did not go as well.
After winning the toss against Marton, Upton again elected to field, but with the side missing regular bowlers Crabtree and Knowles, it was a challenging 50 overs.
After the excitement of taking a wicket with the first delivery of the game, Bayles taking a catch behind at the third attempt from McKendry, the Marton batsmen applied themselves very well with the other opener scoring 107 and number four a well made 70.
The bowlers stuck at their task with McKendry, Forster and Dinger bowling plenty of overs well supported by Phil Garbutt.
Eventually Marton finished on 246-6, leaving quite a daunting target, but one Shildon certainly had the capability to chase.
Shildon though never really got going. The top three of Upton, McKendry and Dinger all reached double figures before getting themselves out, however, Forster was out LBW for 0, before Horner followed him back to the pavilion the next ball with one that kept low.
Following on from last week’s performance with the bat, Adam Bayles put on another enjoyable exhibition of lower order batting with eight 4s for his 32, some glorious strokes which have him pushing for a promotion in the order once he returns from his week off.
However that was the only real bright spot with the bat as Shildon finished 127 all out, losing by 119 runs.
Shildon dropped to 4th in the league, 6 points behind Stockton in 2nd who they play next week in a promotion clash.
The 2nd XI had a free weekend but are back in action this week. They play Haughton at home on Thursday night in a cup fixture, before they entertain Barton 1st XI on Saturday.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
