Following a difficult start to the North Yorkshire & South Durham Cricket League Division 2 season, Shildon 1st team welcomed back captain Greg Upton for his first game of the season at the weekend as they travelled to a tough opponent in promotion hopefuls Rockliffe Park.
Having lost their opening two games, the toss at Rockliffe was won by the home side and following their victory chasing last season, where Upton scored a hundred, Shildon were put in to bat.
Upton and McKendry strode out to the middle to set about creating a tough target for their opponents, and that was exactly what they did.
Upton picked up from last year’s hundred and looked in imperious form, striking boundaries for fun including clearing the rope on his way to 80 (74 balls, 11x 4’s, 3x 6’s) before falling to a very smart catch from Matty Wheeler close in.
Following Upton’s departure, Jacob Dinger came and went for 12 following some positive batting before McKendry was judged to be out LBW despite close proximity of his bat for 49 (7x 4’s).
Ste Forster and Adam Bayles then began a small partnership with both scoring at a good rate.
Forster departed for 29 from 33 balls (6x 4’s) before Tom Wickins came and went for a quick fire 18 as the innings was coming to a close.
Bayles was judged to be out LBW before Carl Crabtree and Joe Knowles scored 20 runs between them to close at 248-7 with Crabtree out run out last ball of the innings.
Phil Garbutt and McKendry opened the bowling with young Xavier Lockey and Matty Wheeler striding out, the latter hitting his straps from ball one in his usual belligerent way whilst Lockey was quieter with the scorers.
The opening bowlers found it tough to start before McKendry got the first scalp in Wheeler whose clip to Tom Wickins resulted in a tremendous catch low down at the second attempt.
It was a huge wicket which settled the innings pace down considerably.
After that, Rob Nevison and Jacob Dinger were introduced and on another day Nevison would have returned far better figures that his 1-45 from 15 overs.
He bowled a fine spell of spin bowling to contain the usually free scoring home side including the wicket of Lockey who had scored 51 at the time.
Dinger at the other end was a tad more expensive at 3-58 from 14 but bowled another fine spell to dismiss Bainbridge, Randall and Layfield-Carroll in what proved to be another crucial spell in the game.
A Joe Knowles run out, albeit Adam Bayles did the bulk of the work following a wayward throw, broke a key partnership before McKendry returned to clean up the tail.
In doing so claimed he his first 5-fer this year as the BR got hold of their first 25 points and first win to hopefully kick start their season.
It proved a fine performance all round with every player chipping in at key points with bat, ball and in the field. Key performances came from Greg Upton and Cordie McKendry.
This weekend, the side host Norton CC at the BR with the match getting underway at 1pm.
Meanwhile, the 2nd team hosted Witton le Wear in the Darlington and District Cricket League Division A the following day after having to concede their opening game of the season due to a lack of availability.
Skipper Andrew Clegg won the toss and elected to bowl and initially it seemed a great call with the scores being kept tight by the Shildon bowling attack early doors.
However, Witton managed to put a couple of partnerships together and got away in the latter stages of the innings to make 172/7 off their 40 overs.
Dan Nelson, Andy Paterson and Shane Rowley came away with a wicket apiece with Andrew Clegg continuing on from last season, picking up 4-43.
In reply, Shildon struggled to get going and build partnerships, with only Dhanesh Dharmarathnam really making a dent in the extremely good bowling attack, top scoring with 32.
In the end, Shildon were bowled out for 111, and losing the game by 61 runs. They’ll hope to bounce back next weekend when they travel to Eryholme.
Shildon & District's local community newspaper.
