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We have been asked to host the Tom Barlow League Cup Final on Tuesday 11th July 6pm start. The game is Bomarsund CC v Civil Service CC.

Come over and have a beer and watch the match.

We are hosting the Northumberland Cricket League against the North Yorkshire South Durham League (NYSD) a very strong league.

The game is to be played Sunday 2nd July 2017 with a 1pm start.

Our chairman is looking for volunteers to come over on Sunday morning and help with jobs around the club to get our facilities ready for the game.

The bar will be open for those who may want to come over and watch the match and have a few beers.  

The 1st team batters could do with some of these hits.

Ashington RCC vs Backworth CC, 24/06/2017

To add to our injury woes Cory Milburn managed to break his foot playing football on Tuesday and is now out for 6-8 weeks, with James Richards out for the season with a torn ACL we are now without our main fast bowlers and seriously short of bowling options.

With that in mind Chris Harwood’s decision to bowl first on Saturday was not a completely ill-considered one, much rather put the pressure on the batsman to win the game than try and defend a total with only 3 recognised bowlers. If we were going to get anything out of the surface, it would also seem reasonable to bowl first. Most people reading this already know the result of the game, and whilst it might sound odd to say, Harwood’s decision was by no means a shocker.

Dean Greaves & David Dent opened the bowling and made a reasonable start; Greaves was as accurate as ever and tied down Ben Sutton for a period in the early exchanges making it difficult to score. Meanwhile Alan Robson showed his class at the other end, mixing a solid defence with impressive ball striking. Frustratingly for us Robson still managed to score a boundary an over and whilst we never felt out of the game, Backworth reached 80-0 off the first 20 overs without much trouble

As drinks came and went both batsman had their eye in and began their onslaught, with the field spread runs came easily and with limited bowling options it was very difficult to stop the flow of runs. To add to our woes Lewy Tanney twisted his ankle only 2 balls into his spell, leaving us with no remaining bowlers.

If someone had said at the start of the seasons that Adam Peacock, Callum Milburn and Matthew Tanney would bowl 15 overs between them in the same game they would have been laughed out the clubhouse. In fairness to Tanney, you could argue he was the pick of the bowlers and probably should have gone home with a couple of wickets to his name.

For once, our fielding let us down, Robson was dropped twice and Sutton once on the way to their centuries. Cal Milburn & Dent will be especially disappointed with their drops to relatively simple chances.

Forgetting the odd chance Sutton & Robson batted magnificently and I believe have set a new record for the highest opening stand in the Northumberland league, this record may now stand forever once the league merges with North Tyneside next year. Robson used his feet well manipulating the field with ease and very rarely patted back a dot ball. In a different but equally effective approach, Sutton mixed defensive strokes with impressive power hitting down the ground and through the leg side. Shot of the day goes to Robson though, clearing the stream and. lading one 6 feet from the 9^th green!

A few of the lads heads went down towards the end which can be expected when you’re on the wrong side of a batting performance like that, with nothing put part timers to offer up to the slaughter. For the most part though everyone kept at their task and gave their all, Beefy even managing tongue in cheek to give a shout of ‘1 brings 2’, when Backworth were 322-0 in the 47^th!

It would have taken something truly spectacular to win the game, and deep down we knew at half time we were probably already beat. We crumbled to 117 all out, some may look on and make judgement but it is hard to apply yourselves in those types of situations. We had reached 80-3 and once the top order fell we lost a succession of quick wickets with Minto (2) & Morgan (3) doing the damage. Good to see Morgan back fit and healthy after 10 weeks lay off with injury.

Beers in the Backworth hall was our only consolation, Cory Millburn who was scoring for the day made such an impression on the wedding party that ‘Aunty Kath’ offered him a dance and a smooch. He declined much to our disappointment.

Whilst we are only just approaching the half way stage, we desperately need to pick up a few wins in the next few weeks to prevent us being dragged into a relegation battle.

Ashington RCC 1 points, Backworth CC 30 points.

ARCC 2nds looked to continue there impressive winning form by welcoming 5^th place Wooler to the Rec for what promised to be a tight affair. With conditions looking good, Wooler won the toss and after a long deliberation final asked ARCC 2nds to bat first.

Skipper Rosser shuffled the batting order a little and sent S Parsons to open along side D Hardy to try and get some impetus into the scoring rate in the first 10 overs. Unfortunately this back fired massively with Parsons getting a 1^st ball duck. D Hardy then was out caught and bowled in the 7^th over on a wicket where the Wooler opening bowler started to find assistance from the wicket. With the fall of the second wicket, this brought Kevin Hetherington to the crease and he continue his fine form in building an 80 run partnership with skipper Rosser who eventually feel for 41 in the 27^th over. With the wicket starting to assist further and the tight bowling lines by the Wooler bowlers, ARCC 2nds finished on 179-7 with K Hetherington top scoring yet again with 69 not out.

ARCC 2nds knew that 179 was a good total to defend due to the increasing assistance that the wicket was providing the bowlers and D Wanlass Snr and C Jobson did exactly that by restricting Wooler to 45-4 off 19 overs with C Jobson taking 3 wickets for 22 runs. Then, in the 20^th over of the match, J Acaster bowled a 3 wicket maiden over which included a hat trick to restrict them further to 45-7 off 20 overs. With the game meandering to a easy victory, Tom More and Lyndon Dodds where introduced into the attack so that they could get some invaluable bowling time especially with important fixtures on the horizon and bowlers away on holidays. Eventually Wooler where bowled out for 106.

Again this was an impressive result against a team in the top half of the league which also allowed some valuable practise time for some. ARCC 2nds finish up the first round of fixtures with a trip to Cramlington on July 1^st hoping to maintain the strong performances that has cemented there current position in the top 2 in the league and with Blue Flames and Whitely Bay clashing on the same day, with another impressive win ARCC 2nds could be top of the league at the half way point in the season.

ARCC 2nds 179-7 (K Hetherington 69, S Rosser 41)   Wooler 1^st 106 all out (C Jobson 3-22, J Acaster 3-11)

Saturday 17/6/2017 on a warm sunny day our 1^st team hosted Wickham CC for their first ever game at the “Rec”. On a day when the toss was so important, yes we lost again and Wickham decided to bat first. Dean Greaves and Cory Milburn opened up, they bowled good lines and length early on an put pressure on the Wickham batters  which eventually paid off with two early wickets both claimed by Greaves. It wasn’t till the South African Joshua Warner steadied the ship and then started to hit out did the score start to move along he was eventually out on 43 off 65 balls. M. Davison was the only other who got into the 20s before he fell on 26, eventually Wickham CC was all out for 130 from 47.2 overs.

Great effort from our bowlers who bowled well and took wickets when it counted Dean Greaves 2 for 22, Cory Milburn 2 for 32, David Dent 3 for 33, Scott Maddison 2 for 32 and Lewis Tanney 1 for 21.

We started our chase looking for a tight start against two sharp opening bowlers in Matthew Rodger and South African Gerhardt Badenhorst, we lost 2 wickets with the score on 27, and our 3^rd wicket fell on 54 our next wicket went down on 56. Paul Milburn (23) and Lewis Tanney (27) then built a small partnership taking the score to 90 before Paul was out. Cory Milburn came in and hit some lusts blows in a quick fire 20 pushing our total up to 122 for 8 leaving the Rugger boys sweating with Scott Maddison and Dean Greaves seeing us home with a straight drive four from Greaves winning us the match with 14.2 overs to spare.

Ashington Rugby CC 27 points and Wickham CC 6 points

ARCC 2nds travelled to Howick on a glorious day looking to continue the winning form of the previous week. Skipper Stuart Rosser had a change in fortune at the toss and with no hesitation elected to bat with conditions very favourable for the batsmen.

Skipper Rosser chose to continue with the stable top 6 that has seen ARCC 2nds post winning scores over the past weeks meaning  Rosser opening along side Dean Hardy. The pair got the innings off to a steady start, laying the platform for the other batsmen although scoring wasn’t easy due to the accurate bowling of the Alnmouth opening bowlers. With both openers departed with the score on 67 after 19 overs, Jay Little and Kevin Hetherington increased the scoring rate with a partnership of 96. With some good running and lusty blows in the last 10 overs, ARCC 2nds posted 206- 8 off 40 overs with Kevin Hetherington and Jay Little top scorers with 66 and 52 respectively.

ARCC 2nds knew that 206 was going to be difficult to defend with conditions hot and the wicket batsmen friendly. David Wanless Snr continued where he left off the previous week. With wickets falling at regular intervals and runs hard to come by, Alnmouth were eventually bowled out for 89 in the 30^th over. This was a pleasing performance that showed that ARCC 2nds can set targets batting first and continuing to put the opposition under pressure when bowling.

Alnmouth and Lesbury/Howick  89 all out (5 pts)      ARCC 2nds 206-8 (30pts)(K Hetherington 69, J Little 52)

ARCC 2nds look to continue the season weather permitting with a home fixture against Wooler on June 17^th and will be looking to maintain the pressure on the league leaders.

Saturday 10th June both teams were due to play Blue Flames however due to the heavy rain during the week and all day Saturday no game was started.

8th June 2017 after a morning of heavy rain and a pitch inspection at 3pm, ARCC 2nds travelled to Stobswood for the Enid Farmer North Semi-Final. Skipper Stuart Rosser continued his poor form at the toss and ARCC 2nds were asked to bat with conditions pretty good considering the rain that had fallen in the morning.

Skipper Rosser shuffled the batting order and promoted Steven Parsons to open along side Dean Hardy with Parsons in particular looking to accelerate the scoring. The changed worked with 55 being scored of the first 5 overs. From there ARCC 2nds lost a couple of quick wickets before Jay Little and Kevin Hetherington steady the ship and continued to score taking the score to 117-4 with 4 overs remaining. With some good running and lusty blows, ARCC 2nds posted 143- 8 off 20 overs with Steven Parsons and Jay Little top scorers with 44 and 39 respectively.

ARCC 2nds knew that 143 was going to be difficult to defend on a big ground and needed to bowl well. From the start of the Stobswood innings, a mixture of good shots and poor bowling allowed Stobswood to score freely in the quest to chase down the target of 144. At 117-1 with 5 overs remaining, Stobswood where clear favourites to win especially with Jeff Henderson set at the wicket. In the 16^th over, ARCC 2nds got the key wicket of Henderson for 92 who was caught by Dean Hardy off Stuart Rosser. With the key wicket of Henderson, ARCC 2nds started to take control and limit the amount of boundaries that had be easier when Henderson was at the crease. The pressure was mounting on the Stobswood batsmen with the boundaries drying up. Moving into the last 2 overs, Stobswood were favourites to win with 13 required off 12 balls. With Trevor Elliot and Stuart Rosser to bowl the last 2 overs, ARCC 2nds knew that wickets were the key to victory. In the 19^th over, the Stobswood batsmen relieved the pressure with a well struck boundary and a couple of singles leaving them requiring 4 from the last over. With the field up to stop the singles, Skipper Rosser bowled D Watson for 28 with the first ball of the final over and with a new batsmen on strike, the pressure was mounting. With still 4 runs to win off the final 3 balls, Skipper Rosser bowled D Townsley Snr, meaning Stobswood required 4 from the final 2 balls and there set batsmen was off strike. Knowing that the Stobswood batsmen would run at all costs on the fifth ball to get the set batsman on strike, the field tightened. The ball flickered off the pads of the batsman, the batsmen scampered for the quick single and a Run Out was taken at both ends. After some confusion as to who was out, the umpires conferred and finally the appropriate batsman was given out leaving Stobswood needing 4 of the final ball. Skipper Rosser then set his field to stop the boundary that would win the game for Stobswood, with the filed set, the final ball was delivered and resulted in a dot ball meaning that ARCC 2nds had won the game by 3 runs and ARCC 2nds move on to the North Final of the Enid Farmer Cup.

Stobswood 2nds 140-5 (J Henderson 92, S Rosser 3-34)   ARCC 2nds 143-8 (S Parsons 44, J Little 39)

On Saturday June 10^th, ARCC 2nds where hoping to travel to top of the table Blue Flames but alas the weather won the day. ARCC 2nds will now look to continue the season weather permitting with a trip to Alnmouth on June 17^th and will be looking to maintain the pressure on the league leaders.

Ashington RCC vs Stobswood CC, 03/05/2017

We made the short trip to Stobswood Welfare desperately in search of a victory. Dean Greaves made a welcome return to the side after missing last week through a family party, other than that Paul Milburn remains out injured (Calf) and was replaced by Ryan Pringle.

After losing 5 consecutive tosses in a row we sent vice-captain David Dent out to do the toss, much good that did as we lost yet again, and were forced to bowl first, yet again. The toss shouldn’t always make a huge difference to a cricket match, but for a batting line up completely bereft of any confidence this was another blow. The pitch on appearances looked a good’n and immediate thoughts turned to limiting the score as much as possible.

We started well, with dry conditions and a bouncy pitch Cory Milburn looked especially dangerous bowling very quick from the top end. Daniel Cook was the first to fall from a well-directed bouncer in only the second over of the game. Further success followed as Dean Greaves removed Richard Marshall lbw without troubling the scorers. Michael Marshall & Daniel Wingfield then batted well for a period before Milburn struck again hitting Wingfield (8) below the knee roll to claim another lbw.

It was clear that the pitch wasn’t as true as first appeared, there was often no pace and shorter balls would exude tennis ball bounce making scoring very difficult for the batsmen. I’m unsure given the lack of information on the scorecard but at drinks, Stobswood were in the region of 60/4.

For the next 15 overs Daniel Watson & Ian Watson dug in and occupied the crease, scoring very slowly. We were initially dumbfounded at the lack of ambition to score runs, however given the eventual result this turned out to be a vital, and ultimately match winning partnership.

No blame can be placed on the bowlers and it would be harsh to criticise any of the figures as no bowler went for more than 2 and a bit an over. David Dent finishing 13-15-3 & Milburn 12-29-4.

Whilst we might be the worst batting team in the league on form, the fielding was again superb. Adam Peacock took a couple of smart takes including a stunning one-hand catch to remove Esmond Black off the bowling of Dent.

Maddison & Pringle each picked up a wicket toward the back end of the inning and Stobswood finished 104 all out.

Harwood & Dent opened up and started brightly reaching 25 in no time, then in all too familiar fashion 25-0 quickly turned into 30-3 as Harwood, Dent & Peacock fell in quick succession, the lack of runs in the top order is now becoming a real concern. Peacock in particular, struggling with 3 ducks in his 5 inning this year.

Callum Milburn and Lewy Tanney began the rescue operation and batted nicely for a period until Milburn (27) was yorked off Daniel Watson and Tanney left a straight delivery, bowled by Beverley for 13. Whilst never looking in any trouble both batsman will be frustrated in the manner of their dismissals and know in the absence of any form from the top 3 that they need to stand up and win a game off their own backs if we are to resurrect our season.

And that was all she wrote. Other than a battling 10 from Matty Tanney and a last wicket stand to make the result look more respectable than it was, Stobswood ran home comfortable winners.

For a side full of such talent this was another incredibly disappointing performance. We swallowed our pride and congratulated Stobswood on a well-earned victory, they have already out performed most other promoted sides in recent years and have picked up a couple of notable victories against established premier league sides already.

If you don’t laugh you’ll cry…so we chose the latter, and a few (many) pints and move onto next week looking for a win against Blue Flames CC. hopefully we can win a toss as well! A number of people seem to be taking particular delight in our early season blight, with some directed and often personal attacks on social media, must be a sad state of affairs when most of your Saturday night is spent focusing on other people.

Ashington RCC 5 points, Stobswood Welfare CC 26.

On a bright sunny day, ARCC 2nds welcomed Whitely Bay 2nds to the recreation ground looking to improve on the previous weeks defeat against a team who was 3^rd in the league. Skipper Rosser made a couple of changes from the team that lost the previous week with the return of some more fire power in the bowling department. With conditions looking good at the recreation ground skipper Rosser won the toss and asked Whitley Bay to have a bat first on what looked like a good wicket.

For the second week running, ARCC 2nds started strongly with the ball. Opening pair Craig Jobson and David Wanless Snr restricted the flamboyant batsmen to 30 for 4 after 15 overs. With Bhavesh Soni still at the crease, Whitely Bay still had a chance of putting on a respectable score. With some dubious LBW’s and run out decision plus a couple of dropped catches, Whitely Bay post a respectable 143 for 9 in the 40 overs with David Wanlass Snr being the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 20 in his allotted 10 overs. Bhavesh Soni top scored for Whitely Bay with 69.

ARCC 2nds knew that the required 144 for victory was well within their capability especially as the top order are starting to find some form as the season progresses. Skipper Stuart Rosser and Dean Hardy opened up the innings and starting positively passing the 50 partnership in the 13^th over. With the score on 67, Dean Hardy (30) chopped a wide half volley onto his stumps to give Whitely Bay what turned out to be there only wicket of the day. This brought Jay Little to the crease fresh after his 82 in the midweek fixture and that form continue. Stuart Rosser and Jay Little continued the positive play and eventually pass the total in the 31^st over with Jay Little 36 not out and Stuart Rosser 61 not out.

This was exactly the strong performance that was required after the disappointment from the previous week. Bowlers and batsmen alike are starting to consistently deliver performances and with this type of performance the team can only go from strength to strength. All this starts again next week when ARCC 2nds first travel to Stobswood on June 8^th for the Enid Farmer Semi Final an then travel to league leaders Blues Flames which promises to be a top of the table clash.