Bridge fall at first hurdle

The triumphant team from 2016 were unable to stave off a 60-run partnership from Stocksfield’s Graeme Tolchard (25*) and James Watson (38*) as their visitors won by five wickets.

Up until their pairing, Bridge were well in with a chance with some excellent bowling, especially from Shah (3-21) seeing Stocksfield on 30-5.

Jonny Tobin (15) and Adrian Marrison (11) had given them a solid start, but ducks for Matt Bewick, Richie Mannion and Chris Patterson had them reeling until the coming together of Tolchard and Watson.

Bridge had posted 96-7 with knocks from Chris Welton (22), Jamie Taylor (29) and Graeme Pigg (24*) boosting the score. For Stocksfield, Perry Hall (4-31) took four wickets.

Haltwhistle defeated Humshaugh by just eight runs in a close first round game to book their place in the quarter-finals.

They too posted 96, but for the loss of eight wickets, with Dan Parker (22), Jonny Wallace (14) and Dan Kirkup (11) their main runs scorers.

Ed Crawford (4-21) impressed with the ball, with Will Forster (2-21) making his mark too.

It was nip and tuck all the way as Humshaugh went for it in reply, guided by Jack Garretts 31.

They were helped along by 11 from Chris Heslop and 12 from Crawford, but they were to fall short as Wallace (3-22), Joe Barber (3-33) and Kirkup (2-15) were in the wickets.

Wylam put their league woes behind them to progress at the expense of Hexham Leazes, winning by a margin of 11 runs.

Opener David Teasdale got his team off to a great start as six fours helped him to 48 before he retired.

Helping Wylam to get to 144-3, brother James hit 16 while Chris Japes’s unbeaten 43 accelerated the run rate.

Dan Toward (1-38), Alex Brown (1-39) and Lucas Holmes (1-44) each claimed a wicket.

Wylam successfully defended the total with both Andrew Paton (4-22) and Paul Robinson (4-42) claiming four wickets.

Despite this, there was still some good knocks from Leazes’ batting order with Billy Kingman (33), Toward (24*), Andrew Webster (16) and Andrew Whitaker (16) in the runs.

Andrew Jeffery (63*) starred for Newton in their big victory over Division Two leaders Belsay with a well made half century.

He guided his side to a whopping score of 222 over 20 overs, with opener Chris Wilkie weighing in with 31 and Dan Tyalor impressing with 42. Newton did lose six wickets, half of them to Jon Fraser (3-42).

Belsay’s top order of Allan Johnson (13), Jack Fenwick (23) and David Robson (19) made some inroads, but the rest of the order failed to reach double figures.

That was largely down to the bowling of Zack Brown who took 5-12 from his 20 deliveries.

Tom Seymour smacked South Northmberland 1864 to victory over Matfen Hall in his first outing of the season with an unbeaten 82. With Ross Ward scoring 19 as he partnered him late in the innings, they made 129-5 despite Kelly Withycombe (2-22) and Aaron Tiffin (2-25) taking two wickets each.

Seymour (2-13) then claimed two victims with the ball, as did Cameron Skinner (2-15), to end Matfen’s chase on 102 with Max Stephens (34*) and Will O’Brien (19) contributing most.

Just 10 runs separated Benwell Hill III and Newcastle III as the former made it through.

They posted 108-4 with Darshana Thiranga (29), Joseph Fletcher (20), Joseph Anderson (25) and David Ladd (23) getting them off to a solid start. Newcastle openers Finlay Pearce (20) and Sam Warwick (18) made sure they were in the game, but they weren’t able to build on the good start with William Archbold (3-28) and Jeff Mason (3-29) sharing six wickets.