RECORDING his first 100 of the season, Tynedale captain Tom Cant had Ashington sweating until the end.

The skipper continued his excellent form with the bat and passed 500 league runs for the season, his knock gearing Tyne towards victory. However, they fell short as Ashington claimed the win.

Ashington weren't allowed to rest easy until Cant's departure with the score on 233, though, caught in the deep cover by Jack McCarthy after a brilliant display of bowling from Callum Storey who had removed three of the top four batsmen.

Opening the batting, Cant scored at almost a run-a-ball by adding 14 fours and five sixes, but the batting wasn't as effortless as he made it look.

He lost opening partner Jamie Crichton when caught at slip by Ben O'Brien, with Ollie Fletcher given out leg before to Ben Harmison to see Tynedale to 13-2 as they chased down Ashington's score.

Cant then shared a firefighting partnership of 85 with James Rainford for the third wicket, moving the score to just below 100 until Rainford was caught behind with four fours to his name.

The captain then guided a strong 81 run partnership with Euan Stephenson, although the youngster didn't need any instructions to fight for every run which was required.
Left hander Stephenson wasn't flustered and crowned his innings with a bursting short arm pull into the tennis courts for six, but met his match next ball when caught out by Paul Rutherford hitting to the same area.

At the other end, Cant was scoring boundaries for fun off the slow balls of Rutherford and Matthew Potts, although the latter did remove Richard Brooks. With time running out, Hedley Renton was caught out and brother Josh run out.

Cant battled on before finally caught, his dismissal ultimately spelling the end of Tynedale's chase.

They couldn't overhaul Ashington's total of 268 which was significantly boosted by three individual scores of 50, Jack Jessop, Sean McCafferty and an eye-catching, opportunistic innings late on by Daniel Grant.

Tynedale started well as Cant removed Neil Wood early in, and David Newton followed it up by seeing off McCarthy and O'Brien.

They kept the pressure up with change bowler Josh Renton bowling Jessop for the fourth wicket wit the score on 98.

Ben Harmison and McCafferty, though, put on 72 although the former was let off the hook when he was dropped by Hedley Renton.

He took advantage of his extra life to lash out, and the partnership was looking untouchable until the effervescent Stephenson threw down Harmison's stmps with a phenomenal direct hit from 60 yards.

It was left to Grant and McCafferty to slug it out with a tiring Tynedale attack and the 91 run partnership proved crucial in the end, even if Grant was snaffled by Cant from Percival in the penultimate over.