JUST three weeks after his clubmate hit a 20-year record high score, Adrian Marrison exceeded it as he helped Stocksfield to a big victory over a struggling Newcastle III .

First team captain Dan Whiley posted 149 not out in a league game with Alnmouth and Lesbury mid-June for the club’s highest score at any level since 1995, yet Marrison’s unbeaten stand of 156 for the second XI at the weekend saw him eclipse that performance.

Batting for the entire 40 overs, Marrison was on top form as he shot 16 fours and six sixes on his way to the century-and-a-half which guided Stocksfield to a high total of 271.

He was in good company too with fellow opener Richie Mannion impressing with a half century, firing six fours and a six on his way to a top score of 61.

Their excellent first wicket stand was finally brought to an end when Mannion was caught by Joe Everson off Sam Crampton, with Steven Henderson then adding 25 before bowled by Will Jobling.

Graeme Tolchard was only fortunate enough to face one delivery, with the Marrison-inspired innings coming to an end with Stocksfield well in control.

The 10 men of Newcastle, without a victory all season, were always up against it, and so it transpired as James Tolchard and Perry Hall heaped the pressure on from the very beginning.

They both took two early wickets, with Paul Brown removing Newcastle’s top scorer Owen Thomas, caught by Ali Thirlwell.

Matty Scandle finished with the better figures of 3-9, with Hall also scoring a run out, as Newcastle made it to 41 before forced to call it a day.

Front runners Allendale breezed to victory, too, rarely troubled in their nine wicket success over Benwell Hill III .

Benwell opened but were soon struggling against some good bowling throughout the team, the wickets evenly shared round.

The run out of Joseph Torre by new captain Ben Lloyd was a sign of things to come, and Ross Laidlaw quickly followed it up by catching Saeem Korum off his own bowling.

Tim Raglan, Liam Pringle and Lloyd all took two wickets each, but it was the bowling of 16-year-old Rhys Scott which impressed most as the youngster continues to cement his place in the first team after starting the season in the seconds.

Showing maturity beyond his years, he gave nothing away and his economical figures helped see Benwell off for 108, Scott having danger man Zain Ahmed caught behind by Jack Raglan.

Allendale went into their reply fully confident of gaining all 20 points, in-form Tim Raglan and John Welch getting them to 48 before Welch’s departure.

But the bulk of the runs came from last week’s cenutry maker Raglan, continuing his aggressive style by hitting six sixes and five fours for an unbeaten 85 off 61 balls.

He was grateful for some poor fielding as he was dropped time and again, Lloyd joining him in the middle to finish the game with just under half of their 40 overs remaining.

Haltwhistle remained hot on the heels of the top two after a convincing victory of their own, at Wylam .

They recovered from losing Dan Parker early on to post a good total of 187, opener Joe Barber again spearheading the innings as he opened his body and racked up the runs.

After he lost second wicket partner Mark Rowell, Wylam looked to build on their momentum with Richard Opie seeing off both Graeme Lee and Jonny Wallace for ducks.

However, Phil Thompson batted well alongside Barber who finally departed when he became Opie’s third victim, caught and bowled.

Wylam were never up with the run rate as Barber bowled tight lines, with Thompson causing havoc to the middle order to finish with four wickets.

Wallace came in and got two wickets at the cost of just four runs, Wylam falling way short, and shy of their 100.

Humshaugh bounced back from losing two early wickets to pick up maximum points from their game with Hexham Leazes .

Crispin Straker and Rob Forster were early casualties, but Allan Murray batted well as the mainstay of the innings to guide Humshaugh on.

Jack Garrett’s eye-catching debut season for the club continued with another good knock, with the lower order then adding crucial runs in the final five overs courtesy of captain Andy Crawford and Luke Parkinson.

At 78 without loss at drinks, Michael Watts and Raji Kingman put Hexham in a solid position, the duo looking good value to overturn the Humshaugh innings.

However, change bowler Forster made an immediate impact by removing both openers on his way to four wickets during a fantastic spell.

Straker, at the other end, bowled tightly for two wickets, the Leazes scoring slowing down with Nick Reid having an excellent game behind the stumps with three important catches and an impressive direct hit to claim the run out of Ben Thompson.

It was over to Nathan Byerley to finish the innings, taking two victims to get Humshaugh back to winning ways.

A 10th wicket stand of 32 proved match defining as South Northumberland 1864 edged an entertaining game with Matfen Hall .

With the team on 76-9, the pairing of Matty Jennings and Allan Davidson provided crucial runs at the death to see them to an innings total of 108, which proved eight runs higher than their hosts.

The North batsmen struggled throughout the order, Aaron Tiffin taking two wickets in his opening spell, which included a sharp catch at gully by Tom Scott.

Alex Tait gave nothing away, and the good work was carried on by Will O’Brien and Withycombe, the latter maintaining her good spell with two wickets and O’Brien finishing with the impressive figures of 1-3 off eight overs.

Tait and Tiffin returned to pick up a couple of wickets, backed up by some good fielding with Sam Brown particularly impressing with two run outs, one a direct throw from the deep square leg boundary.

Matfen’s start was a good one as they reached 78-1 after O’Brien’s early departure, Scott and Tait moving the scoring on.

While Scott’s dismissal led to wickets falling at regular intervals, Tait was again superb with the bat as he hit his fourth successive half century in the league as two sixes and seven fours helped him on.

Nobody could provide adequate assistance and his teammates’ inability to reach double figures saw Matfen end eight runs short.

This was largely down to the bowling of regular second team players Davidson, Cameron Skinner and James Hutton. Jamie Taylor again impressed for Haydon Bridge with both bat and ball, but he couldn’t inspire his side to victory over Newton .

Instead it was solid knocks throughout Newton’s order which earned them the four wicket success.

Taylor has starred with the bat for Bridge and again hit his way to a half ton, he and Ian Watson forming a good partnership again as they contributed more than 100 of the team’s 144 runs.

They were paired together after Dave Archbold, on a high after the previous week’s five-fer, claimed the early wickets of Chris Welton and Robert Gibson.

Typically, Bridge were in good form with the ball but a solid third wicket stand between Chris Wilkie and Chris Telfer put Newton on track for victory.

Andrew Jones and Jim Balkwill then formed a match-winning stand later in the order, gearing the team over the line with the last ball of the second last over.