WHILE he was agonisingly denied an opening day ton, captain Dan Whiley guided Stocksfield to a comfortable victory over Benwell and Walbottle.

Not getting enough on his drive, he lofted the ball into the hands of bowler Stephen Reed as he was just three runs shy of reaching triple figures.

Yet he had already done enough to put his side in a commanding position, the good work of the batsmen complemented by a top bowling performance.

After racking up the runs in the latter stages of 2016, Whiley opened the batting alongside youngster Luke Doneathy and they started solidly by putting on 55 for the first wicket before the latter was trapped lbw by leg spinner Sohail in the 13th over.

Ben Archer came in and ticked the score on quickly, but his departure to a catch at gully was quickly followed by the cheap wicket of Steven Henderson as he screwed one straight to midwicket.

Tristram Douglas made a quickfire 12 but departed just as he was finding his rhythm, with Sam Beedle and Andy Wood both going for ducks in quick succession.

Stocksfield were looking a bit precarious at 163-6, but the arrival of Rob Thirlwell to accompany his skipper steadied the ship. Whiley was in top form but he was denied his century by Reed with just seven overs remaining.

Teenager Ryan Chamberlain took his place at the crease, and together with Thirlwell put on a late innings flourish to help the hosts post a competitive total of 212.

The young pairing of Doneathy and James Tolchard opened the bowling for Stocksfield, and they didn’t give their opponents a sniff with Benwell only managing eight runs from their opening eight overs.

The visitors did start to accelerate the run rate but the big breakthrough came with the score on 41, Tolchard seeing David Anderson caught by Thirlwell. The important wicket of opener James Carr followed soon after with Henderson catching him off James Doneathy’s bowling, and Stocksfield were well in control from that point.

Wood was introduced to the attack to devastating effect, sending Benwell captain Michael Birrell packing for a duck in his first over.

The wickets continued to tumble at regular intervals, Doneathy, Wood and Chamberlain striking to take the visitors’ score to 65-6.

The away batsmen couldn’t read Wood’s variety and the Stocksfield ended with a further two wickets, before Thirlwell brought an end to the game with the final two wickets, both for ducks, to see Benwell and Walbottle’s challenge fall short by more than 100 runs.