A LEADING Tyne Valley cricket team will host the prestigious Marylebone Cricket Club as part of its centenary celebrations this year.

Stocksfield Cricket Club will welcome the historic side to the district on August 31 in a special match to mark its 100th birthday.

A series of fixtures and events were planned over the course of the 2020 season, but have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The successful Northumberland and Tyneside League Division One club was formed in 1920 and first entered the West Tyne League in 1934 in the second division, winning the division in 1939.

In 1952 the first known century for the club was scored by Johnson Walker in a match against Riding Mill in the West Tyne League Division One.

The club entered a successful period, in terms of trophies, between 1960 and 1966. In 1960 the first XI won the West Tyne League Championship for the first time.

In 1997 the move to the Northumberland League became saw club’s first team joining Division ‘A’ of the Northumberland League, and the team won the title for the first time in 2007.

The team celebrated the launch of its first women’s side in the 1990s, and have since won league titles and competitions throughout the North-East.

Junior cricket has long been an integral asset of Stocksfield CC after it first fielded an U17 team in 1964, and its sides have won the junior division of the West Tyne League on 12 occasions.

Final preparations are under way for the start of the new-look Northumberland and Tyneside League on Saturday with Stocksfield travelling to Lintz CC.

Tyne Valley sides Stocksfield and Tynedale CC played out a pre-season friendly last weekend with the Hexham side winning by eight wickets.

Stocksfield saw out their 40 overs and posted 191-9 with a first wicket partnership of 38. A good fifth wicket stand of 59 was finally ended by Tynedale’s Sam Mannion.

In reply, Tynedale’s Tom Cant, Sam Mannion and Oliver Fletcher all hit 50 runs as the Hexham side saw the game home with 10 overs to spare.