Hughes and Straker hit tons as Alnmouth beat Greenside

Electing to bat first on a superb looking wicket, Alnmouth openers Paul Straker and Russell Hughes were both centurions as they added a massive 202 for the first wicket in 43 overs.

It was Straker who reached his 100 first and was then dismissed for an excellent 105. Greenside then claimed a further 4 wickets as the home side looked for quick runs and the innings closed on 240-5 with Hughes unbeaten, with an impressive 105.

Greenside lost two quick wickets with Matt Willcocks and Nick Denton both claiming a wicket in their first overs. Connor Fellows and Abu Maqsood then staged a fightback, both batting aggressively and had taken the score to 62 before Cameron Batey had them both caught.

Fellows departed for a well-played 54, falling to a smart catch in the gully by veteran Andrew Hodgson.

Greenside were finally dismissed in the 46th over for 162 with Batey, Straker and Willcocks each taking two wickets and Charles Anderson claiming three victims behind the stumps.

Alnwick 1sts went down by 58 runs on their visit to Cowgate. Cowgate batted first and put on 198-7 with their top scorer on 56. David Wright took 3-28 and Ben Threlfall 3-50.

In reply, Alnwick saw Michael Brewis open with 60, but Threlfall on 25 was the only other bat to add a valuable contribution and with Amjad Ali taking 4-21 they were all out for 140.

Alnwick 2nds went down to a heavy nine wicket defeat when they entertained Leadgate 2nds at home.

Alnwick batted first and only managed to post 56 with N Newcombe their top scorer on 18. Steven Smith enjoyed a fine spell with the ball and finished with figures of 5-8 off his ten overs.

Jack Thackray then hit 44 not out as Leadgate eased their way to victory at 59-1 in only 13 overs.

Tillside 1st XI played Bedlington CC 1st XI in their first home game of the season in the Northumberland and Tyneside Senior League.

Bedlington won the toss and chose to bat first. Tillside got off to a good start with Luke Dickson and Jake Birkett both picking up a wicket to leave the visitors 12-2. Bedlington then put on a good partnership as they reached 102-2 with Calum Bickerton unlucky not to pick up a wicket in his seven over spell for 31 runs.

Cam McGregor got the vital breakthrough and from then the home side put the pressure on. McGregor picked up another wicket in his spell to finish with 2-34 off 12 overs. Alan Hindmarsh partnered McGregor from the other end and got his first victim of the season to finish with 1-14 off seven overs. Amongst all of this Liam Hindmarsh picked up a run out with some excellent fielding, partly from the pressure built by the whole team.

Jake Birkett and Luke Dickson came back on at the death to wrap things up for Tillside as Birkett claimed another wicket to finish with 2-27 off his 12 overs. Dickson quickly claimed three wickets from the other end to finish with 4-25 off 10.2 overs, meaning Bedlington were all out for 138.

Tillside then chased this six wickets down, with skipper Liam Hindmarsh leading the way. Liam and Ross Hindmarsh built up a good partnership with Liam quickly passing 50. Ross hit another ‘massive’ six on his way to a timely 31 before mistiming one straight up in the air. Liam continued to score frequently before Gareth Hill decided to run him out for 75. This meant Tillside had lost a few wickets in quick succession before Hill saw the game out with 23*.

In the Northumberland League, Warkworth 1sts went down to a narrow nine run defeat at the hands of Cramlington 1sts.

Matthew Hall top-scored with 51 as Cramlington posted 131 all out with Ian Clough taking 5-28 off his 9.2 overs.

Warkworth got off to a poor start with the bat, but a knock of 45 from Adam Hall, and a late 23 from Clough, gave them some hope of reaching their target.

However, Bryan Walker took 5-32 and with Ian Black weighing in with 3-14 the Castle side just fell short at 122 all out in the 47th over.

Ulgham 1sts went down by six wickets to Bomarsund 1sts.

Darrell Campbell hit 49 and Colin Tait 32 as Ulgham posted 182-7.

In reply, both Bomarsund openers hit into the 60s and they went on to make 187-4, with Paul Howey taking three of the wickets.

Embleton had a 37-run win over Alnmouth and Lesbury.

Embleton batted first and put on 170 all out with Guy Davison on 64. Darren Gray took 5-23 for Alnmouth, who min replymanaged 133, with Robert Cuthbert their top scorer on 26. Cameron Thorpe took 3-28 for the visitors.

Warenford suffered their second successive defeat with an eight wicket loss at home to Backworth 2nds. Waren only fielded ten players and were restricted to 150 with Brian Thompson top-scoring on 42, Paul Dixon and Alan Sinton lending mist support with 26 and 20 respectively.

In reply, Backworth saw Graeme Fairbairn hit 59 and Dave Hull-Denholm 55 not out as they put on 153-2 in 28 overs.

Wooler, in their first game of the season, went down to a narrow two run defeat away to Bomarsund 2nds.

Bomarsund batted first and were all out for only 92, with William Blackburn claiming 4-23.

It looked an easy target for the Glendale side, but they were skittled for 90 in the 31st over with Andrew Aitchison the only bat of note on 42.

Rock won by 72 runs against Hebburn 2nds. Paul Roberts hit 67 not out as Rock made 184, all out in 37 overs, with Andy Watson taking 4-41.

Hebburn were then all out for 112 in 38 overs with Martin de Jager top scoring on 44.