Ashington's title hopes are dented after losing draw against Castle Eden

The home side did however – and for the first time in the win, lose, draw format in the North East Premier League – battle it out, with their last pair at the wicket seeing off the bowlers including the visitors’ paceman Bilawal Iqbal, to secure a losing draw.

With the sun beating down, home skipper Sean McCafferty won the toss and put the Hartlepool-based outfit in to bat and must have been happy to see David Rutherford strike at the double as he removed both openers Jonathan Malkin and Muhaymen Majeed whilst Ben Harmison trapped Keith Bailey leg before.

However, from having Castle Eden 55-3, Ashington’s progress was considerably checked by a blistering stand of 161 between JP Meade and Nicholas Sampson-Barnes.

Meade smashed five fours and six sixes in his 107 off 116 deliveries whilst Sampson-Barnes found the ropes on seven occasions and added two maximums.

Although both eventually fell to Ben Harmison, Castle Eden were not finished as Iqbal scored an undefeated 52 alongside Benjamin Simpson, who contributed an unbeaten 22.

Ashington similarly lost three wickets for 60 as Cam Nichols (23) and Jack Jessop fell to Iqbal and David Rutherford to Ryan Bell.

Matty Storey (37) and McCafferty (40) featured in a stand worth 60 until both lost their wickets in quick succession.

Ashington’s main aim now turned towards avoiding defeat and they eventually achieved their goal. Just as there was tension in the previous game against Tynedale at Hexham which the Mighty Acorns won so to were the nerves jangling on this occasion as James Harmison – who relishes a challenge – and Ian Sharkey denied the visitors a complete victory.

With seven league matches of the campaign remaining, Burnmoor – who beat Benwell Hill on Saturday – extended their lead at the top of the division to 24 points over Ashington.

McCafferty said after the game: “Obviously we’re definitely disappointed, but we’ve got to give more than a little bit of credit to Castle Eden. Two of their lads got in – JP Meade and Nicholas Sampson-Barnes (74) – and showed how good a wicket it was, and they took the game away from us.

“Castle Eden set a good score and it was a big ask for us to get nearly 300 from 52 overs. We didn’t exactly cover ourselves in glory with the bat either, making silly mistakes, and after 20-25 overs, although we weren’t in with a chance of winning the game, we were definitely in with a shout of scoring more than we did.”

He continued: “It was a 200-plus wicket at the very least but we were definitely second best today with bat and ball.

“We need to sharpen up in a few areas but we also need to play with a little bit of belief that we are second in the league table. We probably lacked that bit of belief today but there is still loads to play for with seven games left.”

On Saturday, Ashington firsts travel to face Sunderland.