Stand-in skipper hails ‘outstanding effort’ from Ashington cricketers

The Mighty Acorns travelled along the coast for a top of the table clash with a depleted side including the absence of their captain Josh Robinson but after posting 196 all out, they had the hosts in trouble at 127-6 at one stage before Tynemouth’s lower order came to the fore to secure victory.

Former first XI skipper Williams – who has played for the Langwell Crescent outfit for over 30 years - said afterwards: “I was proud of them. We had a few missing but it was without doubt an outstanding effort from everyone. It was also a massive achievement that batting first, we got up to just under 200 which gave our bowlers something to bowl at.”

The 43 year old added: “The bowlers responded and performed well and whilst our fielding could have been better, Tynemouth had lads down the order who batted well and they deserved to win.

"We did think we had a great chance but you cannot take anything from them (Tynemouth). However, I’ve got nothing but admiration for our lads. We brought young Charlie Harmison into the side and we took lots of positives from the game.

"On Saturday, we are at home to Benwell Hill in what will be another big game.”

*Meanwhile, Ashington 1sts are preparing for two important clashes this weekend.

On Friday (July 1), they travel to face Hetton Lyons in the quarter finals of the T20 cup competition and skipper Sean McCafferty said: “We’re looking forward to it. It is the first time we will have faced them (Hetton Lyons) because we have previously never got out of the group stages. It’s a one off game and we will go into the contest with nothing to lose –hopefully with a chance of progressing to finals day which would be great for the club.”

On Saturday Ashington 1sts are away to Crook: “We’ll be looking to continue our form,” said McCafferty, “We are playing some good cricket and everybody is contributing which is good. We are not relying on one or two players – we have strength in depth and every player is putting their hands up.”