Superb win for Ashington over South Northumberland

South Northumberland’s former Ashington player Adam Cragg won the toss and elected to bat – but his side were quickly in trouble.

In the third over, right arm seamer Matty Collins bowled Solomon Bell for two then in the next, youngster Alex Nice had Nikhil Gorantla caught at slip by Ben Harmison.

Simon Birtwisle and Chris Hewison consolidated, punishing the bad ball but in the 16th over skipper Sean McCafferty introduced Ben Harmison for Nice, and with his fifth ball, the tall paceman trapped Hewison lbw for 23 then two overs later he pegged back Birtwisle’s off stump at 54-4.

Sean Tindale and Cragg began to lead a recovery but in the 25th over, the pair got into a mix up and from Nice’s throw, the latter was run out for 12.

Things got worse when in the next over, Ruaidhri Fletcher edged to slip where he was caught by McCafferty off James Harmison.

South Northumberland went into the lunch break on 87-6 – and after the restart of play, they lost two wickets.

From only the second delivery, Ben Harmison’s throw to brother James at the stumps saw Oli McGee run out then Ian Sharkey showed lightning reactions to hold onto a return catch off his own bowling to send back Gavin Paton with the score on 88-8.

But the sterling efforts of Tindale, supported by Jonny Wightman and George Gray, left Ashington frustrated as the trio linked to more than double the total.

Tindale was the chief driving force, reaching a superb half century in the 48 th over but after the departure of Wightman for 21 – caught behind by Jack McCarthy off Nice – he was last man out for 80.

McCafferty brought back Ben Harmison and with his first delivery, Tindale skied the ball where he was well caught in the deep by Adam Nichol with the visitors all out for 181.

Ashington lost Nichol in the fifth over caught behind and in the 14th Jack Jessop fell in identical fashion for 24.

At tea, Ashington were just over half way to their target on 99-2 with Jack McCarthy and Cam Nichols going along well.

McCarthy completed his fifty with a straight four then in the next over, Nichols also got his half century – but next ball he was run out at 136-3.

Enter Ben Harmison who breezed his way to an unbeaten 38 from only 17 balls including four consecutive boundaries in the 38th over before he scored the winning runs

shortly afterwards.

McCarthy meanwhile looked solid and finished unbeaten on 63.

Skipper Sean McCafferty was jubilant after Ashington had notched their first ever victory over South Northumberland in the North East Premier League’s Premier Division.

“I’m very happy,” he said. “It’s strange because I had a good feeling coming into the game that we were going to do well – so I’m absolutely delighted. It’s what I would term a proper win – and one which we should be proud of and celebrate.

“We are at Tynedale next Saturday and we have to back today’s win up if we want to be in the right part of the table. We want to be in with a chance of winning the league going into the last three or four games and if we get that chance then why not? I’m not a lover of clichés but we’ve got to take one game at a time.

"It’s an enjoyable changing room to be in and I haven’t played cricket with a better bunch of lads than we have got now. It’s a pleasure to captain the side and when we put in a performance like today it’s really nice. I know how good we are - sometimes we do let ourselves down - but today the lads should be proud. We’ve just got to keep playing good cricket and then the results will take care of themselves.”

He added: “This was the first time we had beaten South Northumberland on a Saturday because they have dominated for years in first team cricket both locally and nationally. So putting things into context, our local lads have been fantastic – they bowled well, fielded well then batted well.”

Jack McCarthy was named as Ashington’s player of the match.

And afterwards, the 24 year old right handed batter revealed: “South Northumberland are a very good side with a lot of experienced players so to score my first half century in the league this season was nice.”

He continued: “At the start of my innings I felt quite nervous because of the pressure with not scoring runs over the past few weeks but after today, I really want to kick on and try to score even more runs.”

Burnmoor hold a 26 point lead over The Mighty Acorns at the top of the table. On Saturday (July 27), Ashington travel to Hexham to face Tynedale.