Welcome to the new season at Durham City Cricket Club ... - Pitchero

Durham City Cricket Club
Welcome to Durham City Cricket Club and our 1 st XI’s league match against Boldon.
We welcome them to Green Lane for today’s game and hope the weather will not
interfere following last weekend’s heatwave.
Half-Term Cricket Coaching is back!
With a Bank Holiday coming up on Monday and Tuesday, we will be holding our cricket
coaching course over 3 days in half-term from Wednesday 6 th June to Friday 8 th June.
The course is ideal for new starters as well as anyone wanting to improve their game and is
available to all juniors. The course runs from 10am to 4pm each day and will include general
training, skills and games and will be suitable for boys and girls of all ages. In the event of inclement
weather, the Clubhouse will remain open until 4pm, or children can be collected early.
The cost of the course is £60.00 for the 3 days. This does not include lunch and
everyone should bring a packed-lunch each day. The Clubhouse will be open for the sale
of hot & cold drinks, snacks, sweets and ice-cream.
Courses have always proved highly popular and we recommend early booking to avoid
disappointment. Parts of the course are in groups and games may span more than one
day, so we would prefer attendance for all 3 days. Depending on numbers, we may
consider attendance for individual days at a cost of £25.00 per day. These must be pre-
booked and priority will be given to those booking the full course.
Please complete & return the attached slip (in the centre pages of this programme) with
your payment as soon as possible (cheques payable to Durham City Cricket Club). For
further information or enquiries, please contact Oliver Dobson on 07764606771 or
citycricket@btinternet.com

The club has a friendly fixture against Old Leightonians CC tomorrow, Sunday 3 rd June,
which will involve a City ‘A’ XI.
Sunday 13 th May Development XI v Annfield Plain Academy (A – Cup)
The season finally got started at cold and soggy Annfield Plain. We won the toss and
fielded and got off to a good start as they had only scored 21 when newcomer Piers
Davison took the first wicket. They took the score to 91 before we achieved the next
breakthrough. John and I were very pleased with the way the juniors, especially the
newcomers, bowled and fielded. Piers ended with 2-27, whilst other newcomers Will
Moreland 0-18, Nathan Bushnell 0-10 and Sol Bell 9 overs 2-24, bowled very well. Dave
Bell 1-34, Callum Steel our wk from last year 2-13 and Captain Jack 2-15 were the other
bowlers. We used 7 bowlers and they finished their 45 overs on 146-9. Callum's younger
brother Scott took the gloves and got a stumping.
The day then belonged to Callum Steel who scored 105 not out on his 15th birthday. It
was a tremendous innings and he never gave a chance. Steven Howson 22 and John
Booth 12 not out also batted along with Scotty Steel. So we won by 8 wickets which was
a tremendous achievement as we had 6 juniors new to the team.
Sunday 20 th May Development XI v Boldon (A)
The side which played in this game was nothing like the side which was picked to play, as
many of the junior players cried off for varying reasons, which was most disappointing.
This meant we were only able to play 4 juniors.
We won the toss and fielded and Sol Bell was superb bowling 9 consecutive overs, 1
maiden 4-24. He was ably assisted by 'Golden Arm' John Booth 1-8 and Callum Steel 1-7
and there were 3 run outs due to some good work in the field. Scotty Steel got another
stumping and Tony Currer had his hands together to take a sharp catch. They only got
113 all out thanks to some good bowling and fielding.
Tony Currer retired on 51 not out, after a heavenly innings. Callum Steel 26, Scott 20
not out and James Williamson 9 not out saw us home by 9 wickets. This was a good
team performance where everyone contributed.
Captain Jack

Saturday 26 th May 1 st XI v Horden (H)
Escaped with a draw – hopefully a report next week
Saturday 26 th May 2 nd XI v Horden (A)
An excellent 30 point win – hopefully a report next week
Sunday 27 th May 1 st XI v Marsden (H)
Another draw, but somewhat less traumatic! hopefully a report next week.
Sunday 27 th May 2 nd XI v Marsden (A)
Another 30 point win – hopefully a report next week.
Sunday 27 th May Under 11s v South Hetton (H)
Another Sunday, another win for the U11's. This week South Hetton tested the young
City team but fell way short in making the game a competitive one. Once again we chose
to field after winning the toss and set about setting the standard of bowling line and
length with great effect. Making his first appearance for the U11's, Luc Benkenstein rose
to the challenge of taking the new ball early on and restricted South Hetton by only
conceding 2 runs from 2 overs, including a maiden, narrowly missing top of off on many
occasions. James Foster and Ed Moreland followed with more accurate deliveries, Ed
taking a wicket with his fourth ball. Hindy and Adam came on to change the pace a little
and ripped some unplayable leg breaks through the gate, Hindy taking 2 for 2 and Adam 2
for 1. A quick 2 wickets for Jonny and 1 for Sol was followed by the catch of the season
so far from Jonny off Luc's 2nd spell, diving low to his right to snare one of Hetton's best
batsman.
Losing 11 wickets and scoring only 34 meant City's youngsters could express themselves
with the bat. Hindy opened with Adam and the pair raced to 19 without loss, Hindy
hitting 2 fours in his 12. Robbie added a steady 8 followed by Sol who top scored with a
confident 45 supported by Luc at the other end who batted with great maturity for a
seven year old to contribute 16. Jonny finished the innings with a quick fire 36 including 6
fours, to send City's total to 144 for the loss of only 2 wickets. A convincing win yet
again.

Once again the boys stepped up and set such high standards, all supporting one another
and fostering a great team spirit. I look forward to seeing this group progress as the
season goes on, in preparation for more testing challenges ahead.
Monday 28 th May Under 15s v Boldon (A)
On a very hot and sunny afternoon, the team and it's supporters travelled to Boldon in
shorts and t-shirts. What a mistake! The clouds rolled in as we went east and the fog
horns sounded at the coast as the temperature plummeted by several degrees. Not to
be deterred, we batted first and, after an early couple of wickets, Mark Davison (42 n.o.)
and Scott Steel (35) played excellently in a stand of 76. This formed the backbone of our
total of 113-4, which looked an above par score on a tricky wicket. So it proved -
Boldon couldn't cope with the accuracy of our bowling or the sharpness in the field and,
led by Aaron Cunningham (3-1-4-2) and Callum Steel (3-1-5-1), were effectively out of
the game at 32-3 after 10 overs. This allowed everyone a bowl for the second week
running and Boldon finished on 67-7. There will be harder matches to come but, once
again, we showed our depth in batting and bowling. Well done
Sunday june 3 rd
City select xi v old leightonians cricket club
Wednesday 30 th May Under 13s v South Hetton (H)
Lucky 7!!
Nathan managed to win his 3rd toss in a row using his trusty double headed coin and
inserted a youthful South Hetton side.
Early blows by their opening 2 pairs saw us looking down the barrel at 46-2 after 8 overs,
the South Hetton lads enjoying the pace on the ball offered by Nathan 1-15, Will 0-6,
Sam 0-8 and Cameron 1-9, an uncharacteristic lack-lustre fielding display allowing Extras
to be their joint top scorer on 16.

The introduction of the Sol & Sonni show had a dramatic effect; a triple wicket maiden
from Sol and a maiden from Sonni put the pressure back on South Hetton and the
improvement continued with Sol bagging another 2 and Sonni taking a wicket on debut to
finish with superb figures of 1-1, After his 2 overs Sol had managed to spin himself to 5-1.
Tight spells from Edgy 0-2 and Brooksy 0-1 kept the pressure on as the reintroduction of
spin iced the cake with Deano twirling himself 3 wickets for a measly 1 run and Sol
bowling another 2 wicket maidens to finish with the incredible figures of 7-1, surely
figures that will have the archivists at Green Lane scurrying for the record books! South
Hetton finished on 58-13, a net -46.
Will Gray was certainly given a work out by his fielders taking the majority of return
throws at his feet or 9 feet in the air, a particularly impressive performance given he was
struggling with a foot injury.
A much changed batting line up enjoyed the fruits of their earlier toils and put on a fine
display of shot making, highlight of the day was certainly Will Jewitt who danced down
the wicket and hit a huge 6 over mid-wicket which landed in Sol’s Grandmothers
shopping bag!
Top scorers were skipper Nathan with 16, the aforementioned Jewitt with 13, Edgy with
12 and Cam with 10. We finished on 122-1 a victory by 160.

Today’s Teams
Durham City 1 st XI Boldon 1 st XI
1 Jake McCann (c) (wk) 1
2 Nick Hobson 2
3 Kyle Armstrong 3
4 Subhan Christudas 4
5 Danielle Hazell 5
6 Nick Howe 6
7 Christopher Madoc-Jones 7
8 Paul Moralee 8
9 Jonny Middleton 9
10 Philip Parker 10
11 Callum Steel 11
Umpires
Today’s match ball is sponsored is sponsored by
Valerie Lander
Please send reports and news items to dccc-news@hotmail.co.uk
Our thanks to Swinburne Maddison for the printing of this news insert

MATCH BALL
SPONSORSHIP
We would like to thank
all those who have
sponsored a Durham
City Senior League
Match Ball this season.
This is very much
appreciated by the club,
keeps our costs down
and will hopefully help
us to avoid going the
same way as the
Eurozone... We have 14
ball sponsors so far, but
could do with a few
more. If you are
interested in sponsoring
a match ball, please
contact Paul Price on
07801 685559. The ball
sponsors for the fixtures
to date have been:
Date Opponents G'nd Ball Sponsor
Sat 28 Apr Whitburn Away Ray Pallister
Sat 05 May Burnmoor Home Brian Lander
Mon 07 May Philadelphia Home Jack Wrightson
Sat 12 May Kimblesworth Home Bryan Stone
Sat 26 May Horden Home Paul Price
Sun 27 May Marsden Away Olga Stone
Sat 2 Jun Boldon Home Valerie Lander

Sunday 3 rd June
Forthcoming Fixtures and Events
Under 15 v Hetton Lyons (League Cup) Away
Under 11 v Sunderland Away
Development v Sacriston Away
‘A’ XI v Old Leightonians CC (Friendly) Home
Monday 4 th June
Under 15 v Burnmoor Home
Tuesday 5 th June
Under 18 v South Hetton (Peacock Memorial Trophy) Away
Wednesday 6 th June
3 rd XI v Sunderland Home
Under 13 v Sunderland Away
Thursday 7 th June
No fixtures
Friday 8 th June
1 st X1 v Boldon (T20) Away
Saturday 9 th June
1 st X1 v Castle Eden Away
2 nd X1 v Castle Eden Home
Sunday 10 th June
Under 11 v Whitburn Home