Northumberland & Tyneside Senior League A2 Division - 1XI Matches 2003

A season of high expectations started with two performances that ultimately summed up the year’s fixtures.

Against Whickham we allowed a stand of over 60 by their last wicket to leave us chasing 155 instead of ninety, despite 5-38 from Howard Wright, then against Burnopfield we reduced them to 150-8 chasing 213, only to lose again by 1 wicket. The Foster’s Cup held early in the season sees three games on Sundays, although rain reduced our games against higher league opposition to only one defeat by Annfield Plain instead of the usual three. In-between these games we did embark on a midweek cup run that led to games in June! The cup run ended at Lintz where John Jessop’s facial injury while batting ended his season. Back in the league, our run scoring was the most pleasing aspect of the season. Four times we passed 200, another 5 times scored 190, winning 7 out of these 9 games. There were also 11 fifties during the season. Jim Ealey was a welcome addition to the club this season, scoring a fifty on debut and also taking 5 wickets in an innings shortly after. Lloyd Anderson came out from behind the stumps later in the season to take 14 wickets in only 5 games. Stuart Taylor returned to the club from Swalwell and continued to show rapid improvements, finishing the season with an impressive 60* against Benwell & Walbottle. Stuart takes over as captain for the 2004 season. Ironically the outstanding performance of the season came in a defeat by Alnwick. Bowling first Howard Wright returned the remarkable figures of 15-13-3-4. We were then bowled out for 99 chasing 132, the only time we scored less than 100 all season. The season finished 8-8 and a low league placing despite being competitive in nearly every game.