The friendly side suffered a disrupted start to the season. While the 1 and 2XI’s played their first 17 games, bad weather saw only 8 of our first 16 matches completed with 4 others abandoned. In the first 5 games School and University exams resulted in 33 people turning out for the side.

The season started on time at Prudhoe against Davipart where Mike Barlow scored 58 in a five wicket victory, Mark Wheldon smashing 35* to complete the victory. Rain brought a premature end to both the Eglingham and Genetics fixtures with Ed Common unbeaten on 38 in the first while Mark Gillespie produced the most composed innings I can ever recall from a 14 year old for the Club with an unbeaten 32 in the latter. The Ulgham match never got started.

The away game at Blagdon saw Peter Nesbitt finally take some wickets for the side with 3 to derail their innings and help restrict them to 170. From a position of strength an injudicious slog sweep by Rob Rankin on 44 was followed by a batting collapse as we lost the plot and the match by 2 runs.

The Riding Mill game saw our bowlers dominate early with only 36 runs conceded in the first 20 overs. Two more of the Under 15s debuted in this match with Robbie Hall 4-19 and Ashley Parker 2-15 taking the bulk of the wickets. Eventually set a score of 128 to win Richard Jackson 37 and Neil Pinnock 31 guided us to 69-1 before the inevitable Ponteland batting collapse to 88-5 before a further 2 wickets were lost on 115. With 13 needed off 7 overs incoming batsman Jon Varley calmly advised that nothing stupid was required and collect the singles, sage advice that I managed to ignore completely, as 3 balls later having gone 4 6 4 to finish unbeaten on 29, the game was over with a 3 wicket win.

The KSTOB match produced another tight finish and another batting collapse. Having been set 193 to win we had reached 150-2 with Mike Barlow 31, James Morgan 49 and Simon Raw 61 only to slip to 174-9. The final wicket fell in the last over leaving us 8 runs short.

Bad weather interrupted again at the end of June with the Davipart return game abandoned after 15 overs with Ponteland 66-3. Torrential rain saw the Victorians fixture wiped out as well.

The sun returned for July and Ponteland travelled to Alnmouth & Lesbury for the first time in 34 years. I proved highly popular with the team on a baking hot day by winning the toss (one of 3 all season) and chose to bat. Richard Jackson scored 76, before tiring with a century in sight and Alex McLean scored 42 in a 2nd wicket partnership of 113, eventually finishing with 194-5. Mark Gillespie finished the innings with a premeditated six over square leg that was impressive in its execution. They struggled with our bowling attack with two wickets each for Ross Harrington, James Ottaway, Jon Varley and the skipper in an 83 run victory as all 10 outfield players bowled at least 2 overs. A week later we were back nearby at Eglingham. A sporty wicket resulted in a low scoring game. Their 127-8 was followed by a disappointing 99 all out and a 28 run defeat on a pitch that was nearly unplayable by the end.

The return fixture with KSTOB saw Ponteland score 191-7. Stuart Taylor with 35 and Mark Gillespie adding an unbeaten 31 before James Ottaway finally returned to some form with 25, an innings where all bar one run came in boundaries. Both Peter Nesbitt and I took 3 wickets each to help dismiss them for 166. The final game in July saw Ovingham come to Ponteland for the first time. Batting first they were dismissed for 112, Jonny Appleby taking 4-14. Our innings once more crumbled from 61-0 with the dismissals of openers Simon Raw and Ian Cooke followed by 3 quick wickets and it took a 40 run partnership between James and the skipper to rescue the innings, before Jonny scored the boundary to win by 3 wickets.

August arrived and brought the rain. There wasn’t a single game completed before the 27th and the games that did start only had 1 innings. At Riding Mill Ponteland’s batting collapsed (as it seemed to do every game by now). After Mike Barlow 45 and James Ottaway 29 took the side to 90-3, it didn’t take long to turn into 114-9. Some determined batting from 16 year old Alex Gray who scored his first senior runs for the club with 11 and the captain took the side to 144. Then heavy rain prevented any further play and the side were able to head off to Neil Pinnock’s wedding. Rain also accounted for the Victorians fixture for the 2 nd time in the season and bad weather has now resulted in us playing them only 3 times out of the last 10 games.

It was more of the same with both the midweek touring match against Oakfield and the Genetics home matches with rain arriving at the tea interval. Against our visitors from Warwickshire we scored 200-5 with Richard Jackson unbeaten on 53, before, according to the weather reports, the only rain between Aberdeen and York rolled across the ground and flooded the square. On the Sunday Genetics were bowled out for 118 with Jon Varley taking 3-12 and Robert Hall 2-14 before Richard Jackson took the final wicket in the drizzle.

The weather relented over the August Bank Holiday and Ponteland won a hastily arranged fixture against Riding Mill that replaced the postponed Presidents XI game. Another lost toss saw our opposition post 175-7, with a flurry of late wickets including 3 from Richard Moller preventing the score from passing 200. In reply Ponteland made a solid start and James Morgan and Ed Common both finished unbeaten on 36 in a six wicket win. The Bank Holiday Monday fixture at Ulgham saw a captaincy debut from Jonny Appleby. Ulgham posted a stiff target of 184 in their 35 overs, losing only 3 wickets, despite an excellent spell of 1-10 off 7 overs from Keith Crerar. Ponteland were dismissed in the final over for 155, James Ottaway with 30 and Michael Sharp 28.

Yet again the rain returned at the start of September, the home match against Blagdon Park the victim this time then the final game against Ovingham was played out in glorious sunshine. Batting first Ponteland posted 157-6, with contributions from several batsmen, although it was U-15 Michael Sharp with an unbeaten 43 who top scored, again displaying his potential. In reply Ovingham lost early wickets to Ross Harrington who took 2-10 in his 7 overs while the returning skipper took 2-7 in six. This gave a rare opportunity to Chris Morgan and Richard Jennings to have a bowl, for Chris it meant he batted, bowled and kept wicket in the game, while Richard collected a wicket. James Burns took the last wicket in the final over to finish with 3-10 and a 35 run victory was achieved and yet another season was over.

Overall an enjoyable season – when the weather allowed – and several promising juniors contributed to the season. Performances came from across the entire side. Two of the debutants Mark Gillespie and Robert Hall, both 14, produced some confident match winning performances, while Peter Nesbitt (16) and Michael Sharp (15) continued to develop well, Peter finished as the leading wicket taker and Michael scored 71 in his two matches and debuted in the 2XI. ‘Senior Pro’ Mike Barlow also produced some significant innings, his innings of 58 against Davipart in the opening fixture was a lesson to younger batsmen on how to build an innings and a score of 45 from 17 overs in the trenches (literally!) at Riding Mill set up a score of 144 when anything over 50 would have been a competitive total.