Boyd stars in Ashington cricket win

Posted by The Journal on Aug 31, 09 02:14 PM in Sport

Ashington's Stephen Boyd (89 and four for 23) had the measure of Annfield Plain in the Wellstream NTSL, who went down by 122 runs to the Colliers

With Swalwell powering on towards the retention of their title, attention turned to the other end of the table, where Benwell and Walbottle failed to make it a hat-trick of last-minute escapes by falling through the relegation trapdoor.

They came up against in-form Sacriston, who made it six wins in a row with an eight-wicket success inspired by Gordon Muchall.

The Durham man picked up three wickets as the Bottle were contained to 206-5, then he hit a masterful 104 not out to condemn Benwell to the drop.

Ian Pattison turned on a similar display to that of Muchall's as he took Swalwell another step closer to the championship. Pattison cracked 13 fours and three sixes as the champions put on 283-6 at Lintz, and though the hosts battled back, three wickets apiece for Pattison and Gary Johnson left them beaten by 72 runs.

Shotley Bridge kept their faint hopes of catching Swalwell alive as Graeme Angus (4-30), Stuart Graham (3-20) and Phil Brown (3-27) combined to dismiss Leadgate for 82, a target passed with eight wickets and oodles of time to spare.

Richard Darling's six-wicket haul for Tynedale rubbed salt into a miserable relegation wound for Ryton as the bottom club were bowled out for just 75, with the visitors 20-6 at one stage.

Tynedale lost their first two wickets with just three on the board, but that was as good as it got for Ryton with the Hexham outfit romping to an eight-wicket win in just 13.4 overs.

Chris Reagan was the bowler of the day - the Morpeth man ended with figures of 15 overs 7-36 as Percy Main were dismissed for 132, but his work was nearly to no avail as Vikrant Shinde struck four retaliatory blows before Morpeth's last pair secured a nerve-shredding one-wicket win.

In Division A2 Chopwell's David Anderson thrashed 12 fours and six sixes in his 148 not out against a well-beaten Seaton Burn.

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