Newton Aycliffe Cricket Club’s 1st team, sponsored by Franks the Flooring Store, finished their season off in style with an easy nine wicket victory at home to Redcar firsts in the NYSD 2nd division. The visitors needing a maximum 25 point victory to have any chance of avoiding relegation unsurprisingly chose to bat first after winning the toss. However the visiting batsmen were no match for Aycliffe’s bowling attack and they were skittled for just 80 runs after 32.2 overs. Aycliffe’s Jack Slatcher finished with 3 for 7, Patrick Howe took 2 for 2 and James Layfield-Carroll took 2 for 14 in an impressive display by the homeside bowlers.
Special mention must go to Aycliffe all rounder Michael Howe who took two wickets in the Redcar innings and the first of which gave him the notable double of 50 wickets and 500 runs in a season for the second consecutive year.
In reply, openers Luke Telford (sponsored by Dr Subhan Christudas), who top scored with an unbeaten 31 and Chris Palmer (26 runs) got Aycliffe off to a flying start with a first wicket partnership of 54. When Palmer was dismissed, Adam Gittins continued the good work scoring an unbeaten 13 as Aycliffe romped to victory after just 13.4 overs for the loss of just one wicket. Aycliffe’s convincing victory condemned Redcar to relegation to division 3 for the first time in their illustrious history, whereas the homeside finished in a very commendable third place in the table for the second consecutive season.
