It was great to see Graham Irvin back for his second season with us and once again he proved the mainstay of the batting. He was in excellent form particularly early on in the season with a magnificent hundred at Stobswood and then ended in real style with another ton against the league champions Warkworth in a game that we won with some ease.Our success in 2001 was based on the batting. It used to be the case that a score in excess of 180 was quite useful but times have changed and this year in nearly half the games played we surpassed 200 and on a couple of occasions we scored more than 250.

We started with a loss at Belsay in April. Both Graham and Jeff Oliver made half centuries in a reasonable total of 188 but despite valiant efforts by the bowlers we had no answer to Henry Twizell who scored 81 to win the game for them. We then scraped through against Stocksfield who posted a very modest 85 thanks to an excellent 4-21 from Jonny Appleby. We only managed to win thanks to an excellent 7th wicket partnership between Roger and Duncan. Duncan's late middle order bating was to become a feature of the season with several useful contributions. No doubt he will be trying to persuade the skipper for a higher position next year.

At Stobswood Graham was out in the 33rd over with the score at 165. He had scored 127 including five huge sixes. The skipper's 50 took slightly longer and consisted of one four. We finished with 226 and won easily. We then beat Newcastle City the following week - further fifties for Graham and Jeff in a score of 219 followed by three wickets for Jeff and four for Graham as we skittled them out for 194.

We lost narrowly at Cowgate on a dreadful wicket. We set a useful total of 178 and had them at 61-6 and 128-8 but still could not manage a victory. Although we lost the next game to Kirkley it was in some ways one of the most remarkable of the season. They amassed a huge 327 thanks to 168 from Mick Nicholson. It would have been much more had John Gardner not gone for only 35 off his 13 overs. The skipper bowled with little luck in a short spell of 0-52. We made a fantastic effort to get the total with contributions from several batsmen including Graham(46), Jeff(36), Andy(84), John Gardner (48 off 25 balls) and Duncan(23 off 17 balls). We ended on 308 all out with an over still to go.

Corbridge were next and comprehensively thrashed. Stuart was now full recovered from his pre season injury and bowled very well to pick up four wickets. He followed this up with 54 in an unbroken stand of 116 with Graham to set up a nine wicket win. The game was probably best remembered for a high catch which went up followed by a call of "ANDY". Denyer, Morgan, and Bolton all made their way to the ball. Bolton apparantley caught it before Morgan hit him and knocked it out of his hands. The skipper returned from Hexham General to see Stuart hit the winning runs.

At this stage of the season we were going well but then lost narrowly to Chopwell and heavily at Warkworth. Warkworth away was one of the most disappointing games of the season. Earlier in the week Graham had scored a great hundred for the Midweek XI. We restrict them to 245 on a flat track - another 4 wickets for Jonny. The batting was pathetic and we collapsed to 60 all out. The pressure was on the following week against Belsay. They batted first and scored 243. Graham was out early but Ollie Edwards(61) and Stuart(48) played really well with a hundred partnership before the skipper and John Jessop saw us home to victory. It was good to see Jessie scoring again.

We beat Stobswood again at Ponteland - another 4 wickets from Jonny and narrowly lost to Newcastle City away. We were set 273 to win and fell only 19 short with further half centuries by John Gardner and the skipper. John continued the good work against Cowgate to force a draw in the dark. He scored a magnificent 51 from only 24 balls. We then beat Kirkley which is always a pleasant experience. This time it was John's turn to star with the ball dismissing the first four batsmen.

The last three games of the season saw us face the three teams who were now above us in the league, Bates, Chopwell, and Warkworth. We beat Bates easily by 50 runs lost to Chopwell for the second time in the season but saved the best for last against Warkworth at Ponteland in the last game of the season. The skipper won the toss and elected to bat. Graham scored 110 in a 'chanceless' knock. Useful contributions from Ollie (40) and from John Moller (26) saw us to 230 on a slow wicket. Duncan bowled excellently and at one stage had 2-9 from his first eight overs. Chris Barlow made a step up from the second team and took a very creditable 4-38 from his nine overs.

We had our usual success in the cups being beaten by Belsay in one and by Corbridge in the other. Somewhere in the middle we beat Kirkley again.

The batting was consistent throughout with Graham well ahead in the averages. It would be a great pleasure to see him over here again in the future. There wer also good performances at various times from Jeff Oliver, Stuart Taylor, Jeff Oliver, Ollie Edwards, John Gardner, John Moller, John Jessop, Duncan McGregor and the skipper.

The leading wicket taker was Duncan with 40 wickets, an excellent return considering the restriction on overs. Jonny Appleby had a splendid first season in the 1st XI and ended up at the top of the averages with 23 wickets at 18 a piece. Stuart was the leading catcher with 11 and Andy Denyer had an excellent first year behind the stumps. He took 20 catches and 2 stumpings and notably conceded only 44 byes in the whole season.

A very enjoyable season with much to look forward to next year!