Vithana century sets up first Hartlepool victory

Hartlepool won the toss and elected to bat first, and made a very good start to the innings with Neil Coverdale and John Watson putting on a 91-run partnership.

Batting was a strong point this week, with everyone chipping in and scoring runs.

Coverdale continued his good form with the bat, scoring 44 from 64 balls, with John Watson scoring 48 off 60 balls.

Next to the crease was Jonathan Rickard who scored 28 from 33 balls.

Pool’s overseas professional Harsha Vithana then scored a wonderful well-paced century (102) which came from just 78 balls.

He hit 14 fours in his innings.

Towards the end of the innings, there was a little cameo from Jake Richardson who scored 23 from 21 balls.

Norton’s innings got off a slow start with runs not flowing, with tight bowling coming from Doug Mullholland and James Ward.

Mullholland made the first breakthrough in the 11th over, getting James Tompkinson lbw.

Wickets tumbled at regular intervals, with Mullholland finishing with figures of 14-6-24-4.

Norton captain David Cross had his side’s highest score 37 not out, with three fours and three sixes.

At the end of Norton’s innings, young Aaron Feroz came on to bowl and tight and he wrapped the game up with his two wickets, finishing with figures 6.5-2-32-2.

Seaton Carew had to battle for a draw away to a strong Great Ayton side.

Seaton were coming off the back of two losses that had seen them just one point above the relegation zone.

The visitors won the toss and elected to field at Leven Park on a small ground where anything around 200 would have been a good effort.

However, this was not to be as Great Ayton racked up a colossal 284-7 before they declared after 48 overs.

Saome lacklustre bowling was capitalised on by the Ayton top order with seasoned professional Batchelor carrying his bat for 123.

To survive the full allocation of overs would have been something that Seaton had not yet achieved this term - and against a strong attack they failed to get off to a good start with the loss of the first wicket with the score on just two.

However, Seaton showed resilience with the bat on this occasion that has only been seen in glimpses so far this season as captain David Braithwaite led from the front scoring a chanceless 64 not out.

Braithwaite was amply supported by Skirving (28) and Turnbull (41) - the latter notching his highest Premier League score.

Seaton looked in a position to achieve the 75% draw until a flurry of wickets left Seaton on the ropes at 170-8.

However, Seaton batted on and finished on 197-8.

The result leaves them second from bottom but they can take a lot of positives from the game with the bat and they look to try and add to that this Saturday against Stokesley at Hornby Park.

Two wins and two defeats is the record of Easington after their 36-run defeat at Bill Quay on Saturday.

John Leslie finally made his debut for Easington and was the pick of their attack finishing with 4-40 in a 12-over spell while Dane Wilson and Jinev Joshi picked up two wickets apiece as Bill Quay were bowled out for 186.

Left with plenty of time and overs to reach their target on the small village ground, three early wickets fell - Jonathan Davis for 1, professional Jinev Joshi (14) and Jason Moses (8).

John Leslie was next to go for 15 with the score on 77, but Ryan Higgins batted well in making 42 which included eight boundaries.

When he went with the score on 106, there was a collapse which saw Easington lose their final five wickets for only 44 runs as they were bowled out for 150.

Bill Quay: C Little ct Atherton b D Wilson 64, D Hill ct Higgins b J Wilson 0, A Mustard lbw b Leslie 21, K Bellerby b Leslie 0, J Eaton b Leslie 13, J Newstead st Moses b G Ward 9, C Malley b Leslie 9, J Tudor b Joshi 54, M Orridge ct J Wilson b D Wilson 7, N Drury b Joshi 4, D Earl not out 0, Extras 5, Total 186 all out.

Bowling: J Wilson 11-2-36-1, G Ward 12-5-42-1, Leslie 12-5-40-4, Joshi 7.2-0-43-2, D Wilson 5-0-22-2.

Easington: J Davis lbw b Eaton 1, R Higgins ct Little b Earl 42, J Joshi ct Eaton b Bellerby 14, J Moses lbw b Orridge 8, J Leslie ct Drury b Orridge 15, D Tarn ct Tudor b Orridge 13, R Atherton ct Malley b Earl 0, J Ward b Orridge 0, D Wilson ct Drury b Orridge 4, G Ward not out 15, J Wilson b Eaton 5, Extras 3, Total 150 all out.

Bowling: Bellerby 5-0-29-1, Eaton 4.1-0-22-2, Hill 6-0-27-0, Orridge 11-4-30-5, Earl 5-2-10-2.