Shildon Cricket Club had reason to celebrate after beating Crook Town CC in the Horner Cup as it was their first win in three seasons.

Crook were very much the favourites for the cup tie played at Shildon's ground and they made a good start by scoring 130 runs in their allotted 20 overs with professional Stephen Ball making 64 and Philip Walker 49.

It began to look even more a formality when the first Shildon wicket went down with only 13 runs on the board. However, 38-year-old Gary Davies, who has been at the Shildon club since he was 11 years of age, had other ideas. He began to push the score along until Crook were forced to make a bowling change, bringing on professional Stephen Ball.

Gary said, "Stephen is a work mate of mine and I know how good a bowler he is. I thought it would get harder. However I had my eye in and in one of his overs hit him for 4, 6, 6, 1 which put us right back in with a chance. We just carried on from there, I'm very pleased for everyone because although we hadn't won for three seasons the spirit amongst the players has always been fantastic."

Gary made 49 runs which included a sizzling 6 behind square leg while Drew Kirtley made 44 not out and Stephen Foster 16, not out.

Secretary Trevor Henderson who has been at Shildon CC for 21 years said, "I hope this is the turning point for the club; We lost a lot of players a few seasons ago so virtually our second team became the first team. The lads probably need a bit more coaching but hopefully we can now go on and win a few more games."