Kimblesworth heading for debut season glory (From The Northern Echo)

Kimblesworth heading for debut season glory

9:00am Monday 25th July 2011 in The Warmseal Durham Senior League

KIMBLESWORTH are on the glory trail. In their first season in the league, they have opened up a 24-point gap at the top after handing out a 150-run Bunker Hill beating to Philadelphia.

Only Eppleton of the chasing pack also won, but their victory only earned them a 20-point return, so they dropped ten further behind the impressive leaders.

An unbeaten century from Paul Craig, who was well supported in a fourth-wicket stand by Michael Fishwick (49), powered Kimblesworth up to 239-7 as the Phili attack toiled, then Stephen Meek (5-48) and Mark Woodhead (5-32) ran through the home team in double quick time to leave them down and out on 89.

Eppleton's success came in their home game against Felling, who put on 182 first up, mainly thanks to a splendid 62 from Phil Taylor.

David Wilkinson and Dave Kennedy shared six wickets to put Eppleton in control, and then Kyle Davis (85no) and Shaun Bradbury (42) made batting look easy as the hosts won with seven wickets to spare.

The other four games all ended in stalemate, with none of the sides in the title hunt able to grasp victory.

With virtually all the contenders having drawn at least two-thirds of their matches, their chances are slowly slipping away with seven games left in which to make a bid for the title.

Whitburn can at least say they earned their draw after being given the run around by the Castle Eden batsmen.

Dean Langridge smashed an unbeaten 158 for Castle, and with Keith Bailey cracking a century, the visitors made their record DSL score of 302-3.

Habib Qureshi (5-48) and Jude Dinushan (4-55) then looked like securing a superb victory for their team, but despite losing three late wickets for ducks, Whitburn clung on at 181-9, perhaps a fitting reward for Lee Henderson, who made it three centuries in the same match with his brilliant 104.

Durham City also earned a satisfying draw at Boldon, the champions seeing their chances of retaining the title fading away.

But for number eight batsman Michael Bittlestone (52no) things could have been a lot worse.

As it was they eventually scrambled up to 212-8 before City's challenge ended just short on 203-7, Mike Elliott (49) and Jake McCann (51) giving Durham hope of glory before Graham Fox pegged them back with a five-wicket haul.

Ian Conn (4-44) looked to have set Burnmoor on their way to a win at Horden (151 all out), but Adelvin Phillip (4-42) struck back as the visitors finished eight short of victory but with just a single wicket standing.

Neil Young (62) and Bokang Mosena (53) inspired South Hetton to a score of 231-5 before Norton settled for stalemate on 174-6 as John Pendlington claimed four wickets.