Plain boost for Annfield (From The Northern Echo)

Plain boost for Annfield

11:00pm Friday 29th July 2011 in Wellstream Northumberland & Tyneside Senior League

Annfield Plain's season received a timely boost on Wednesday night when they turned in a fine cup performance to tip Swalwell out of the Tyneside Charity Bowl and set up a final meeting with Benwell Hill in a fortnight.

Plain hoped to be challenging for league honours as well but their plans were undermined by a run of three consecutive defeats after they had flown out of the traps in their opening four games.

The ship was steadied with an unbeaten run of six games, but last week's crushing defeat by 172 runs at the hands of Percy Main effectively ended their title chances.

Neil Killeen only bowled six overs in that match and he is unlikely to bowl today at Lanchester after struggling to shake off a calf muscle injury. He will play as a batsman and the selectors have moved to bolster the batting further by bringing in 15-year-old Sam Blake, who has been excelling in junior cricket.

He replaces Adam Phillips, who has struggled to recapture his bowling form of old after suffering a thumb fracture at the beginning of the season.

The teams just above the Plain will all believe they are still in with a shout, none more so than Percy Main, who appear to have the easiest eight-game run-in of the leading quartet.

They enjoy home advantage this afternoon against Chopwell and hand under-18 skipper Craig Bird an opportunity with Mickey Phillips working. Chopwell stick with the winning formula that saw them clip Morpeth's wings last week.

Sacriston should be able to maintain their momentum when they travel to a heavily depleted Newcastle City, although star youngsters Jack Hardy and Reece Carr are at Ampleforth, so Mark Fort earns a call-up after scoring 145 for the seconds last week.

City do have Palav Kumar, Faisal Mohammed, Bilal Ahmed and Amar Sangha back but are still missing five other regulars with Bob Brar adding to that list as he attends a wedding.

Leaders Swalwell enjoy home advantage against Burnopfield but Kyle Coetzer misses this one, with Andrew Hughes stepping in, while second-placed Shotley Bridge are at full strength for their home game against Tynedale.

Ben Harmison is set to make only his fourth league appearance of the season for Morpeth, which is not the news Ashington want to hear as they continue their battle to get out of the bottom two.

James Richards is ruled out of the Colliers team through injury, Scott Thornton is unavailable and Craig Wood faces a fitness test.