A defeat at the hands of Blaydon on Saturday and another 30 point haul for relentless Chester-le-Street meant that The Bulls have given up the league title to The Keets for the first time in six years.
Batting first on a cracked pitch the top order were blown away by Martin Pollard (5-26) and Gary Stewart (3-25) and only some late order resistance from Neil Corby and Lee Crozier helped The Bulls limp up to 116. Early wickets from Craig Smith (4-54) gave the boys some hope and at 50-5 things were in the balance but an unbroken stand of 70 between Mark Drake 48 not out and Stephen Gale 31 not out ended any dreams of victory. Bank Holiday Monday proved to be a different story for the 1st XI as they comfortably beat Newcastle at Jesmond. Batting first on a usual flat track Newcastle managed a below par 186. Stephen Humble then cracked a quick fire 77 to take The Bulls home by 6 wickets.
The 2nd XI have the champagne on ice as they recorded two good wins over the weekend and with Chester-le-Street falling fowl to the heavy rain on Monday now know that 10 points on Saturday against Gateshead Fell would mean being crowned champions for the third time in six seasons. Saturdays game saw Sam Jobson crack 72 in the total 233-7 and with Iftikhaar Fazal (4-30) on form again the victory was never in doubt as Blaydon fell 98 runs short. It was pretty much déjà vue on Monday as the 2nds posted 222-7 with the experienced Howard Sidney-Wilmot scoring a textbook 83. And was spin bowler Chris Campell (6-25) soon turning the screw on a worn pitch the Jesmond outfit were never in the hunt and finished 109 runs short.
The Sunday 3rd XI had a rained effected draw against Blaydon. Batting first the 3rds set the visitors 197 to win thanks mainly to the inform Sam Jobson (76) and fellow young wicket keeper Xavier Taylor (51). Blaydon then got off to a great start and at 49 for no wicket looked to have the upper hand but at 5.09pm the heavens opened and play was abandoned for the day.
Now we move onto the Saturday 3rd XI who went into the last game 1 point behind leaders Prudhoe. On a slow wicket at Haltwhistle the home side were inserted by skipper Andrew Moon and were quickly struggling against his well disciplined attack. 3 wickets apiece fro Jan Ozman, Asif Hohammed and Adan Pearson restricted Haltwhistle to a tricky 73. With rain clouds looming and the loss of an early wicket things were looking gloomy for the young South North side but then in strode Andrew Doig who smashed 45 off just 32 balls to lead them home by 8 wickets. It was job done by South North who claimed maximum points and all eyes and ears now turned to the game at Prudhoe. News finally filtered through after several efforts to get through to the club that they had failed to get the final wicket and therefore only claiming 10 points which meant the young guns had won the league by a single point.