Published at 09:10, Monday, 06 August 2012

THE Boars of Mitford emerged victorious from a high scoring finals day to claim the first ever JustSport West Tyne League Twenty20 Cup.

Rampant Boars: Mitford Boars were the winners of the first West Tyne League Twenty20 competition.

Held at Stocksfield, the finals day saw over 900 runs scored in the three games with Mitford Boars clinching the glory in the final against South Northumberland Bulls.

First blood in the field went to the Boars as the Bulls’ dangerous Doig went early, which slowed the pace of runs.

However, Tom Gallagher and Alex Jack started to score at a good rate, with Gallagher batting through the innings to remain undefeated on 59 and see the Bulls set a target for the Boars of 160 to be T20 Champions.

Mitford started slowly with the experience of Colin Crowe and Terry Dunn seeing off the early pace from South North Bulls.

The desire to win was apparent with both teams now fired up, and South North were in the ascendancy after the run out of Crowe with the Boars needing another 100 runs at the midway point.

At this point, Terry Dunn and Richie Brown decided to go down fighting, racking up boundaries and pinching quick singles.

South North started to show signs of panic with wides and no balls helping Mitford’s cause.

The winning boundary came off the final ball of the penultimate over and it was fitting that it came from the blade of Dunn, whose 70 not out was an astonishing innings, a display of watchfulness and aggression which saw Mitford Boars lift the inaugural trophy.

It was presented to them by Michael Baker, chairman of the West Tyne League.

To book their place, the Boars needed to barge past Stocksfield Spartans in the semi-finals, overcoming them by 29 runs.

Mitford, batting first, got off to a quick start with both Crowe and Dunn taking advantage of some wayward bowling from the Spartans, before Rob Thirwell slowed the barrage of runs.

With the openers removed, Bhavesh Patel continued to score quickly.

Cameron Bell and Gavin Todd each took two wickets in the final stages to again slow the scoring, but Mitford posted an impressive 155 from their 20 overs.

In reply, Stocksfield came out all guns blazing with Colin Walker taking 26 off the first over which included four boundaries and a six.

Mitford changed the bowling and took regular wickets throughout, slowing the Stocksfield scoring.

Ben Button kept their hopes alive with an aggressive mid order knock, but the experienced pair of Crowe and Dunn, who shared six wickets between them, ensured that Stocksfield fell short of their target.

The second semi saw South North batter Wark Reivers by 63 runs to book their place in the final showdown.

With the Bulls batting, Doig and Alex Jack helped set the highest score of the day with a highly impressive 180-5, Doig in particular punishing anything offline or length in his 76.

Colin Carson was the pick of the bowlers for Wark with two wickets, but their bowlers contributed to South’s total themselves with 12 overthrows.

Although the chase from Wark was in vain, the Reivers never stopped battling and the highlight was a superb 68 from the multi talented Bradley Potts against some excellent bowling from Rory Davison and Dan Scott who shared five wickets.

Wark finally lost their last wicket for 118, seeing the Bulls victorious by 62 runs.

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