The Harbour Cup traditionally was played between Tynemouth (representing north of the Tyne) and South Shields (south of the Tyne) senior sides. Recent years has seen us transfer this annual fixture to the junior sections of both clubs. On Friday 22nd April we hosted 5 games, U11 Tigers and Croons, U13, U15 and U19.

The day started early with a 9.20am meet for 10am start for both the U11 Croons and the U15 sides.

The Croons batted first and with some good running between the wickets and some lusty blows managed to post 96-6 which gave them a nett score of 316. Top contributions from Will B (12) and Joe H (11).

When it was South Shields turn to bat the young croons bowled and fielded well. Coach Barry Stewart was very impressed with the levels of energy and enthusiasm in the field. The opponents batted very well though and posted 128/4 which gave them a nett score of 358. There was a wicket apiece for Joe H and Albie R A narrow defeat to start the day in the quest for the Harbour Cup.

The Under 15s also had a 10am start and played their fixture on the main pitch. Tynemouth batted first and openers Robbie B and Joel H-D very quickly set about the shields attack. Both were keen to score off every ball, pushing singles and making 1s into 2s. They were also very quick to pounce on anything loose and kept the scoreboard rattling along with boundaries. Both batsmen made 50s and retired not out. Coach Owen Gourley was pleased with a 141-3 total off the allotted 20 overs.

Shields started well but then opening bowler (normally a keeper) Robbie struck with some early wickets. The Joe F from Shields went onto retire not out on 50 but some tight bowling from Ewan A, Finn L, Lewis H and Adam B restricted the visitors to 121-4, giving us a victory by 20 runs and made it 1-1 in the Harbour Cup.

Next it was the turn of the U11 Tigers and U13s who both played their respective fixtures at the same time.

In the Tigers game they posted a nett score of 305 with valuable contributions from Archie G (9) and Henry D (18). In reply Shields managed a nett score of 264 with some excellent bowling from everyone but in particular Henry C who took 3 wickets. There was a wicket each for Henry D and Aaron T. This made it 2-1 to TCC in the Harbour Cup.

The Under 13s fielded first and found the shields batters in very good form. A lot of them had played earlier for their Under 15s side. They posted 140-2

In reply TCC posted 109-5 so lost narrowly by 31 runs. Particular mention must be given to Charlie H who retired on 33 not out.

However that loss made it 2-2 going into the final game of the day which was the much-anticipated U19 fixture which started at 5pm in front of a large crowd with parents and players staying from the earlier games.

TCC captain Joe S won the toss and elected to bat first. Shields had a very good opening ball attack of Thompson and Leslie and they made scoring difficult for openers Joel H-D and Patrick H.

Leslie removed Joel in his 2nd over, Joel rather unlucky to be caught down the leg side attempting a hook shot to a quick bouncer. Patrick was then joined by captain Joe and the pair started to accelerate the scoring rate. They were both particularly keen to use their feet or to sweep the Shields spinner. The pair shared a 100 run partnership before Joe went for 52 and Patrick soon after went for 58. Two excellent knocks. A total of 121 seemed about par.

The Shields batters followed the example set by the home side by carefully defending against the new ball until Dan W struck in the 3rd over. Regular wickets started to fall with all of the visitor’s top 5 being bowled. Some determined batting and rusty bowling towards the ned of the innings saw Shields fall short of Tynemouth’s target by 15 runs. Special mention should go to Sean A who was the pick of the bowlers with 3-18 off his 4 overs, and to the two Percy Main lads Sam R 1-17 off 3 and Josh T 0-13 off 4.

This win meant a 3-2 haul over the entire day and so TCC were successful in bringing back the Harbour Cup North of the Tyne. We would like to thank Paul Jackson for preparing the wickets, to South Shields coaches, parents and players for the excellent spirit all of the games were played in and to our sponsors S and B expanded polystyrene, Minel Energy, Mcgillivarys Surveyors and FibroFind for their sponsorship of the new kit.