NEWLAND entertained local rivals Hanley Castle & Upton in a keenly fought WCL Division Five derby seeing Newland emerge with a winning draw in yet another run feast on the Newland track.

NEWLAND v UPTON & HANLEY CASTLE

Newland won the toss and elected to bat but found runs hard to come by and when Freeman (14) found the only fielder on the legside they were 30-2. Dave White continued his fine form and Phil Birch was easing himself into the runs.

A double change of bowling did the trick for Hanley with Dave Williams striking in his first over bowling White for 24 and then Steve Burch uprooted Beavan's middle stump to have Newland reeling at 74-4 after 20 overs.

Williams was having a strangle hold on the batters conceding only 17 runs from six overs but his seventh was to be the turning point, his first ball saw Birch loft a ball to mid on where the fielder failed to make the catch. The next five balls disappeared to all parts of the ground and Williams was out of the attack. Tolley and Birch steadily upped the tempo but on Tolley's dismissal for 32 to Hannah (3-56) Newland were 152-6 with 12 overs left.

Birch was playing superbly but he now needed support if Newland were to post a defendable total. Spiers smacked his first ball back past the bowler to signal his intentions.

Birch took most of the strike from the dangerous Steve Burch and brought up yet another Newland century with a fine glance to third man.

Spiers meantime elected for the very profitable smash through mid wicket as he yielded boundary after boundary until the skipper plugged that gap. More lusty blows from Birch saw Newland score 103 runs in the last 12 overs leaving them on a respectable 255 with Spiers 36no and Phil Birch 129no.

After an excellent tea, enjoyed by both sides, the pace of Churchill soon had the off stump knocked back twice and Hanley consolidated their position. Pete Wright and Simon Rawlings saw the end of Churchill's spell but failed to get the veteran Rouse away.

Skipper Tolley introduced Chris Genever with his legspin and suddenly Hanley upped the tempo but three wickets fell with the score on 89 including Wright (42) and Rawlings (29).

With Newland skipper in a quandary of whether to attack or defend he fell between the two and allowed Hanley to survive. The lithe and athletic Dave Williams was scurrying between the wickets cajoling his partner Lambert to do likewise. The pair were finding the boundary regularly prompting the return of Churchill.

With neither batsmen able to score off him the match was back in Newland's favour until Lambert played an extraordinary hook shot off Churchill, with the batsman sat on the ground staring at the wickets he smashed the ball high onto the pavilion.

The score now raced on as Lambert passed 50 and had got to 200 when Williams holed out to Spiers for 59, a superb innings that had given his side an outside chance of victory.

With 11 an over needed off the last five skipper Burch bludgeoned the luckless Genever into the adjoining fields for a rapid 17 before the arrow like Churchill throw saw him run out. Lambert (74no) continued the charge but 22 off the final over proved too great a challenge and his side finished on 245, ten runs short.

This was a superb days cricket enjoyed by all and played in the right spirit, but spoilt for Dave Patterson who had come out of retirement hoping to witness his first ever dismissal of Birch only to be disappointed for a twelfth time.

Following his epic innings Phil Birch said: "It was one of my best ever centuries due the quality of the bowling."