I have posted from Sessay CC near Thirsk on several occasions in recent seasons reporting on their exploits in the Village and National Cups and last August on their successful struggle to retain their Premier status. My plans to visit the attractive village and ground on Saturday were scuppered by the day's rain but another opportunity presented itself yesterday when Eppleton from the North East Premier League were visitors in the first round of matches in Group 1 of ECB National Club Championship.
On a day when it was just about bearable to sit in the open air I arrived in time for the start before which Eppleton had rather surprised their healthy contingent of supporters by electing to bat on winning the toss. Early progress was slow on a green wicket which appeared to assist the seamers and Luke Henderson was caught behind for 0 off the bowling of Stuart Pierse. There followed a good stand between Marcus Brown and Sam Dinning with young Brown particularly impressive until he was lbw to for 49 to Kavikara after an appeal that might have been heard in Thirsk. Dinning continued to bat steadily but the pace was stepped up by skipper Dean Musther in a partnership with Gary Burlinson. An interesting entry at no 6 was the tall figure of Josh Coughlin who earlier in the season I had seen playing first class cricket for Durham and whose brother Paul jumped the Riverside ship in 2017 to join Notts. Coughlin was another safely pouched by keeper Till when chasing a wide one from Pierse but Musther stayed until the conclusion of the 40 overs. A total of 220 for 8 was felt to be about par by the Eppleton faithful most of whom expressed allegiance to Sunderland FC apart from one brave soul who uttered the NU words. When questioned a Sessay boundary fielder was non committal about their prospects. Spinner Navin Kavikara had the best figures with 2 for 28 off his permitted 8 overs.
Circumstances meant that I had to leave at the interval and my feeling was one of regret that I might miss an interesting finish. Not so for Sessay were never in the hunt with Couglin showing his pedigree with 3 for 6 off 5 overs and only Joe Watson and Stuart Clark reaching double figures. 93 all out was the summit of their achievement and a defeat by 127 runs has so far not provoked any response on the club's twitter feed. Eppleton will travel to face holders Richmondshire in the second round which I believe will be in two weeks time. A stiffer task indeed.
An interesting sideline from yesterday's game was that the scorer for Eppleton was youngster Sam Blacklock who has just returned from duties in the UAE and will be scoring for Bangladesh in the forthcoming World Cup. Sam, who lives in Sunderland graduated from Teesside University this year and would seem to have an interesting future as a scorer ahead of him.
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