Ian Palmer was in great form with the ball in tandem with Ian Jackson. They both struck early blows to have Darlington 12 for 3. Palmer continued to make inroads and with Darlington at 60 for 6 Hartlepool looked assured of a good result. The home teams latter batsmen had other ideas as they gradually fought their way back into the match. Thara Gunarathne chipped in with an important wicket and Darlington needed 16 to win with the last pair at the crease and 3 overs remaining. The final success fell to Ian Jackson from the third ball of the last over when he yorked Raine to seal an excellent victory for Hartlepool and gained a welcome 20 points by the narrow margin of 6 runs. Ian Palmer finished with 6 wickets for a season's best and a well deserved victory.

http://nysdl.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10485825

A depleted Hartlepool 2nds were at home to Stokesley but the performance bore little resemblance to the recent good form. Hartlepool were never in control despite Stokesley batting at a pedestrian pace for the first 30 overs. Poor fielding and indisciplined bowling allowed Stokesley to rapidly increase the scoring rate to eventually close on 184 for 8 after 50 overs. Callum Prosser the pick of the bowlers with 3- 27

Missing several regular batsmen that total was always likely to be a problem. However Hartlepool's top order collapsed with a succession of poor shots and the match quickly slipped away. Praise to Jonathan Mitchell who showed good technique and was last out for 19. He batted with greater patience than his more senior players in the team, as did Adil Ahmad batting at number 11.

Hopefully this will be a wake -up call to the team and see them look to improve on the standard, especially with ground fielding and catching which have been disappointing all season to date despite to previous good results.

http://nysdl.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10486569