Junior cricket: Layla leads Durham Girls home against Notts in a thriller

Durham Under-15 Girls celebrate their narrow ECB County Cup success against Notts at Whickham yesterday. Picture by Sam Blacklock.

Notts won the toss and inserted Durham, with skipper Tipton quick to make an impact, with 52 runs from 53 balls in an excellent innings.

Once the Eppleton youngster was dismissed, though, things went down hill for Durham, with no other batsman reaching double figures as the home side were bowled out for 107 in 27.3 overs.

Chloe Rudkin bagged 4-22 from seven overs for Notts, while Pavan Landa and Elodie Pike both struck twice.

Durham started brightly in the visitors’ reply, quickly reducing Notts to 29-3.

Tipton (2-15), Ella Tomys (2-19) and Olivia Storey (2-28) kept up the hard work as Notts struggled to 71-7. Entering the last over, the visitors had set up a winning position, requiring seven runs, but they managed just two.

Erin Denyer, Jessica Woolston and Madeline Atkinson all took wickets.

Durham Under-15s boys defeated Cumbria by 148 runs at Barnard Castle to make it two wins in two in the ECB County Cup.

Durham skipper Jonathan Bushnell won the toss and elected to bat, but they were soon under the cosh, slipping to 29-3 as Robbie Fyfe, Miles Birbeck and Bushnell all fell early, with Cumbria on top.

However Lewis Williams (52) and Oliver Barrett (32) put together a partnership of 67 to steady the Durham ship. Finn Usher then added 59 from 90 balls, batting at six, with No 10 Ben Simpson adding an unbeaten 51 from 32 balls to lead Durham to 277-9 from 50 overs.

Brodie Glendinning bagged 3-52, while Aiden Little and Mark Wharton both struck twice.

Ollie Barrett got the ball rolling for Durham as Cumbria replied, bagging 3-39 from his 10-over spell, but it was James Hindmarsh who was the star with the ball, bagging 5 wickets for just 29 runs from 10 overs to clean Cumbria up in 43 overs for 135.

Callan Salkeld and Lewis Simpson also struck. Wharton top-scored for Cumbria with 40.

Durham Under-14 boys were outgunned by 151 runs by Notts.

Ewan Laughton (68), Raheem Ahmed (56) and Sam King (46) top-scored as Notts racked up 276-9 in their 50 overs.

Isaac Unsworth was the pick of the Durham bowlers, taking 3-47 in 10 overs, while run-outs were forced by Josh Leslie, Harry Crawshaw and Thomas Reynolds. Ben Smith, Adradhya Tiwarti and T. Hodgson also grabbed wickets.

Durham were never up with the required run-rate in their reply and were bowled out for 125 in 38.3 overs. Tiwari hit four fours in 31, with Crawshaw making 24 and Lucas Pilling 22. Jack Hutchinson (12) and Unsworth (10) were the only other batters to reach double figures.

Ben Martindale and Jonny Lawrence grabbed three wickets apiece for Notts.