Staffordshire show spirit to earn points on the road

STAFFORDSHIRE fought back impressively to put points on the board in their opening NCCA Twenty20 Cup double header against Northumberland.

- Chris Travers

Staffs were beaten by 10 wickets in the day's first Group One game at Allendale - a contest which was affected by the rain.

But the weather then helped their cause in the second encounter as they managed to secure a six-wicket win to get their short-format campaign up and running.

The Twenty20 Cup has been a profitable competition for Staffordshire in recent seasons.

Captain James Kettleborough and head coach Andy Carr masterminded the county's first-ever success in the 2023 event with a final victory over Cornwall at Tring Park.

And last summer they reached finals day once again, but the weather prevented the showpiece from being played on three separate occasions.

Staffordshire didn’t make the best of starts to this year’s group stages, though, as they were comfortably beaten in the day’s opening match.

Kettleborough won the toss and opted to bat, but there were a couple of early setbacks for the visitors.

Nils Priestley, who made 12, mistimed a shot off paceman Matthew Oswell and was snapped up by Harry Crawshaw at mid-off.

And Staffordshire were soon 26-2 when Kettleborough was trapped lbw by Callum Fletcher.

Callum Hawkins and Matthew Morris looked to be getting into their stride, advancing the score to 52 - but both fell within six runs of each other.