Cumbria’s opening NCA Championship game against Northumberland at Carlisle’s Edenside was nicely poised after Sunday’s play.
Northumberland had won the toss and chose to bat, making steady progress after Cumbria skipper Mike Slack had Sol Bell trapped leg before for nine.
Solid contributions from Alasdair Appleby (65), John Oswell (38), Thomas Cant (35) and Jack Jessop (33) saw the visitors reach 213-5.
But then Cumbria made rapid progress with the last five wickets going down for 29 and what had seemed a big total in the offing, was rather more modest at 242 all out.
Spinners Nico Watt (3-35) and Matthew Siddall (3-57) were Cumbria’s most successful bowlers with Slack (2-47) and Sam Sharp (2-25) chipping in.
Cumbria had reached 36 when they lost opener Ben Davidson (22) and at the close were 41-1, some 201 runs behind but with everything set fair for a full day’s play today.
