Paul Collingwood’s testimonial fixture could not quite produce the perfect ending for the 41-year-old as Newcastle ran out winners by 17 runs over Sunderland at Emirates Riverside.
The teams, led by Kevin Keegan & Peter Reid respectively, entertained a crowd of over 1,700 with a closely-fought Twenty20 friendly.
An unbroken 97-run partnership between former Durham players Gordon Muchall & Phil Mustard hauled Newcastle up to 226/3 after electing to bat first.
Collingwood (43) & Shaun Marsh (53) starred for Sunderland but a late order collapse saw them fall short of the required target.
Gloucestershire’s overseas star Cameron Bancroft dominated the scoring in an 84-run opening stand with Chris Hewison for Keegan’s side.
The latter became Ashley Giles’ first wicket before the left-arm spinner & ex-Ashes winner also had Bancroft caught by Neil Killeen.
Collingwood then removed Calum MacLeod for eight before the stand between Muchall & Mustard took the game away from Sunderland with some big-hitting.
Muchall made 69 including 5x4s & 3x6s while Mustard fell one shy of a half century, with his innings containing 4x4s & five maximums.
After the early wicket of Keaton Jennings, Sunderland made a good recovery through a second wicket stand of 69 between Marsh & Scott Borthwick.
Both fell to Graeme Swann, the start of a four-wicket haul to the ex-England spinner, before Collingwood took centre stage in a 23-ball 43 including five boundaries.
But his wicket sparked a collapse from 162/3 to 179/7 which included a wicket for Mustard, his first since his memorable dismissal of Luke Wright in 2013.
Liam Plunkett’s quickfire 18 gave Collingwood’s side brief hope but they slid to 209 all out in an entertaining match.