Another stern test of the U13’s mettle was faced on Monday night, namely finding eleven shirts that fitted the boys courtesy of our new sponsors…Wreford’s Transport! Once the sizes from M [Midget] to L [Lump] were sorted, the team entered the fray having won the toss and inserted ONs in a reduced 16 overs-a-side contest.
Back Row: Eldershaw, Hindson, Tipler, Hone, Wreford, Coach Morrissey
Front Row: Morrissey [J], Thompson, Smith, Morrissey [L], Woolley, Garratt
Having arrived late and having to bowl the first over, Keelan Hone tickled the opening batsman’s ears with a full toss no-ball, but then removed his partner with a cracking caught and bowled. ONs were 2-1 after three balls and the Cooks were flying. Unfortunately, the confident batsmen soon began milking the bowling and were taking a run-a-ball with little effort, finding the odd boundary and taking the score onto 78, before Mack Eldershaw snared a catch in the covers off the bowling of skipper Alfie Wreford in the 12th over. Sam Tipler then was finally rewarded for his persistent LBW shouts removing the next batsman after the score had reached 103 in the 14th over. Keelan and George Thompson then combined for George to pull off a good catch to give Keelan excellent figures of 2-11 from 3 overs. In the final over, Jake Morrissey managed a run out of the non-striking batsman and bowled the next batsman with the last ball of the innings to leave ONs on 114-6. A definite lesson for our team in running between the wickets and waiting for the bad ball, but the boys fought back well after some indifferent fielding early on.
Knowing the chase was going to be difficult, and that last week’s 27ao was something not to be repeated, the situational target was to at least bat out the full 16 overs and reach 50 runs. Sam and Alfie started quickly and we were above the overall run rate with some solid shots, but when Sam was caught in the gully and we were 17-1, we were in danger of collapsing again. Ollie Woolley hung around but struggled to score, as did most of the boys against a very good ON’s attack and when Nicky Hindson was run out for 0 and Liam departed for 1, we were definitely looking to the lower target of 50. Jake [10no from 36 balls] and George [2 from 19 balls] batted a long time but we were still one run short of 50 as Aidan Garratt came in to face the last ball of the innings. He had a good swing at the final ball but was unable to find the gap and the lads finished on 49-7 from our 16 overs. We have played two of the stronger sides in the last two games and flashed glimpses of good performance at different times in all three phases. The intention is to bring it all together next week at home to Old Wellingburians/Well’boro Indians. Thanks to Charlie for umpiring and Ben for scoring as usual. There is no junior practice on Friday 17th June due to an U11 fixture that night.