O&LCC U9 NEC opening match v Trinity Mid-Whits

In a miracle of organisational set up from a number of parents and a new set of keys to the notoriously difficult to unlock Crockham Hill clubhouse the first match of the season started bang on time at 9:30. Having won the toss, Captain for the day Hugo de Vere Hunt elected to bowl first. Laurence Lewis opening the bowling with a tidy first over and then all that practice at winter nets paid off. With a diving stop in his follow through from his opening ball, George Abel threw down the stumps at the bowlers end to catch out the non-striker. More tidy bowling from Leo Bines and Henry McCall saw Trinity finish their opening pair on 214-1. The second pair batted steadily, but lost two more wickets, the first clean bowled by James Roe and the second a run out by George, 224-2 off 8 overs. Trinity's 3rd pair struggled to break free from the pressure created by tight bowling from Louis Bosshard, Hugo, Laurence and George. They lost 2 more wickets, one clean bowled by George and the other another direct hit run out again by George. 225-4 off 12 overs. Leo came back for a second over conceding just one run, creating the pressure that led to a second wicket for James in the next over, caught by Laurence. Henry stepped up again for over number 15, which saw George's 4th direct hit run out, surely some sort of record?! Having only 9 players, the last Trinity batsman batted with a runner and managed to see off the bowling with no further wickets falling as Trinity closed their innings on 249-7. An excellent all round bowling and fielding display from the boys.

The match was as good as over after our first pair had batted. James Roe and William Blackborough starred in a 44 run partnership that has only been beaten once by this squad when James opened against Cheam last year with a 51 run partnership! With one over of the pair to go James had scored 20 from 12 balls and William was lagging behind with 3 off 6. However, William now had the strike and after having a look at the first delivery he proceeded to hit the next 5 balls to the boundary with some excellent use of the feet, sneaking ahead off his partner with a score of 23 off 12 balls!

Our second pair of Leo and Henry made another positive contribution putting us well ahead of Trinity after just 8 overs on 260-1.

All was not over yet though as Trinity bowled their most accurate bowlers in the 3rd pairing and despite commendably playing the right shot trying to defend the straight balls, we lost 3 wickets to inside edges onto stumps. It was great to see a display of team solidarity though as after Liam had been bowled, Hugo stood up for his mate hitting the same bowler for 6 the very next ball - take that! With another 6 off the last ball of the pairing Hugo advanced his personal score onto 23, tied with William for top scorer honours.

Laurence and Ollie also advanced the score in the 4th pair, despite being occasionally bamboozled by a crafty leg spinner. 274-5 with one pair to go.

Louis and George started quietly and rebuilt from the loss of an early wicket, before opening up in the last couple of overs. With the mystery leg spinner no longer a mystery George helped himself to 2 sixes and a four to steal the top scorer spot with 25. Would they have settled for singles off the last two balls had they know their erstwhile ESCL colleagues had finished on 299?! The NEC team had to settle for 298-6 and a 49 run win over Trinity.

William's 5 consecutive boundaries must have been the Coca Cola moment of the match, but scorer Ed dVH gave the man of the match award to George for his top score of 25, a wicket and 4 run outs.

Thanks again to Ed for scoring, Ben M for umpiring, Sophie Kearns for teas and all parents for your support. Best of all the boys all loved their first game of the season. Next stop in the NEC league is Old Whits away next Saturday.