Oxted U9s snatch victory from jaws of defeat

After having my nerves shredded in a two run victory in the hardball fixture at Reigate on Monday, the U9s added to my grey hairs with another two run victory, this time in the softball fixture at home to Banstead and this time leaving it very late to get ourselves out of trouble.

In a low scoring match with the bowlers dominant Oxted won the toss and asked Banstead to bat first. A total of 246-8 could and probably should have been considerably lower as we gave away fifty two runs in wides and no balls. At two runs apiece its these no balls and wides combined with wickets that tend to decide matches at this age group. We did claim eight wickets which at minus six apiece in the NEC league went a long way to counteracting the wides and no balls.

Alex Newland continued his impressive bowling progression this season. No no balls or wides for the second match in a row and a catch off his own bowling left Alex with figures of 2 overs 1 maiden 1 wicket for 1 run!

The rest of the wickets were shared around with two for George Abel and one each for Laurence Lewis, Huxley Maunder-Allan, Arthur Peachey and Hugo de Vere Hunt. Hugo also effected a run out as we pegged Banstead back from a high of 250-6 to finish on 246-8.

With the sun now beating down on a hot morning, the juice, biscuits and crisps were much appreciated (as was my cup of tea) at the 'tea' break. Thank you to Lindsay Lewis and the Jones' for putting on such a good spread for forty children and attending parents.

As is often the case Oxted started their innings at a cracking rate. James Roe and Laurence Lewis finding the gaps and putting pressure on the fielders with some well run singles and byes (when the batsman doesn't hit the ball but they still manage a run - usually because it has gone past the wicket keeper).

It took Banstead ten balls before they could bowl a dot ball (no runs) and despite losing one wicket, our first pair finished on 225-1 and we were on track for a score in excess of 300. The second pair of Alex Newland and Oliver Kelvin faced some inconsistent bowling that was either very wide or very straight. They lost a couple of wickets in the pairing but still the score was moving upwards and after 7 overs we were on 229-2, so it was somewhat of a shock to find ourselves 218-7 ten overs later and with the game seemingly slipping inexorably from our grasp.

It transpired that Banstead had four of their hardball team playing in this fixture and with a wicketkeeper not bowling and an injury, these four proceeded to bowl the last twelve overs between them. Henry McCall and Isaac Jones had to bear the brunt of this improved bowling, facing up to a pair of spinners who were able to extract more bounce from the wicket than the quicker bowlers on either side had managed. This meant that not only were we losing wickets, but it was very difficult to score and the wides and no balls had completely dried up!

Whilst Oxted gave away fifty two runs in wides and no balls, Banstead only gave away twenty seven and in those last twelve overs only conceded eight runs from wides and no balls. Our score after twelve overs was now 215-5.

George Abel and Huxley Maunder-Allan had been watching from the sidelines and now knew what to expect. Facing the same pair of spinners for their first two overs they played straight and worked the ball into gaps for singles. Scoring four an over and not losing wickets got the score back up to 227-5 after 15 overs. Unfortunately a wicket went down in the last over of the pair to a quicker bowler and we were pegged back again to 222-6 at the end of our fourth pair, still needing twenty five to win.

The game was calling out for an heroic performance and you couldn't find two more heroic figures on an U9 field than Arthur Peachey and Hugo de Vere Hunt. Facing four overs from another leg spinner and the quicker bowler they started circumspectly with two singles off their first five balls. Hugo rightly went for broke off the last ball of the over but just failed to clear the infield and was out caught. So now we found ourselves in the aforementioned position of being 218-7 and needing twenty nine to win off three overs - not looking good!

The 18th over saw Arthur hitting a boundary off the quick bowler and with the boys now running everything, we were up with the required run rate. Both boys hit a boundary off the leg spinner in the penultimate over and suddenly we were right back in the game needing seven to win off the last over. After a dot and a bye we now needed six to win off four balls. Banstead's quick bowler strayed onto leg stump with a full delivery and bam! Hugo had hit him back over long on for six! Cue cheers from the rest of the team who had been summoned out of the play park to watch their teammates battle it out on the field. We were now ahead with three balls to go. Trying desperately not to instruct the boys on what to do and just leave them to it, I watched on at the umpire's end as Hugo blocked the 4th ball and then scampered a single to leave Arthur with one ball to face, just needing to avoid getting out to win the match.

Arthur loves a leg stump guard at the best of times, but on this occasion he decided to give the bowler a chance and gave him as full a view of all three stumps as he could possibly wish for. I was now panicking, but fortunately Arthur wasn't as he thrust out his front foot in line with the ball and solidly defended out into the offside. The match was over and Oxted had prevailed, just, in a match it felt we should have won comfortably.

Men of the Match: Arthur Peachey and Hugo de Vere Hunt
Thanks to Ed de Vere Hunt for scoring and Lindsay Lewis and the Jones' for providing the match teas.