BIDBOROUGH 82-6 BEAT COWDREY 79-8
Our U11s met on a warm, sunny evening at Cowdrey’s Longmead ground for their 3rd match in the Borders A League.
Batting first, our openers, Tom and Harry, got us off to a cracking start. Hitting the boundaries and taking the singles on offer, before we knew it Harry was retired having reached 25 in 8 overs. Now the problem with the A league is that good bowlers keep appearing and that, together with our inexperience, meant that we soon slowed down and wickets fell. Still I think that the coaches agree that it won’t be long before some of those batsmen are racking up the runs. We went on to score a respectable 82 after 20 overs, a score that was certainly defendable with our talented bowlers and fielders.
Cowdrey got off to a slow start but were stealing some cheeky singles from our fielders and so the chant from the coaches started “walk in, walk in”. Just as their openers looked like settling down Harry stepped up to bowl and in his first over came up with a couple of wickets and things looked up. Still the coaches chanted. Then a ball heading for the boundary was stopped in its tracks by Ed and thrown back with accuracy to the keeper who was being expertly backed up! A fine piece of fielding and another wicket – and a smile from the coaches. We continued on with some good bowling particularly from Arthur with a wicket caught by Tom at mid-off above his head and Henry who managed two “bowleds” although he still appealed loudly. But still the “walk in” chant was getting louder – the coaches were not happy. Although it has to said that there were some very good fielding feats in particular from Georgina at fine leg or sometimes called back stop. Before we knew it Cowdrey needed 10 runs off 24 balls and were starting to look very comfortable out there. Then something remarkable happened – Bidborough started to walk in. With Cowdrey’s Jes reaching 25, the new batsmen began feeling less comfortable and Cowdrey’s run rate fell dramatically. Our last three bowlers (Tom, Henry with Ed finishing off) each played their part. A real nail biter last over saw Cowdrey needing 5 runs to win – they got one leg bye and Bidborough got two wickets (including a catch by James who was walking in) and a victory by 3 runs.
Well done to all 12 players you all contributed – some people including one or two of those chanting coaches doubted you would win a game in this top league but now the dam has burst, we will look for more nail biting victories.
Team on the day – Jordan, Matty, Jacob, Max, Tom, Edward, James, Matt, Henry, Georgina, Arthur and expertly led by the captain, Harry