LDCC U12s vs Stoke D’Abernon, Sunday 25 May 2014
With heavy rain dominating the run up to Sunday’s match it
was with cautious optimism that both teams congregated on our home turf. Responding to an early morning emergency call Jake made his debut for LDCC, whilst U11 Joe (on standby) ended up fielding for the opposition as they were short of players.
Tommy won the toss and opted to field. With the odd fluffy cloud scuttling across the sky, the established opening pairing of Ben and Sean set to work. The first wicket fell in Sean’s 1st over, spectacularly clean bowled in a wicket maiden. Score at 1-1. Picking up on the intense bowling attack, strong fielding saw Louis, Callum, Jake and Aaron acrobatically stop certain boundaries. Hari began his spell of bowling just before Sean, obviously on fire, struck for the second time with Louis taking a fine catch. 9 – 2. As low-flying birds skimmed the square (Blowers would know their names) and the U8s and U9s chuntering on the sidelines Tommy and Hari began bowling in tandem.
The batsmen looked liked settling in to pile on a few runs. Luke and Jake had other ideas though with excellent stops in the field – Jake hitting the stumps with his throw in, a knack he demonstrated further as the game progressed. With 47 runs on the board Tommy cleaned bowled one of the established batsmen to temporarily put the brakes on. It took a while though before the next wicket fell – to Guy who after a wide and somewhat shaky start delivered a stump-shifting blow. 73 – 4 with 5 overs remaining. Tommy, Luke and Callum displayed some great tight bowling before Ben took a fab catch off Callum 79 – 5. Yet again Ben made things happen in his last over of the match – taking a wicket and watching in awe as Jake shattered the stumps with an exceptional throw from the boundary. The target to win 94.
Adwait and Hari opened the batting for LDCC and looked for boundaries from the start, sadly they hadn’t reckoned on Freya, Stoke D’Abernon’s invincible secret weapon, who thwarted many attempts throughout the innings with her excellent stops. Hari fell first to a catch, the score 5 -1. Adwait dug his heels in whilst being joined by Louis and began to pepper the ground with some classy shots. With the top score of 15 runs Adwait was caught behind by the wicketkeeper 19 – 2. Tommy came to the crease as the sun came out and with it the dawning realisation that quick singles might be the way forward. Great running between the wickets saw the score move on to 30 before Louis was caught. In a somewhat speedy and bewildering period of play worthy of our national team Tommy was run out, Ben bowled and Aaron caught. 40 – 6. Luke had assumed his mantle of stability again, watching partners come and go before being bowled. Guy and Callum picked up some solid singles with good running and calling before the eagle-eyed wickie took advantage of Callum stepping slightly out of his crease, and Guy’s one chance of a boundary was thwarted by his brother. Jake joined Guy and some great scampering between the wickets continued before Guy was bowled and Sean came into bat. Hitting a nice shot to start with Sean was felled quickly and Jake became the last man standing.
LDCC’s final score: 67 – 10 in 19.3 overs. A win to Stoke D’Abernon in a match played in good spirit by both sides.
Thanks to JP for guiding and umpiring, Simon for scoring and Jake’s mum for answering her phone at 9.00am