S.Anselm’s 175-9 dec. (40 overs) Edward S 94 Wellow House 90 all out (21.5 overs)
An assured, calm, and determined innings – in equal measure - from Edward S allowed S.Anselm’s to recover from the desperate position of 7-4 to reach an imposing 175-9 declared and, after tea, to win our match against Wellow House. The term ‘captain’s innings’ was invented for such occasions! In cricket there’s all sorts of pressure ... Wellow might not have had the strongest bowling line up, but Edward knew if he scored anything less than 50, we’d have lost ... Last Wednesday it was Ollie R to the rescue, this week it’s Edward ... I hope you bat together soon! Last week, Foremarke (the strongest team we’ll face) could only take two wickets in well over an hour. This week Wellow (perhaps the ‘least experienced’ this year) took four wickets in ten minutes. That’s cricket for you ... it’s so unpredictable. In an international test match, 70% of the wickets are caught, in U11 cricket 70% are bowled ... unfortunately, I cannot draw any positive conclusions from the fact that most of us were out caught! The opening bowling was slow and straight and four of us hit the ball in the air. Jonah G might have been ‘undone’ by a super slower ball last week, but this time it was just a case of too much bottom hand, as it was for the other three. The bowling machine awaits you all next Tuesday (I hope!). Harvey W added the most important 38 runs of our innings with Edward S. Any further wickets and it would’ve been all over. Unorthodox at times, you did, however, play most sensibly and you gave us hope. Elliot T put away a couple of boundaries, but was soon out as well to leave us 77-6. Edward S might’ve played watchfully and well up to this point, but he only had 36 and Wellow were still very much in the game. The partnership which took the game away from Wellow, however, came in conjunction with Nicholas P as the pair added 63 runs for the 7th wicket (nowhere near the record, I’m afraid – Mark Little and Max H, both on debut, in 2007 added an unbeaten 112 against Pownall Hall to rescue us from 26-6 to 138-6 declared!). Nicholas P needed to be more positive when hitting out and more relaxed when defending, but you contributed a lot here. Edward S managed to caress ball after ball to the cover boundary (along with a few misses due to lack of footwork). Theodore H kept the runs coming towards the end.We needed 10 wickets to win, however, a task Foremarke couldn’t achieve last week. Isaac S opened with an aggressive burst and took two very important wickets of competent batsmen, though we need to work on run-up and action, and Elliot T achieved a(nother) wonderful direct hit from square to the wicket (last one in an U11 match was last year against Wellow ... when Freddie H ran out Taylor, who was also playing in this match). Alex W took an important wicket whereupon our ‘silly’ mid-off and mid-on fielders (Jonah G and Harvey W) came into their own against timid defensive prods. Unfortunately our ‘4th’ bowler(s) couldn’t keep a consistent line and length – we missed Ollie R here – and it needed the returing Elliot T (who finally dismissed Buckland for a super 50) and Alex W plus five straight balls from Harvey W to beat Wellow and the imminent rain. Overall, our bowling wasn’t as good as against Foremarke (just have a look at the extras we gave away in each match) but it was pleasing to win and all to get a bat and most a bowl. Well done Wellow too – also on bowling 40 overs before tea! JMHF
Posted on
Thu, May 6, 2010
by MAC