U12A v Westbourne U13 Won 14 - 13 1/2

Player of the Match – Jessica RS for super batting and formidable fielding, she was on hand to stop everything, well done!

U12 Squad:

Backstop – Georgy H

Bowler – Annie GP

1^st post – Erin S

Fielders: Ella R, Arabella A, Jess RS, Arabella H, Ella T, Ella N

Another fine performance by our unbeaten under 12 team, who finished the season with their closest game yet against Westbourne who were all a year older than them. This game was played at the Abbeydale Sports Club and it would be fair to say that the pitch markings were a little hard to detect and served as a reminder of the sterling work undertaken by our grounds man Mick and Kev, who have marked our own home pitches twice this week in response to the demand by home matches.

Having won the toss we elected to field first and got off to a good start, with Erin and Georgy working well together as first post and backstop, to stump several players out at first. Arabella H and Ella N were super in the deep, quickly reacting to balls hit their way and sending some super throws into the posts. Annie’s bowling was good and Arabella A kept it tight at 2^nd post to reduce the amount of half rounders scored. Jess RS was top drawer, collecting ball after ball in both innings and taking some super catches. A few Westbourne girls had a good, hard hit, but we managed to keep their scoring opportunities down, playing well as a team. Our own batting was a little sporadic today, with us only scoring two full rounders in the first and second innings. However, we did keep clocking up the half rounders and had far more batters left at the end of both innings than Westbourne. Westbourne had a good second batting innings, scoring one full rounder more than us, but Annie GP saved the day, settling for a half rounder, to win the game, and not running on to score a full rounder, which could have caused her to be stumped out and the game to result in a draw, good decision Annie!

All in all a good team performance, particularly when fielding. We need to be faster adapting to different batting styles though and some of us need to be faster around the posts. Well done Ella R, who made her début for the under 12a team in this game and played well.

DLB