On a pleasant summers eve at GLA, the under 15s began their campaign against Mansfield Hosiery Mills in the 2016 Mansfield Youth League. After many seasons competing at the age group with players too young and lacking in experience the author or self proclaimed tinker man/Claudio was finally able to field a side boasting several players with senior cricketing experience. Added to this was the youthfulness and exuberance of four under 13's the author/Claudio's hopes were high of at the very least of showing our true potential, whilst also enjoying ourselves. A relative minnow in the league, with previous seasons results not reading too well, we may have been written off early, Ladbrokes quoting odds of 5000/1 for the title due to an historical inability to bat and bowl well in the same game....generally a must in order to win a cricket match.
After a brief warm up and chat from Claudio and the club warship aka Darren in which we emphasised the ability belief and team spirit we had in the side captain Sam Waghorn elected to bowl. Opening the bowling was Charlie Bateman and Rhyun Nagur the latter unfortunately only completing one over due to an injury. Nevertheless Charlie and Olly Lees, an able deputy got through several miserly overs with the score crawling to 18-1 after 7 overs, Olly with the wicket caught by Evan Poole at cover....a great start!
With a limit of four overs per bowler, required changes were made with Ethan Wright and Ryder Wyatt coming into the attack, Ryder taking a wicket in his third over, with a smart catch by Sam stood up to the stumps. The score of 31-2 after 11 overs made good reading but the author is well aware MHM are not a side to take lightly and a fight back began, not necessarily through bad bowling I may add (Ethan particularly flighting the ball well without deserved reward) the score grew to 72-2 with 3 overs remaining. The retirement of a key batsmen and the return of Olly to take another wicket saw MHM finish on 97-3, a decent but not insurmountable total. A quick mention for Logan Wyatt who's energy and work in the field was admired and commented on by both home and away team supporters.
Opening the batting for Calverton were Sam, and in Alex Holidays absence Evan, who was full of confidence after scoring a good 21 for the seniors on Sunday. Evan falling LBW for 7 in the fourth over wasn't ideal but Sam and new batsmen Ethan rebuilt before showing a range of shots to swing the game our way progressing the score to 72 before Ethan was unfortunately run out for 19.... running between the wickets is something we do need to work on and improve. The wicket bought Josh Mimms to the crease but unfortunately Sam was soon to follow Ethan back to the pav for a captains innings of 27 to be replaced by Ryder. The score at this point being 81-3 with 5 overs remaining, 17 to win with 7 wickets remaining and 30 balls to do it in, surely we couldn't lose........ And we didn't, although we lost Ryder some powerful but majestic shots by Josh Mimms 24* saw us to victory with two overs to spare.
A great win and team effort which should give the boys and girls the confidence to take into the rest of the season, who knows we may have our own open topped bus tour round the village yet!
After a brief warm up and chat from Claudio and the club warship aka Darren in which we emphasised the ability belief and team spirit we had in the side captain Sam Waghorn elected to bowl. Opening the bowling was Charlie Bateman and Rhyun Nagur the latter unfortunately only completing one over due to an injury. Nevertheless Charlie and Olly Lees, an able deputy got through several miserly overs with the score crawling to 18-1 after 7 overs, Olly with the wicket caught by Evan Poole at cover....a great start!
With a limit of four overs per bowler, required changes were made with Ethan Wright and Ryder Wyatt coming into the attack, Ryder taking a wicket in his third over, with a smart catch by Sam stood up to the stumps. The score of 31-2 after 11 overs made good reading but the author is well aware MHM are not a side to take lightly and a fight back began, not necessarily through bad bowling I may add (Ethan particularly flighting the ball well without deserved reward) the score grew to 72-2 with 3 overs remaining. The retirement of a key batsmen and the return of Olly to take another wicket saw MHM finish on 97-3, a decent but not insurmountable total. A quick mention for Logan Wyatt who's energy and work in the field was admired and commented on by both home and away team supporters.
Opening the batting for Calverton were Sam, and in Alex Holidays absence Evan, who was full of confidence after scoring a good 21 for the seniors on Sunday. Evan falling LBW for 7 in the fourth over wasn't ideal but Sam and new batsmen Ethan rebuilt before showing a range of shots to swing the game our way progressing the score to 72 before Ethan was unfortunately run out for 19.... running between the wickets is something we do need to work on and improve. The wicket bought Josh Mimms to the crease but unfortunately Sam was soon to follow Ethan back to the pav for a captains innings of 27 to be replaced by Ryder. The score at this point being 81-3 with 5 overs remaining, 17 to win with 7 wickets remaining and 30 balls to do it in, surely we couldn't lose........ And we didn't, although we lost Ryder some powerful but majestic shots by Josh Mimms 24* saw us to victory with two overs to spare.
A great win and team effort which should give the boys and girls the confidence to take into the rest of the season, who knows we may have our own open topped bus tour round the village yet!