Thursday night saw our Under 15’s finish their league season with a victory over Messingham .Batting 1st Barton reached a very decent 107 for the loss of only 1 wicket . Olly Yard continued his fine season with 23 , ably backed up by opening partner Mike Harrison who retired on 22 . Star Performer with the bat however was Anneka Watson who crashed the ball to all parts in her 25 not out . In reply tight bowling kept Messingham behind the rate and despite 30 not out and 25 from Star Bats Liam Sylvester and Josh Joy respectively they finished 14 runs short on 93 for 4. Cain Archer with 2 wickets for 6 runs from his 2 overs was well supported by Under 13 duo Oscar Blackburn 1 for 12 from 3 overs and Spinner Ben Andrew 1 for 6 for his 3 overs . Only a 5 game season for these guys and girls but 4 very close games saw us play some good quality cricket if somewhat short in quantity of games . Thanks to Olly Yard for his Captaincy this season and for his help in bringing on the younger members of the team . All but 3 of this team are able to play again next year and with 4 or 5 good under 13’s moving up the future is bright for this age group . UTJV !
A scorching Monday night saw the Under 13’s travel down the motorway to take on Outcasts who sat 2nd in the league before the game . Barton took 1st use of a very dry pitch which lacked any sort of bounce making scoring tricky . However a brilliant aggressive opening stand between Theo Flowers (13no) and Oscar Moore (6 no) saw us off to a flyer and 229 after pair one . Oscar Blackburn (11) and Olly Small scored runs but the loss of 2 wickets including a crazy run out saw us move just 2 to 231 . Similarly 3rd pair of George Vickers (7 no) and Alex Shelbourne again got runs but the loss of 2 wickets left us on 232 . Captain and Keeper up last and the usual quick running and single pinching saw Ben Andrew (13 no) and Nathaniel Bowm take us up to a very good 253 on a difficult surface . Our hosts were never in the hunt as we bowled and fielded superbly . Ben with his 9th catch of the season took a smart caught and bowled and Nathaniel snaffled a lovely take behind the stumps . Catch of the match though went to George Vickers who plucked a beauty out of the air at mid on ( Jez’s Friday night long range catching practice paying dividends !!) . Ben claimed 2 for 12 from 3 , Oscar Blackburn 1 for 4 from 3 miserly overs , George with 1 for 2 and Olly Small as economical as ever with 2 for 4 . Wicket of the night though went to Alex Shelbourne with a lovely clean bowled as he took 1 for 13 . 5 wins and 4 defeats this season will see us finish around 3rd and all bodes well for next season with over half the squad still eligible to play next year too . UTJV !!
