South Milford Cricket Club

First of all, thank you to Julia Handley whose 40th Birthday it was today, for letting Jack play with us - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

No rain again was a good start to the day. This was a big match with lots of players between Fairburn and ourselves which will happen annually. The idea of our cup match is to play as many of our team as possible to give our full squad the opportunity to bond.

Our Captain, William, won the toss and decided to field first. First off was Jack, mainly because he is not shy on coming forward and offering! It paid off and he took our first wicket from the second ball before letting the opposition get just one run from the full over. James and George continued the excellent work before Louis bowled the first maiden of the match. Eve nearly replied with a wicket maiden (Will was on the ball with the stumping) however one ball was wide - good effort young lady! Harrison, again bowled a maiden with just one wide. Mitch took his first catch of the season off Phillip's brilliant bowling. Jude and Charlie were the next to dish the bowling with Charlie taking another wicket - well done Charlie! Harrison delivered a wicket maiden, Mitch gave away just one and William stumped a player once again off James' over. Jack, not to be outdone, dealt a maiden, Will only gave away one run, Louis a maiden with just one wide and Mitch delivered an over which resulted in James taking a great catch. Eve's final over saw two more wickets fall with Harrison's stumping taking one and the other was her careful bowling. Charlie, Jude, Will and George all bowled again before it was Phillip's turn when he took another wicket. Harrison stumped once again from James' ball and, to end an excellent show of fielding, Will dealt a final wicket maiden with Jack taking catch.

Some awesome fielding and bowling boys and girls! Excellent wicket keeping by both Harrison (two wickets) and William (two wicikets). Well done! This meant we had taken 12 wickets and were chasing 212.

Our first pair entered the field with Will and Harrison. Steady away for the first four overs gradually knocking up the score with three wickets falling. Next in were Jack and Eve who, again were steady away with two more wickets falling. Phillip and George batted well together and achieved 22 runs combined with the loss of one more wicket. Louis and Mitch took it steady too and held the score at a steady pace. We now had 225 runs and so the game was still not in the bag. Will and James entered the crease and generated a further 29 runs between them, out once. Jude and Charlie accumulated 15 runs between them with one last wicket lost. In total, the opposition took 10 wickets from us.

We won the match with a score of 258 however, I do feel that this would have been a lot higher however the size of the ground did not allow for the various 6s that Will hit to be taken into consideration.

Well done! A great team building experience today with each and every one of our players working hard to contribute to the whole effort.

With this being the Fairburn Cup Match, Ian (the Fairburn coach/manager) chose William to get Man of the Match - well done William!! You deserved it with a contribution of 36 runs out once and stumping two wickets.

Thanks again to parents/carers etc who gave up their time to bring their children to the match - without you there would not be a game.

Sue Thomas
SMCC U11