About Last Night...

Foxgrove Road, Wednesday 12 May

You would have a heart of stone not to have enjoyed that match last night - whatever the result!

The bare facts:

Blackheath scored 277 off their 20 overs, losing 4 wickets (one of which was a run out).

The Strikers scored 257 off their 20, losing 10 wickets (7 of which were run outs, 4 in the last 4 overs) which made for a nail-biting finish and much entertainment!

All the players made a good contribution to the match - several on hardball debut in the Pairs format.

Thomas mopped up with the bat in the opening four overs, ably supported by Adriano putting on 25 runs pegged back to 20 after Tom was bowled. Bowling as a Pair, against strong opening batsmen from Blackheath they bowled well giving away only 4 extras.

Emilio and James's bowling spell was a game of two halves (borrowing a football analogy); 10 extras but a run out and wicket saw Blackheath's Pair adding only 6 further runs. James and Emilio scored nothing off the bat, however the bowlers gifted them 14 extras without getting them out! Obdurate defence is sometimes as important as all out attack!

Oscar and Emily's innings had some symmetry with Oscar suffering two run outs and Emily bowled twice, but extras and runs mitigated some of the losses. They bowled tidily as a Pair giving away only 8 in extras.

Ted and Kian hunted as a pair, Kian taking two wickets, only yielding 6 runs off the bat after penalties on Blackheath for the wickets. Ted hit a lovely boundary, Kian 2 more with some strong running to snatch singles here and there.

Bette and Krish are a Pair made in commentators heaven! Both on debut in hardball league cricket and bowling only 4 extras and one boundary off the bat. Then came the climax of the match as we watched them head in to bat out the final four overs...

I do not have the space here to encapsulate the thrills and spills of their entertaining innings which captivated us. They added 26 runs, reduced by 12 after 4 run outs! Suffice to say we will be working on calling in training!!

Krish and Adriano both kept well and the fielding was good with positive energy all round.

Thanks to Greg and Andrew who umpired and handled the match and finally enabled us to get the pitch laid after a mix-up with the storage keys (it's a long story)! Thanks to Huw who scored so efficiently too.

Thank you for bringing your children along and enabling them to play. Keep an eye on Pitchero and do make them available for fixtures.

See you at training.

Amanda.