St Fagans failed to show, so we had to mix and match teams and game formats a little bit today to get three games played. Our first game was 8-a side against The Vale with Ojas batting twice, bowling twice and brother Tom standing in for us exceptionally in the field. Phoebe was our skipper for the first game, won the toss and decided to bat. Osian and Ollie opened the batting against some strong bowling, and got us off to a good start, making 9 between them. Ojas and Phoebe were up next pair and pushed the scoring along to 218 at half way. The Vale have good bowlers throughout their line up and field well, so although Harry and Corey, batting together for the first time, scored a few singles, a lost wicket pegged out scoring back a bit. Ojas and Alyssa made up the final pair and both were striking the ball well, taking our score to a pretty useful 235. The Vale openers were both strong hitters and despite the best efforts of Alyssa and Ojas 1 and Tom in the field, they got their reply off to a flying start. Ollie and Corey were our next two bowlers and a few too many extras took the Vale score to 239 at half way. Phoebe and Harry battled on but still the Vale score continued to grow, and although Osian took a wicket in the next to last over and Ojas 2 conceded only one run at the end, Vale’s score had reached 260, showing they are a very handy all round side.

For our second game we moved over to the other pitch and took on Miskin at 6 a side. Again we were batting first, and Ollie and Osian were first pair. Runs were hard to come by and a run out meant our score went to 198 at the end of two overs. Harry and Corey made up our middle batting pair, and it was similar story, lots of good straight bowling that needed to be defended, meaning few scoring shots were possible and a combination of that, plus some extras and a wicket took us to 201. Ojas and Alyssa were last pair but a third lost wicket balanced out some strong shot making, so we finished on a below par 209. The Miskin batters took a liking to the opening bowlers of Alyssa and Corey, and their score was at 222 after just two overs. Osian and Harry both bowled really tidily, conceding just 9 runs between them. Ollie also bowled well, and was followed by another fine final over from Ojas giving away just a single, but unfortunately no breakthroughs came and Miskin finished on 238.

Our final game was six a side against a combined Miskin/The Vale All Stars team, who won the toss and decided to bat. Again there was some good shot making in the first overs bowled by Alyssa and Harry, then Osian bowled third and conceded just four runs, meaning All Stars reached 224 at half way. Pheobe and Ollie battled on bowling next, and even the usually miserly Ojas was targeted, with the All Stars reaching 253. This score really put the pressure on our batting and Ojas and Ollie as openers combined well with good running, but a lost wicket meant the partnership was worth just 1 run. Phoebe and Harry were next pair, and a mixed bag including a first run for Phoebe plus some extras and another wicket meant that this pair added 6. Alyssa and Osian were our last pair, and they found scoring tough as well, but did well to take the score to 215.

So, on paper that might look like three losses. But, we were very pleased with the effort and attitude and must give great credit to that Magnificent Seven, many of them are still very young and were doing many new things today like opening the batting, wicket keeping, etc and it’s tough playing a full part in all three matches. Six a side in particular is very unforgiving with little margin for errors and lots of space to patrol when fielding. Well done all of you, we look forward to seeing you all again next year, either with us again in U9 or if going up to U11.

Cheerio!