Our Under 13 team has made a pleasing start to their Cambridgeshire League with three out of three league wins. The league looks like it will be incredibly competitive as all three of our wins have been by small margins and one game elsewhere was tied!
First up was a trip to City of Cambridge with a handful for U11s helping us out we won the toss and elected to field. The game was played just off Long Road near to the home of Cantabs rugby club and it appears over the years they have seen sense and switched the wicket round to avoid the problem of trains passing behind the bowlers arm from one end. Playing in the Cambs league is a new experience for many of these players and we started brightly with wickets for Lily Hall, Charlie Ingrey, Joseph Rhodes, Finley Brown and Aaron Nash as well as a smart run out by Daf Hill.
They ended on 106 for 7 and we were not sure what resembled a good score but we set about chasing it down with some steady partnerships, most notably 31 before the fall of the first wicket. Opening batters Josh Heslam and Aaron Nash, (recognise those surnames!?) looked very steady before Nash (8) was bowled trying to increase the tempo. Oliver Walters (4) and Heslam (retired for 24) added another 30 before Matthew Barons (11) and Rhodes (10) helped us make a winning start with some late power hitting from Hill (6) and Ingrey (5) we reached our target in the final over.
Next up was our first home game of the season, after a few showers in the afternoon we welcomed Royston up to The Green and we won the toss again. This time we elected to bat and sent out Heslam and Barons to open with Nash choosing to go down to 4. Heslam shone with the bat again (33 retired again) and Tallis batted well at no. 5 too. Our score of 96 though appeared a little under par with short boundaries and the normal razor sharp outfield at Reed. It was Lewis Karim’s time to shine with the ball though with three wickets in his three overs. He was supported by the ever reliable Hall who chipped in with another wicket. We took several early wickets but Royston dug deep in their reply and proved a tough nut to crack. They took the game to the final over requiring a challenging 16 to win. Captain Nash took the ball having already kept wicket and batted! His three wicket spell suffocated our visitors with Stanley Johnson and Hall also economical with their bowling we prevailed by 6 runs.
Our third league game was at Wendens Ambo on what many parents found to be a very long Royston Road with one end close to Saffron Walden the other winding all the way down near Barkway. Anyway we found our way to another new ground for many and won the toss and the game again to make it a perfect start to the league! I think 100 was a minimum score for the hosts who were asked to bat on a sloping artificial pitch with short boundaries. Sam Dawson opened the bowling with an aggressive spell and started what was a real team bowling performance with wickets shared between him, Hall, Heslam, Victoria Johnson, Tallis, Brown and Finn Wisson. The latter getting a wicket with his first ever ball!! Ambo finished on 95 but set out a defensive field in order to prevent us chasing the runs down.
In response Heslam was pouched early by a domination of a tennis ball bounce on the artificial pitch and / or clever field positioning at short mid wicket / silly mid on. Promoted back up to opener Nash started anchoring the innings and was ably supported by Tallis who combined some sensible batting with some aggressive shots. Royston had travelled to Wenden the week before and played out a tie and bizarrely our game nearly went the same way. We required 2 to win off 2 balls with our 8th wicket pair of Stevenson and Johnson at the crease. They scampered the two runs in fading light for a great victory and good advert for local youth cricket with many players on both teams featuring.
This year’s U13 Manager is delighted with his team’s start. ‘We’ve been in three entertaining league games with eventful finishes in two. We are a mixed ability side with over 20 boys and girls in the squad and to stay unbeaten is going to be an astronomical challenge but we’ll give it a go! We know how close the games have been so far and we know we are not going to always have it our own way with the toss of the coin and the little differentials but we are going to continue with our philosophy here at Reed and aim to integrate several Under 12s in to the team and develop our players for the future.’
Summary submitted by Richard Barlow.
N.B. The League Tables can be seen on the Cambridgeshire Youth Cricket Association website www.cyca.play-cricket.com Reed U13s are in Division U13E.
Match Scorecards are on www.reed.play-cricket.com
