U9 dodge the showers

After the deluge of the last couple of weeks, a break in the weather allowed us to fit in Sports Day and an Under Nine away fixture in the same day, at Bromsgrove. Unfortunately, we were only asked to take a team of eight, so some hard selectorial decisions were needed. I feel sorry for those boys in the B squad whose only fixture of the season was rained off last week.

Despite a weather forecast that promised heavy showers, and despite travelling through heavy rain on the way west, we managed to play without any rain, though it was cold and very windy, hardly ideal cricketing conditions. We opted to play a 12-12 pairs game, to try and fit in the match before the next bout of rain. Tom Brindley won the toss and elected to bat on a much larger field and longer pitch than the boys had previously encountered. 

As I forewarned the boys, batting would be hard work on a wet wicket and outfield and indeed it took a while for our innings to get going, tight bowling from Bromsgrove making it difficult to score runs. Kit and David though were able to press the accelerator pedal, adding 27 in three overs, though the other pairs found it harder to reach the boundary or keep the scoreboard ticking over. They did try hard to score singles, and the running between the wickets, with one exception, was alert and quick. A net score of 234 was not high on paper, but tidy bowling and tight fielding could put the batters under pressure.

That’s exactly how we started, and some fine fielding from Sam to effect a run-out in the first over and a maiden from Harris in the third over was just what we required. However as the wind started to gust strongly, accuracy deserted  our bowlers and we started to leak wides and no balls. The scoreboard started to tick over steadily, and despite a fine catch from Andrew keeping wicket, we were left needing wickets in the final overs. Tom elected to attack but it wasn’t to be, and Bromsgrove finished 25 runs ahead at the end.

The boys are fielding well, the technical side of their batting and running between the wickets is showing good improvement; however we are still finding it difficult consistently to punish the bad ball, and to achieve consistently accurate bowling. Weather permitting, on Saturday, the team plays Maidwell Hall at home; we need plenty of home support to cheer the boys on in their final match of the season. 


Tags: Cricket, Prep, Sport