U15 Boys Cricket v Wellsway

Although the weather clearly thought differently, Thursday 27 April brought about the first outdoor school cricket of the season. The first game was an important one as the U15 boys headed for Keynsham CC to take on Wellsway School in the first round of the Somerset T20 competition.

Matthew CRUTCHLEY, Ethan EGGLESTON, George HARRIS, Bailee HARRISON, Kaie LAWRENCE, Caolan PEARCE (c), Matteo PRIME, Toby RICE, Eli SMITH, Louis STRATTON, Logan WEST

Captain Pearce headed out to the middle to toss up and returned having been put into bat with the challenge of setting the total. The boys were really lucky to be playing at Keynsham CC which is a lovely ground but were aware that Wellsway were likely to be a strong side. Nonetheless they were determined to go about their business and focus on the job in hand. The Wellsway opening bowling pair really put the pressure on George and Caolan for the first couple of deliveries and their quality brought reward when George chipped a full length delivery up to short midwicket.

The early wicket brought youngster Toby Rice to the crease. Toby has a great cricketing pedigree and just days earlier had been selected for the Gloucestershire County squad. Toby arrived to the middle full of confidence and set about settling down to run scoring. It was Toby who got things moving as he found himself with the lion share of the strike. The Wellsway openers were quick and straight in the main and Toby kept out the good balls with some excellent technique. Whenever their line strayed and they gave him too much width Toby capitalised cutting the ball hard through backward point which earned him runs. Caolan followed suit and things started to look more promising for SK as they began to rotate the strike more freely. Their hopes of setting a good total were dented somewhat when captain Pearce was hurt by a quick delivery that popped up after pitching just short of a length, although Caolan batted on you could see that he was struggling to bat through the discomfort. Eventually the distraction broke his focus and he went after a full straight delivery with a full flourish but missed the ball which bowled him. With a little hindsight Caolan might have been better retiring hurt but you certainly couldn’t knock him for choosing to continue and set the example for his team.

Toby was then joined by Matty who was also high on confidence having scored a 50 the night before for his club side Lodway. Matty seemed to pick up where he left off and both he and Toby continued the run scoring. A nice little partnership was building and both boys were looking in great nick. Toby was brave, got into line brilliantly and punished any width he was given. In total Toby hit 5 boundary fours, the majority cut through that area backward of point. Matty’s batting has really come on over the last year and he now really balances his natural desire to go after the ball with a more conservative approach to the ball that is likely to get him out. Unfortunately for Matty he was going well when he got a classic used wicket delivery that kept really low and bowled him.

Toby then set about keeping the SK middle order company and as it turned out he managed his part superbly! The boys were 3 wickets down and it was time for the first bowling change so the incoming batsmen were hoping for a chance to settle down at the crease. Unfortunately for us the standard of bowling didn’t drop off at all and Wellsway showed that they have excellent strength in depth. Their captain brought himself on first change and bowled an incredible 13 consecutive dot balls – little surprise that this pressure led to more wickets as Wellsway really ripped into the middle order. Kaie Lawrence mounted a small resurgence and added a handful of runs to the total but other boys found it really tricky to hang around. Toby didn’t seem to mind and looked as though he was loving every minute of the challenge. Louis Stratton came in to partner Toby until the final 5 overs. Unselfishly Toby decided to take it on and with a little bit of good fortune added more runs to the total. Toby was eventually caught out after mistiming one but was dismissed for an impressive 35 – a score which brought about recognition from the opposition and would turn out to be the top score from either side.

The boys were pleased to have batted out their 20 overs but knew their total was going to be tricky to defend. Wellsway had been really tight in the field and bowled an impressive 73 dot balls from their 20 overs. Had SK been able to score off just half of these deliveries they would have been closer to 100 which might have given them a fighting chance.

There was no talk during the changeover of the contest being over which from my point of view just shows the quality of the competitors in the team. Caolan led from the front and took the ball to start the charge. He bowled from my end and his opening spell was one of the most consistent that I have seen him bowl. He was straight and full with every single ball and the Wellsway openers found him difficult to get away. Just the evening before Caolan had held an unbelievable catch for his club side Lodway and his eyes must have lit up when he was presented with an equally difficult catching opportunity off of his own bowling. Agonisingly on this occasion he just couldn’t hold on to the ball – in actual fact he did amazingly well to even get a hand to the ball.

The Wellsway boys showed their quality with the bat as well as the ball and it didn’t take them long to get going. Eventually they started scoring with much more freedom and it was clear that they wanted to get the runs as soon as possible. The SK bowlers found the going tough and the figures below don’t reflect the quality of the bowling at all. The low total gave Wellsway complete licence to play their full range of shots and they did just that. Things were looking a little bleak so captain Pearce decided to throw the ball to Logan ahead of schedule as he hadn’t had an opportunity to bat. Logan is a really talented cricketer and being a left handed bowler offers real variation that can often be the undoing of established batsmen. This proved to be the case once again when Logan picked up a wicket with the fourth ball of his over having sent down 3 really tight deliveries before that.

Unfortunately for SK there were no surprises with the final result but Wellsway thoroughly deserved their win and were comfortable victors. The game was played in a lovely spirit and in conversation at the end the boys found out that this team have enjoyed a lot of success in this competition in previous years progressing through to the later stages. Special mention to Toby Rice for his man of the match performance – what a great start to outdoor cricket at just 11 years old! The SK boys were pleased with their efforts and left looking forward to the more cricket matches this year.

Mr Cook