St James’ U11s (246 for 8) beat Burgess Hill U11s (226 for 7) by 20 runs.
Out first league game of the season took us to the picturesque ground at St James’ Montefiore. Captain Hayden Wickwar lost the toss and the team was requested to take to the field on what was a very wet outfield. Opening the bowling Charlie Vangelov took a wicket in the first over, followed by a maiden from Eddie Grass in the second. This was then followed with an over from Jake Armstrong which included 2 run outs and a clean bowled dismissal. Millie Wickwar drafted in an hour before the game due to a late withdrawal then bowled a tight over. After 4 overs the opposition were on 192 (net).
The second St James’ pair then came to the crease and managed to get their team to 203 (net) after 8 overs with terrific overs from Hayden Wickwar, Lewis Howard, George Kaye and some blistering pace from Harry Hammond. The St James’ third pair took the total along to 209 (net) after 12 overs, with Millie Wickwar clean bowling an opposition batsman with a peach of a delivery. By the time the 4th St James’ pair had left the crease after 16 overs, they had managed to tick along to 220 (net).
The final St James’ pair came to the crease and included their star player who managed to get the home team to 246 (net) after 20 overs.
What was very good to see was the way that the team applied themselves in the field by walking in, backing up and keeping the ball off the soaking deck. What was most impressive however, was the quality with the throwing in from the field with 4 wickets coming as a result of run-outs including 3 direct hits, brilliant! A mention here also for Ted Cornish who again kept wicket very ably.
Confidence was high as we took to the crease – the standard advice of ‘play the straight ball and hit anything wide hard’ however, didn’t seem to have registered today with at least a couple of wickets being lost by trying to hit a straight ball to the boundary. Top scorers were Lewis Howard, Jake Armstrong and Hayden Wickwar who all managed 7 runs each with none of them losing their wickets. Charlie Vangelova and Jacob Franklin also batted without being out which is a great accomplishment (Jacob Franklin retiring hurt after a hitting the ball down onto his own foot – ouch!).
All in all a very pleasing performance with an accomplished display in the bowling and fielding departments.