Elstead U13 young guns run Hambledon close!

Hambledon U13’s vs Elstead U13’s – League Match – Sun 21st April 2013
The first youth match of the season found Elstead U13’s playing in the picturesque village of Hambledon. Elstead took to the field with Hambledon batting first, making heavy going of it and finding it difficult to score runs. Will Ryman bowled the opener Harry Wood (yes Hambledon also had a Harry Wood!) in the 4th over with the score just on 6. The remaining opener Johnny Hind and no. 3 James Burdett proceeded to build the innings in a slow and sporadic manner. By the 10th over Hambledon had reached only 30, thanks to some accurate bowling from Thomas Little, who recorded figures of 9 runs from his 4 overs. The batsmen then started to find the gaps, both eventually retiring having reached 25, which saw Freddie Williams coming in who was also to carry his bat. Freddie’s firecracker of an innings found the boundary 5 times including a 6; taking just 16 balls to reach his 26 not out. By the 15th over Hambledon were on 74 for 1, the tranquillity of the morning only broken as a classic car procession noisily passed by, competing for the spectators attention in the spring sunshine. In the 16th over Freddie Whitehair came onto bowl, and 3rd ball clean bowled Felix Bartrum off a low bouncing ball. The total crept to 88 in the 18th over when Hambledons innings ground to a halt. First, Luke Wetton – who had bowled tightly earlier, ran out Charlie Rockingham off Harry Woods bowling, and then in the final over, in a frenzied attempt to score runs, Will Ryman captured 3 wickets, the first a run out by Harry, followed by 2 clean bowled sending both Hambledon players back to the pavilion with golden ducks.

Hambledon ended on a respectable 93 for 6 off 20 overs, hitting 14 boundaries in the process . Elstead’s disciplined bowling and fielding saw us gifting only 11 runs as extras – a fantastic effort for so early on in the season. Will finished with best figures of 10 runs for 4 wickets off 4 overs, conceding only 1 bye as an extra. Harry finished with 11 runs for 1 wicket off 3 overs.

Elstead’s reply began with the early loss of Ben Stokes, caught in the deep for 5 runs in the 2nd over, and so it was left to Harry and Thomas to build the innings. By the 8th over the pair had built the total to 35 runs, when Thomas was caught whilst trying to cut loose. This bought Sam Holland to the crease. Unfortunately Harry was clean bowled 2 runs later, inevitably by Hambledon’s Harry Wood, following a captains innings of 19, including 4 boundaries. Robbie Judge appeared briefly, before being run out for 1 run, which brought Jack Stokes to the crease to join Sam Holland. They nudged the total up and by the 14th over there was only 1 run in the chase at the same stage as the Hambledon innings. Jack played 19 balls for his 6 before being caught by Felix, and Will never really got going, falling for 1 run off 5 overs. Meanwhile Sam shone brightly, carrying his bat for an unbeaten 27 off 29 balls in a really disciplined innings, ending with a humungous 6. Luke looked promising, clouting his first ball for 4, but next ball was caught in the field hooking for the boundary. Kieran Long and Archie Walker finished the innings on an unbeaten 4 and 1 respectively, but had too much ground to make up, the innings ending on 84 for 7 off 20 overs – 10 runs short of victory.

A superb effort considering over half the team were made up of U11’s and many had not picked up a cricket bat or ball for 8 months!

Hambledon: 93 for 6 off 20 overs
Elstead: 84 for 7 off 20 overs
Hambledon win by 9 runs