On a glorious summer's evening, Elstead U11s were due to make the journey to play Fleet in the midweek league. Except they didn't. At the last minute Fleet were informed of a clash at their ground and couldn't host. Burford Lodge to the rescue! We hastily re-arranged and ended up hosting Fleet, who won the toss and elected to bowl.

Oli and Jack volunteered to open for Elstead, against a good Fleet attack which bowled a mix of good accurate deliveries, and about as many loose ones. Oli and Jack batted watchfully, keeping out the straight ones well, but content to let the wide ones go. Overs passed, and the pair remained wonderfully solid, but the lack of attacking shots against the looser deliveries was starting to build scoreboard pressure. Jack batted very well for 15 not out when he was retired after facing 31 balls. He has built good experience at the crease and now needs to focus at becoming a run-a-ball batsman. The same can be said of Oli, who eventually perished bowled for 8 off 25 deliveries. Great experience, but a sluggish start for Elstead who approached the half-way mark with only 30 runs on the board.

The tempo had to change, and in walked Danny to do just that. After the drinks break he unleashed some wonderful shots, sending the ball to all parts and racing to 26. At this point he went the way of several other Elstead batsmen this season - trying to reach retirement with a 6, he was caught. Meanwhile Coen at the other end had deservedly got himself in after a run of unlucky dismissals, and was starting to build a good score of his own. But still the scoreboard needed momentum, and it was clear that Harry, Stan and Gabe were sent to the middle with instructions to try to score runs. Unfortunately the pressure of the situation was too much, with all getting out to shots they wouldn't normally pay at the start of an innings. First Harry fell caught behind when he snicked one through to one of two excellent Fleet wicket-keepers, and he was shortly joined on the wrong side of the boundary by Stan who looked for all the world to have slogged a 4 or 6 but sent the ball just too near a fielder who took a really good catch. Gabe was also out a few balls later, caught and bowled. Around this mini-collapse, Coen had started to accelerate and was on a really solid 17 when Felix called him through for a run that wasn't there and he was run out. The Elstead innings came to a close soon after that for 95.

It was a decent score and there was some really good batting shown today, but in truth we were probably around 40 runs shy of a good challenging score on this surface, and we knew we would have to bowl well to restrict Fleet. Fleet had proved that their bowlers were all a solid Tier 2 standard, so we could expect nothing less from their batters.

And so it proved. Danny and Oli opened the bowling for Elstead, and despite bowling very well, runs weren't a problem for Fleet, who scored at around a run-a-ball. Oli (1 for 14) did manage to snag one of the openers with a lovely clean-bowled wicket, and a few overs later the other opener was gone, excellently caught by Danny, giving Felix figures of 1 for 7. Although a couple of tough chances were dropped this was a solid bowling and fielding performance by Elstead, and when Gabe took two wickets in quick succession (one bowled, and another catch for Danny for great figures of 2 for 8), the game looked really in the balance with Fleet on 50 for 4 at the halfway mark.

Unortunately for Elstead the next two Fleet batters were strong, and motored along at well above a run-a-ball, with plenty of boundaries flowing. Stan was unlucky again not to get a wicket with some fine bowling, but as the batsmen settled, Coen and Harry were somewhat put to the sword, and the end came with the only 6 of the match inside 15 overs.

This was a good performance from Elstead. We batted, bowled and fielded well, and the kids can be very proud of themselves. Yes we have been better, but we've also won plenty of games this season playing how we did today. Ultimately Fleet were just too strong, but Elstead can help themselves more by keeping a healthy scoring rate up in the early overs. It felt like this was a game we were always chasing after a slow start. Still we are greatly improved this season, with more and more batters starting to make contributions, and a solid standard with the ball in hand and in the field.

Players of the match as selected by Fleet:
Batter = Danny
Bowler = Stan