Despite rain being in the forecast for most of the week, the weather was glorious as for our game at Burford Lodge. For the first time this season Elstead won the toss through Jake, and he elected for our U11s to bowl.

Stan opened the bowling for Elstead with good pace and accuracy, but it quickly became clear that the Farncombe openers were high class batsmen. Despite great bowling, the pair took a single off almost every ball through either runs or byes, thanks to composed batting and excellent running between the wickets. Things didn't get much better for Elsetad from here. With the batsmen warming up boundaries were now starting to flow, and after 10, 13 and 12 runs came from the next overs, Farncombe had raced away to 42 for 0 after just four overs.

Harry was brought into the attach to try to stem the flow, and it worked - a beautiful delivery snagging a wicket. Felix came on at the other end and although he went for a few runs early, he too struck, removing the other dangerous Farncombe opener just as he was on the verge of being retired not out. 55-2 became 58-3 next over, as Harry took his second clean-bowled wicket to record excellent figures of 2 for 5. Elstead were back in the game! Felix's next over saw a few extras allowing the scoreboad to tick on, but Jack bowled a very tidy first over. Pressure was accumulating as Benji came on to bowl, and a as Farncombe pushed for a quick single, Harry swooped, a great through to Charlie who did the rest for a well-worked run-out.

Unfortunately there were now two big-hitting batters at the crease for Farnham, and Jack and Benji, despite bowling well, went for multiple boundaries and the scoreboard ticked up again. Jake came up to bowl next and produced a very tight over that went for just 2 runs. Then came Tom with a brilliant over of slightly away-swinging deliveries which led to 3 wickets, one caught behind by Charile, and two superbly taken by Harry at Mid-off. There were a couple of late boundaries before the final wicket fell - another cuaght behind for Charlie off the bowling of Matty. Although we'd bowled Farncombe out off just 16.5 overs, the big hitting meant we were chasing a decent score of 134.

After the innings break Charlie and Tom opened the batting for Elstead, and although the bowling from Farncombe wasn't too quick, it was very, very accruate. Although Tom hit a nice 4 in the first over, runs were hard to come by and Charlie perished trying to hit out in the 3rd over. This brought Harry to the crease. Harry and Tom both played extremely well, batting sensibly to keep out some very accurate bowling. The Farncombe attack was perhaps the best we've seen, and Harry and Tom battled superbly against it. But scoring was hard and by the end of the 9th over Elstead were 29 for 1 and well behind the required run rate.

At this point the bowling relented slightly, and Harry started to hit out, with 3 fours coming off the 10th over. Unfortunately in the 11th over Tom perished for a gutsy 7, offering the bowler a return catch when trying to hit out. By now, Harry was motoring though and after another 4 he brought up his retirement with a monster straight 6. Harry's 34 not out was the best innings I have seen any of this group play. He was warmly congratulated by the Farncombe coach as he left the field. It was a high quality cricket innings.

Gabe and Felix were now at the crease, but not for long. Gabe knew he had to get the scoreboard moving, but fell to a good catch. With the win now looking improbable, Felix and Stan settled in for some batting practise against a high quality bowling attack. The scoreboard ticked over but not quickly enough, and Felix was eventually dismissed. Farncombe brought back their opening bowlers for the final overs, but Stan had now played himself in and hit a couple of nice fours, including a calypso style hook behind square to end the innings.

It was tough batting and we ended up on 84 for 4, 50 runs short of the target. There was plenty of room for optimism today though. Harry 34*, Tom 7 and Stan 10* batted with real composure and the latter two have the basics of batting nailed, while Harry was simply class. We also had some great bowling performances with Tom 3-11 and Harry 2-5, while Jake bowled a miserly 0-6. In the end Farncombe were just too strong today. Their main batters scored very quickly, they were way better than us at running quick singles and byes, and they were very energetic in the field. But Elstead performed very well and showed that we are becoming a very solid team. Our bowling and catching was high quality, and we managed to get Farncombe all out. Then despite Farncombe's strong bowling atttack we lost just 4 wickets in return. The kids should be very proud of themselves today - we are definietly moving in the right direction!

Players of the match as chosen by Farncombe:
Bowler = Jake
Batter = Harry