Rickmansworth's U13 Indoor season finished last week with a comprehensive win against Bushey that enabled us to finish in a respectable 3rd place. The eventual winners were also the English U13 Champions, Shenley Village, so 3rd place was overall a good performance.

Harvey and Bilal led the way with their experience and in the batting stakes. Harvey anchoring the middle order and playing the Batting powerplays and Bilal making sure the final 4 overs, particularly the Bowling Powerplays, were executed safely. Both Harvey and Bilal hit numerous maximum's, for 7 and sometimes 8 runs (the back wall is a 6 and you can also run).

Tom Riddle was one of the most powerful hitters, with the backing up batsman having to sometimes take evasive action! "catch that" if you can. Yash Ruparelia was also very skilful in hitting the 3 run point for around 50% of his shots, cutting and driving the ball with power and precision.

Callum WH and Fred Maggi played watchfully ensuring their wickets were not thrown away and dashed through for many cheeky singles. As did Toby R and Hamish, though sometimes Hamish's delight in smashing a half-volley would get him into a bit of a pickle. But it's better to hit the ball than not. What Hamish also added was a very agressive streeak when in the field (totally unlike him off the Cricket Pitch) which bodes well for a Ricky career...

In the bowling stakes, Callum and Bilal both bowled leg-spin that bamboozled the opposition and took wickets, whilst Toby, Fred, Hamish and Tom all aimed to bowl straight (as anything down leg-side was a wide). Yash was superb with his inswinging left-arm pace, whilst Harvey often bowled the last few overs with pace to try and keep the batsmen quiet. Harvey and Fred shared the keeping duties along with Yash.

Also a big thanks to the lads like Henry R and Alec M and Ollie H who stepped in and played when we were short.

We also entered an U11 team, but it's progress was hampered by the loss of Sam Blake to a broken arm after the first week. The others did great though with Rian twice hitting a maximum 7 off his first ball. Monty, Alec, Lucas, Kian, Henry, Joe and Ollie all played their part in racking up some decent scores, but we sometimes lost too many wickets to try and stay competitive. But as a good first season, the boys did well.

A big thanks to the organisers and a nice way to keep warm and fit ready for nets in the New Year.