After lovely weather for a few weeks it was of course going to be the case that we started the U13 season under cold grey skies. Hamza won the toss and with only part of the team in attendance we decided to bat first.

Hamza and Aman started confidently and Hamza smashed a 4 to the boundary before chipping Harry to point. Though Aman also scored 5, they were the best scores in the top 7 as the up and down wicket and the accuracy of the Chorleywood bowlers took it’s toll. Joseph decided to play the anchor role and did it to great effect, putting on 23 for the 7th wicket with Avi. The Ricky score was 63 when he got out and then Barnaby and Avi took the attack to Chorleywood. They smashed 24 off the last 13 balls to bring the score up to 88. Not a great score but enough to defend.

Chorleywood have some good batsmen and Ellis in particular hit with vim and vigour. But at the other end, Ricky were making inroads. Guyan took a smart catch off Avi and then another off Kian. Hamza took a steepling catch off Ben and then the prize wicket of Ellis was delivered by Kian with a great yorker. 56 for 6 and the game was on, though Chorleywood had time on their hands. The next two CW batsmen played very sensibly and although Hamza tried every bowling option open to him, he couldn’t find a breakthrough until Wilf bowled Will F for 12. But too little too late and Chorleywood won with 12 balls to spare by 3 wickets.

When Ricky had batted, at 39/6 the game was in Chorleywoods hands. But selling our wickets more dearly in the last 9 overs made all the difference. Avi (18) and Barnaby (17) were outstanding along with Joseph playing the anchor role. Another 2 overs and Ricky would have gone well over 100.

With the ball Kian took 2-10, and Guyan 2-11 – as well as two good catches in chilly weather. And a big thanks to Barnaby for keeping wicket for the first time. Not an easy job.