Ricky Development team play first game

In another first for Rickmansworth, a Development team consisting of 6 boys and 5 fathers took to the pitch against a Chorleywood Development XI on Sunday. Winning the toss, Ricky had no hesitation in choosing to bat and in was the Soames who opened the batting together. Harrison got the best start cracking a couple of offside boundaries whilst Dad was dropped but carried on regardless. The pitch was hard to play on and Harry was unlucky to get one that bounced back in and castled him for 11. Harvey came in next, as Ricky insisted on getting the youngsters in early and he also found it hard going hitting only one boundary before spooning a catch back to the bowler. Paul and Ben then put on 40 runs to steady the ship before Paul went too far back and trod on his own stumps. The Chorleywood players didnt even notice until Paul was halfway to the pavilion!

Bilal came in and played some lovely cuts and drives and when Ben was out for a well-crafted 40, Ubaid came to the crease. Beware the player who says "I have not hit a ball for 7 years" and so it proved as Ubaid played some lovely scoop and cut shots and one magnificent 6 over mid-wicket. His 34 and Bilal's 13 took the score over 100 and Ricky were now rattling along. Lewis crashed a super 4 into the road=side boundary, whilst Raj and Neeyam scurried some singles before Paul Moxon, on debut hit a quick single, tore a ham-string and got 4 overthrows, all in the space of 10 hectic seconds. 150 was the final score. The umpire murmered "that will be plenty" which sent Ricky in bouyant to a sumptuous tea.

Kinushan and Neeyam opened up and both looked good. The opening bat was tipped over the bar by Bilal at deep slip and this proved costly as he set about the Ricky bowling like a dervish. It was clear this lad wasn't quite the 'development' level, racking up 50 in just 7 overs, and although both Neeyam and Kinushan picked up a wicket to have Chorleywood 22/2 at one point, that was to be the end of proceedings as Chorleywood's players could clearly all bat and put the tie beyond Ricky's reach. Neeyam in particular fielded well, but the batsmen were just too good and Ricky's collection of bowlers couldnt do anything to stem the tide. With only 10 fielders the Ricky task was all the more difficult.

With the oldest of the 5 bowlers used only 14, and a 13 year old wicket-keeper, Ricky certainly played the game in a wonderful spirit and every player did their best and contributed something to the game. Though Chorleywood's players were also all under 23, they were much better with the bat and clearly had a lot more experience as only 2 Ricky players had played more than a handful of mixed-age games before and 7 were playing their very first Ricky weekend cricket. Welcome to them. As a sign for the future it was a great day out and all the players asked to have further development games if possible. If you are a Ricky parent and would like to get you and your son, or daughter, involved then please get in touch.