Rayleigh U13B 108 for 3 off 20 Overs
Belhus U13B 112 for 6 off 18.4 Overs
Belhus U13B won by 4 wickets
Team; Nathan B, Cameron G*†, Chris H, Charlie M, Chris M, George C, Mahir P, Alex D, and Jordon J.
Having agreed to run the match on Friday morning by Saturday evening I was beginning to regret my decision (Thanks for stepping in. MH). I got back from Great Wakering at 19.40 to find I had just 6 players, I left at 12.15 thinking I had 9 and was waiting on two others. The next two hours was spent trying to find Colts to make up the team, between Friday and Saturday I tried 24 in total! By mid-day on Sunday I had absolutely no regrets, as I was part of a fantastic match played in the true spirit of cricket.
Batting first Rayleigh put a more than respectable 108 on the board with both Cameron and Charlie (a first) retiring on 28 and 27 respectively. This gave us the added bonus that, if needed, we now had 11 batters. The big question was, could we defend our second highest batting total of the season when we took to the field?
The first over was a little expensive, the first person to react to this was the Belhus coach who asked for two volunteers to field for Rayleigh. He had a queue of willing lads.
Apart from the keeper, Cameron, who is also the skipper, everyone got to bowl. Jordon, Mahir, Chris M and George each picked up a wicket. There was also two run outs: one was a fine piece of ground fielding by one of the Belhus lads to remove one of his own. Belhus went past our total with eight balls to spare.
To a man all the players left the field with a smile on their faces, no tears or tantrums or even the often heard “I wasn’t out”.
Finally my thanks to Murray for scoring, Hugh for Umpiring, the ladies for tea, the biggest thank-you goes to the two sets of players, for a highly entertaining game of cricket.