SCC Colts News!
U11s vs. RP
(June 16, 2010)
FAMILIARITY DOES NOT BREED CONTEMPT
Sutton U11 130 for 3 (24 overs)
Reigate U11 118 for 6 (24 overs)
Sutton Win By 12 runs
Sutton under 11s showed their senior counterparts that Reigate Priory
are not invincible the morning after the 3 senior sides had drawn a blank in
their respective matches. This is the fourth year of friendly hostility between
these 2 groups of boys and the match lived up to the season highlight billing
it has enjoyed previously. It was a tough, competitive match interlaced with
some excellent cricket from both sides and as ever played in a great spirit.
Cricket as it is meant to be.
Sutton's skipper lost his first toss of the season and was invited to bat by
his opposite number. The previous match on the same strip had shown that the
pitch offered bowlers some early unpredictable bounce and so this was to be a
stern test for the home batsmen. They rose to the challenge superbly, as Owen
and Harry compiled a thoughtful and sensible opening stand of 72 at almost 5 an
over and seeing off Reigate's opening quicks who bowled tight and aggressive
spells exploiting the uneven bounce and forcing both openers to watch the ball
considerably closer than Robert Green had managed the previous evening. It was
an excellent start and after Harry had retired with a mature and well managed
32, Owen quickly followed for an equally valuable 22 and it looked like Sutton
might lose momentum. However, Josh Blake played a classic anchor innings at
three, adding a personal 22 and valuable partnerships of 18 and 29 with Patrick
and Matthew respectively; the latter in particular batting combatively and with
style in reaching 24 off 18 balls. So momentum was not lost and Sutton compiled
at 5+ an over throughout with a final over yielding an important 11 as
Matthew and Jack ran well. This was always going to be a decent score against a
good bowling side and crucially one that had not previously chased that sort of
score - or at least not against a side with bowlers of Sutton's calibre. The
team had batted well and quiet confidence was the order of the day as far as
team talks were concerned, notwithstanding some twitching by some doom
merchants on the boundary.
After lashings of juice and cakes provided by the oppo manager (cheers
Steve, it made for the best half time team talk ever as all mouths were
full and thus no awkward questions asked) Sutton went out into the field
knowing that bowling straight and tight fielding would win the game - we
were confident that RP could not get 130 off the bat against our bowlers
and if we kept the extras count under 30 the game could be won. It proved to be
spookily prophetic with the boys concentrating on containment and taking
wickets in equal measure. Despite the odd aberration the fielding was athletic
and tight, and not suffering as often as Reigate did from lapses that
turned singles into fours. Marcus as ever typified the effort using his throat
to stop a certain 4, and even Cap’n Bambi getting his long legs moving to dive
and flip one back before it reached the rope. The bowlers responded to the plea
to bowl straight by halving the extras count from the previous week. No-one
took a hatful of wickets but they all contributed decent spells, with Josh,
Lekan and Ayrton all chipping in with a wicket but more crucially at less than
3 an over. Owen (also 1 wicket) and Jack bowled good 4 over spells, the
latter unlucky again not to pick up a wicket. Reigate never quite matched the
required rate as the home side kept them under pressure in the field with
Jack and Lekan putting in their usual big shifts with a calm run out
and a catch apiece. With Reigate needing 30 off the last 4 overs some thought
we had almost contrived to lose the game but in truth those on the
field remained in a state of calm control and oozed confidence. Jack, Owen
and Josh were entrusted to bowl the crucial "death" overs and they
all responded magnificently to restrict RP to 18 off the last 4 and win the
game by 12. Josh's final over in particular was a beauty of control and
flight and as enjoyable to watch as any stump splitting over from a
quick. Trust them and more often than not they deliver.
And so we remain unbeaten but still a point behind Reigate but we will fight on
to the end as it won't be over till its over. In typical English fashion and
mirrored by the predictable reaction to the previous night’s football, it
sometimes seems more appropriate to view achievements in the negative and start
our analysis of this and last weeks wins as games we "almost managed to
lose" rather than the good victories they actually are. Don't rest on
laurels or become complacent of course, but look for the positives first for
goodness sake. By my reckoning that’s around 25 consecutive league victories
over the last 3 years. Like all runs that will come to an end at some point but
until then we should be happy to have team that (in order) plays for each other
with good spirit and good grace and one that wins most of the time. They can't
all be world-beaters every week, but lets be honest they are usually very
good.
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