U12/U11BXI beat Ardvreck U13A by 22 runs

Cargilfield 133 for 3 (M Kerr 30 rtd, J Prince 23 rtd, L Bruce 22)

Ardvreck 111 all out (M Wright 3-0-12-3, L Bruce 4-0-16-2)

On what was a glorious summer’s afternoon up in Crieff, a mixture of some U12 boys and U11 boys came together to take on Ardvreck’s 1stXI. It was the perfect day for cricket, and despite the challenge of playing their 1^st team, the boys were up for the challenge, and it was opportunity for many of them to play at a higher level and to test their skills.

Lochy captained the side today and did so very well, starting off by winning the toss and electing to bat first. Oliver and Johnnie opened the innings and it was not long before Oliver returned to the pavilion after being bowled by the excellent opening bowler from Ardvreck who was quite quick on their artificial surface. This brought Lochy to the middle, and together with Johnnie, they put on a very well made partnership of 48, growing in confidence with their shot selection and running between the wickets, pushing the ball in to the covers for a single and waiting for the bad ball to put away for four. Both batted extremely well and Lochy was unfortunate to be caught behind after a well made 22. This brought Monty to the middle, and he and Johnnie continued the good work with a 60 run partnership for the 3^rd wicket: Johnnie began to get in to his stride, with excellent calling and getting forward and taking the singles, whilst Monty was quick to latch on to anything short and down the legside, timing the ball well and scoring a number of boundaries in an excellent unbeaten 30 before both were retired and it was left to Monty W to score a quickfire 14 in the final couple of overs to take us up to a very respectable score of 133 for 3 in our 20 overs – a fine effort and one that would take some chasing by the Ardvreck 1stXI.

After a delicious tea between innings, it was the turn of our bowlers to impress, and Ardvreck would need to score at nearly 7 runs an over to win, so I was confident we could restrict them. However, their captain was the danger man and he hit the ball hard, scoring a number of boundaries off what were good balls, and their opening pair put on 47 in just 6 overs, keeping up with rate and giving few chances. But Monty K bowled an impressive four over spell and broke the partnership with an LBW decision and then wickets began to fall at regular intervals, despite the Ardvreck skipper scorings runs and eventually reaching his 50. Lochy got two wickets caught and bowled, Blake effected an excellent run out with a direct hit before Monty W came on and took three wickets in his three overs, almost getting a hattrick too – an excellent spell of bowling and it showed juts how much his cricket has improved since August. Max also picked up a wicket after a wonderful catch by Oliver in the covers and then with the run rate rising rapidly and balls running out, the final wicket fell with Ardvreck still 22 runs short.

It was a terrific team display, and the Callipo lollies on the way home were richly deserved. We batted and bowled very well, Timo was excellent behind the stumps in his first game as wicket keeper, and we fielded well too against what was an older team. A very good learning experience for this group of boys: playing almost 40 overs of cricket and having to be much more circumspect when batting than they normally are when playing U11 matches. Making good decisions, playing each ball on its merit and then bowling straight were the keys to success today, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching you play.

Very well played, boys!