U12B Cricket v Loretto

Won by 27 runs

Summer had truly arrived as the Under 12B team hosted Loretto for their first match of the season. This was a soft ball pairs match on the astro, so conditions provided lots of bounce but boundaries were off the table for this encounter and the batsmen would have to run for all their runs.

Having lost the toss, the boys were put into bat - a result which met the captain's (Arthur's) approval as he intended to choose that for his team anyway. Nick and Hugo started off the innings and after the initial hiccup of a runout on the second ball batted out their innings confidently, accumulating a total of 32 runs between them - and despite the no-boundaries rule managed to achieve four runs on occasions by running fast and hard. Charlie and Ezra came in next and also succumbed to a runout - on their very first ball - but managed to piece their partnership back together to score 22 runs between them. Ensay and Teddy took to the wicket next, batting steadily and managed to get through three overs quite circumspectly before losing a wicket in their final over - 19 runs between them. Arthur and David then executed a confident innings scoring 31 runs for the loss of 1 wicket, before Ethan and Teddy finished our innings off scoring 24 runs in the final four overs whilst losing 2 wickets - this set a total of 128 runs for 6 wickets lost.

The boys were down one fielder compared to the visitors but in a confined space with no boundaries it had little impact. Nick opened the innings and the boys effected a runout on his first ball. A few overs later, Arthur took two wickets, including one bowled out. The next three overs each had wickets, off the bowling of Ezra, Ensay and Teddy. David and Nick then took a couple more wickets soon after. The fielding was a good standard with most catching chances being taken and the fielding was sharp overall. In his next spell, Arthur took another wicket before Ensay, Ezra, Teddy and Charlie all had very economical spells. David and Nick took another wicket each before the end of the innings to close out the game with Loretto on 101 for the loss of 11 wickets.

Well done to all the boys involved for a great match. Man-of-the-match has to go to Arthur for his strong contribution in all three disciplines.