U13XI beat Loretto by 53 runs

Cargilfield 143-5 (Arlo 30 rtd)

Loretto 90 all out

After a terrific day of cricket at Merchiston on Sunday where we learned lots and played some excellent cricket, this afternoon we put out an U13XI which contained all of our F8 Leavers and a few others, in our match with Loretto. What a day we had for it: glorious hot sunshine and the perfect afternoon for cricket! The sun cream was applied, the toss took place, and we elected to bat first.

Edward and Jamie gave us a solid start in the face of some accurate Loretto bowling which was nice to see. They had to be watchful as the bowling was pretty straight and both boys struggled to time the ball. They put on over 40 together for the first wicket before Jamie played across a straight one and departed LBW, and Edward followed soon afterwards, after being unluckily run out. This brought Arlo and Leo together and both batter well, running well between the wickets and putting the bad ball away; Arlo had been retired twice at the weekend, and once again Loretto were unable to get his wicket and as he was suffering from the very hot conditions, he made way for a well made 30 – well batted indeedf! It was left to Monty to come in for the final few overs and score a quickfire 16, including hitting the final ball of the innings for 6, which meant we finished on 143 for 5 after our 20 overs. Despite having some players who were a little raw at this level, I was confident that we had more than enough runs in the bank, and so it proved.

After a lovely match tea between the innings, Loretto hit the first ball for 6, but also lost a wicket to a straight one from Jamie and wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. I had picked a squad of 13 for this match, and all 12 outfield players bowled which was great to see and I was impressed with the encouragement in the field, and our fielding was better than at the weekend, with catches taken and a run out opportunity taken. Jack enjoyed a good day behind the stumps and is improving all the time as a wicketkeeper which bodes well for the rest of the season. Loretto lost their final wicket in the 20^th over having scored 90 runs, so we emerged as comfortable victors by 53 runs, with something to spare. Well played, boys – a supe team effort and it was lovely to see everyone involved on the day and the wickets shared around.

On Sunday, we play in the Merchiston Super 8s where we are defending champions having won it last year, and we have a strong side reader to play some positive cricket over at Colinton; it should be an exciting day of cricket against good opponents.

Next week, the 1stXI and 2ndXI will play Strathallan, both matches being played at home.