Cargilfield 1stXI 167-3 (20 overs) (E Balfour 31 rtd, M Wright 26 rtd)

Belhaven 127-6 (20 overs) (M Lynch 3-0-15-3)

Cargilfield won by 40 runs

It has been a very busy first half of term of cricket, blessed with glorious sunshine, making this one of the sunniest starts to the Summer Term that I can remember. I often sport a ‘cricket tan’ at this time of the year, but these past few weeks have been so hot and it has made for some wonderful afternoons of Prep School sport that they boys will remember for a long time.

Our 1stXI is a very young one this year, and the first couple of weekends of term we played some inconsistent cricket, beating Merchiston and Sedbergh, losing to Belhaven, and losing to St Mary’s and Belhaven again in the Super 8s. However, these learning experiences have allowed us to grow as a team and we were excellent at the Glenalmond 6s, beating them comfortably in the Final.

On what was another gloriously sunny Wednesday afternoon, Edward won the toss and elected to bat. Monty joined him as opener and together they batted very well despite some hostile bowling which reared off a length. Monty, as usual, was quick to hit anything in his arc to the legside and he cleared the boundary a couple of times, whilst Edward pushed the ball nicely in to the gaps on his way to making a well made 31. I retired both of them with the score on 80 and this laid the foundations for an imposing batting performace in our 20 overs. Lochy came in at 3, and hit the ball well in scoring 20 before he was out in the 14^th over with the score on 122; Jamie also scored a quickfire 20 and looked as though he was about to cut loose before he spooned a simple return catch to the bowler. Arlo scored a cultured 21 and we ended up on 167-3 off our 20 overs which was always going to be a tough chase for Belhaven given the quality of our bowling attack and so it was to prove. The wicket was susceptible to some uneven bounce and around eight or nine balls hit out players on the helmet, even off a good length, so we made the decision to move the stumps at around the 14 over mark and use a used wicket a couple of strips away which definitely played better.

With so many runs on the board, it was an opportunity for some of our younger bowlers to open the attack and Miguel made the perfect start to the innings for us, bowling their star batsman with the first ball of the innings – he bowled a terrific three over spell, hitting some excellent lengths and troubling the batsmen, taking 3 wickets in his allocated overs. He took his 2^nd wicket when the score was 36 as Jamie took a fabulous catch close in at cover, just inches from the ground – a wonderful grab! Oliver bowled a super 4 over spell of legspin and was very unlucky not to pick up a wicket with a couple of dropped catches and missed stumping, but it was good to see him looking to get the batsman coming forward and hitting a more consistent length. Hamish and Leo both took wickets and Belhaven reached 127 for 6 meaning we won by a convincing and well deserved 40 runs, without the Captain having a bowl.

It has been an unbelievably busy first half of term on the cricket field for this group of boys, and I have been delighted how we have grown as a team, becoming much more disciplined and confident in our bowling from those two nervous performances against Belhaven and St Mary’s at the Super 8s, through to clinching the Glenalmond 6s under pressure and comfortably beating both St Mary’s and Belhaven in our regular 20 over fixtures. That is what you want to see, boys developing their skills, improving and becoming better cricketers. It has been lovely to watch standing at one end, and the weather has been absolutely perfect too.

The 2^nd half of term is extremely busy with Exams and Leavers’ activities, but we do play Craigclowan in one final 1stXI game before the end of term, and a couple of U12 fixtures too. But well played, boys – some brilliant cricket on show!