Cargilfield U12A beat Fettes U13A by 94 runs

Cargilfield U12 148-1

Fettes U13 54 all out

In the middle of Common Entrance week, with our U13 boys otherwise engaged, it was our U12A team who took on Fettes U13As on what was a sunny but cold and blustery Wednesday afternoon at Cargilfield……a bit of a difference to the warm sunshine we enjoyed throughout May!

Fortunately, Arlo won the toss and we elected to bat first, and Arlo and Hamish opened the innings. To be honest, the opening two bowlers were pretty reasonable, although too many balls went down the legside which are difficult to put away at this level; however, after a nervous start, they both began to run well between the wickets and Arlo in particular hit the ball nicely through the covers. Both faced 26 balls before being retired, with Arlo on 22 and Hamish on 11. Geordie and Tommy came in next and Geordie hit his first three balls to the boundary in a quickfire 15 before he played across a rare straight one and was bowled for 15 – the only wicket we lost today. Tommy started playing very circumspectly, leaving the ball well, but once he got in to his stride, he was very destructive, hitting a fine 22 off 25 balls including a huge maximum over midwicket before he too was retired. Lochy and Jamie were in next and they both were quick to latch on to anything short and wide and helped themselves to a number of boundaries as our score headed closer to 150 and after our 20 overs we ended up on 148 for 1 which was an impressive effort. I always say that it is often harder to bat against weaker bowling as the occasional straight one ends up being a surprise, and you have to concentrate much more when the bowling is accurate. But it was good to see lots of excellent contributions in the top order and I was confident that we had more than enough runs given the strength of our bowling attack.

Miguel opened the bowling and as usual bowled a very parsimonious spell, narrowly missing the stumps on numerous occasions, but he picked up the wicket of their captain after a good catch by Johnnie at midwicket; Johnny opened from the other end which and immediately hit an excellent line and length and picked up two wickets in his terrific three over spell – he bowled straight which is so important! Blake and Jamie both bowled well and picked up wickets and there were also a couple of run outs which was good to see. However, the moment of the match was an excellent stop from Tommy who was at short 3^rd Man, and whilst on the ground threw the ball and hit the stumps for a direct hit and a brilliant run out – an outstanding piece of fielding which drew applause from everyone who was watching! And a word for Jack who had a super game behind the stumps, conceding very few byes today!

We skittled them out for 54 and so won the game comfortably – well played boys! But what pleased me most was the high standards we set in the field, they way we encouraged the bowlers and also the sensible way we batted. The batsman valued their wickets and made sure that when it was our turn to bat, we made the most of our time at the crease. Next week, this team head over to Edinburgh Academy for the Mendl Trophy which should be a good test when we will come up against EA, Stew Mel and Heriots.

Fingers crossed that the sun keeps shining!