Two Last Junior Cricket Matches

Date: Wednesday 30 June 2010

The Under 14s and Under 15s played Sir Roger Manwood's School and Norton Knatchbull respectively, and ended their seasons with a defeat apiece, one catastrophic, and the other in the most exciting of fashions.

At Sandwich, the Under 14s were bowled out for 24, by a side which simply bowled straight, and waited for errors which were not slow in coming. Extras top scored with 12. But, Manwood's lost three wickets in reaching the winning target, with Louis Glynn-Williams showing a bit of fight, taking 3 - 16. Collapses of this sort do occur; I remember an under 15 (decent) side going down to King's in the late 1970s and being bowled out for just 8, and lowest first class score is 11 all out, so even very good sides can struggle.

The Under 15s,with Max Bungay and Robbie Stewart to the fore reached 149 - 7 in their 16 overs. Both the openers reached a half-century, before starting a sequence of wickets as batsmen seemed intent on giving the Knatchbull fielders some catching practice. Five Knatchbull wickets fell - Yong Kuk Kim taking 2 - 16 - before Jacob Nicholson drew the short straw and was invited to bowl the last over with a further 13 still needed. This came down to six off the last, and young Mr Drew duly obliged. So, a hugely exciting climax to a game which epitomised the ups and downs of a cricket match. Bad luck, Under 15s - well played Knatchbull! I bet Mr Chris Challis felt chuffed!