Ley Hill U'14s vs Wendover U'14s, Monday 7th June 2004

Ian Walter

On what was (before today!) the hottest day of the year so far, the under 14’s found themselves at Wendover in fabulous conditions for cricket. On a lovely ground flanked on one side by the (almost hidden) Aylesbury by-pass/Chiltern Marylebone line and on the other by mosquito ridden countryside, Hill were very fortunate to lose the toss and still be asked to bat in what seemed ideal conditions to have first go.

On a saucer shaped pitch and with boundaries that would end up in the middle of the second and ninth fairways back on our common, runs at first were hard to come by against the most accurate bowling we have faced so far. However Ollie Mace and Stephen Walter picked up the pace with a partnership of 41 before Stephen and Craig Peterson added an exhausting 61 in stifling heat for the third wicket.  Stephen was eventually out in the penultimate over for an excellent 60 which included only four boundaries. Is this a club record for 20-over colts’ matches, at least in the ‘DP era’? [Editor's note: Not since Stan Channer was a colt has such an achievement been made.]

Craig finished on 20 not out without finding the boundary at all such was its distance from the middle. We wondered if 115 might be enough especially as Wendover only conceded a miserly and unsporting one wide (surely another club record) and we average more than one an over!

However a much improved fielding display and some tight bowling restricted Wendover to 70 for 9 in reply. Sam Harrison took the crucial early wicket of Wendover’s county player when Stephen snapped up a smart chance at mid off and with him gone Wendover were always behind the going rate (despite our contribution of 23 from wides and no balls and of course providing them with almost four extra overs)! There were good bowling displays by Sam, the dependably accurate Chris Morris, Ben Ford, Dan Wilde, Alex Wallis, Richard Falconer and James Lowe but lads, do try to stop the extras! Ben and Richard claimed two wickets each, both finishing with 2 for 7.

Perhaps most pleasing of all were the four run outs which the pressure brought to bear. The honours here went to keeper Ollie Runswick for taking them and for accurate throwing from Richard, Alex Wallis, Ollie Mace (again) and Ben.

Finally, many thanks to Keith Lowe, Kate Morris and Nigel Ford for being able to take us all over to Wendover on a Monday and to Graham Harrison as ever for his faultless umpiring.

Well done lads!