Over the past few months, our cricketers have gone from strength to strength. At the end of April and beginning of May, our U13 and U15 teams played brilliantly during the ECB Schools Indoor Competition, with both teams going through to the national finals at Lord’s later this year. Team captains, Niamh (8M) and Georgia (10K), shares her experience from the day.
It was a great day out to Edgbaston – and a very close win. We sailed through the first two matches getting two wins and we were happy with our performance. The semi-final flew by with another win. Then it was onto the final!
We lost the toss and batted first scoring 99, which threw our confidence a bit, but we kept going. Our opposition’s opening pair seemed to have scored more than they did when we previously played them in the first game. It was the second-to-last over and Emily was bowling. At this point it wasn’t looking too great for us. However, Emily pulled an absolute miracle and got three wickets in that over.
The last over came, and they needed 6 of 6, on the first ball of the over their last man standing edged it to Emma who took a blinding catch and won the game. We even got to meet professional cricketers Issy Wong and Katie George at the end. Well played girls!
Niamh, U13 captain
Edgbaston – done and dusted! The day started early with an 8am meet, and our half-charged music speaker. When we arrived, we saw our opponents playing and swiftly after went on to the pitch and began to warm up with our openers having some throwdowns and the bowlers just working out the bounce of the pitch and the length.
For our first match, we went up against King’s School Worchester; we lost the toss, and they chose to have a bowl, meaning we were in to bat, our openers set us up with a good start, both retiring. This allowed our middle order to be more aggressive with their batting. We ended up setting a score of around 56 – lower than we would hope – but seemed around the average score at the beginning of the tournament, with some excellent bowling from the opposition. The second innings began as our bowlers kept great areas, lines and length through the whole tournament, with only around four extras given over the entire day. We managed to secure our first win of the day which meant we had already progressed to the semi-final due to Kings’ previous losses.
The team’s morale was high, allowing us to set off into the next game positively, with again another win. Areas were tight and fielding was high pressure, and the batters were getting a strong hold on getting those single runs and pushing to the gaps in square and the covers. Lunch break and then onto the semis vs King’s High Warwick. The match began slowly and we had a slower start to the batting but, this only allowed us to exemplify to the other teams and ourselves the depth within our squad as our middle order managed to hit bigger scores – including boundary wall hits as well as singles to the side walls. We then went on to set our highest score of around 107. We had smashed the semis with early wickets from the openers, and once again the depth within the squad shone through as we were allowed to give everyone a bowl. Then it was the moment we had all waited for – the regional final.
We were up against Ellesmere, who we beat in our group stage. Finally, a win of the coin toss from the skipper, and we were fielding. An outstanding performance from our bowlers, including a diamond duck for the other team. We managed to keep them to an acceptable score of 74. Once again our openers smashed it, with the two of them retiring the middle order then came in and pushed the run rate, allowing our lower order to secure those final runs needed. With two overs left, we had done it!
Onto Lord’s for a second year in a row for the U15 St Helen’s team. An impressive performance from all with an undefeated run. Thank you to all players, coaches and parents that came to support.
