Cricket Match Report: Bathford U11s v Keynsham 24 April 2017

Coach Jon and I share a favourite Thierry Henry quote which is: "If you can match us for passion and commitment then we can talk about your talent". It sums up our philosophy for Bathford neatly; we're never going to be the biggest club, and we may struggle to attract great young players to our club in quantity, but what we will do is play every game as well as we can, prepare as well as we can, and give our opposition the best match we can. And sometimes, even against a 'big' club such as Keynsham, it's enough for us to win as we did tonight.

But what a win! It was squeaky to the last ball when only a six would have given Keynsham a victory – and they managed a four, to leave the scores Bathford 104 for 3, Keynsham 103 for 5 – a win by one run.

This Under 11 team of ours is something special, and it's an honour to coach and manage them. They were only nine strong for this match, with two sub fielders, but in freezing conditions, in a match that looked like it would be called off for rain all day long, they showed passion, energy and commitment to grapple a hard-fought and well-deserved victory.

They were all stars out there. Adam Webb-Peploe captained well, scoring an innings-defining 24 and taking three wickets in the unbelievably tight final over of the match. James Sutton scored an excellent 16 in support of his captain, Luke Wilkins, Freddie Powell and Zafar Ali all contributed vital runs with the bat. Addy Horwood and then Freddie Powell kept wicket so well that they weren't noticed by the scorer, and Sam Young, Roan Younger and Rufus Homes all made vital fielding interventions and bowled well. It was a team performance that Keynsham's clearly talented cricketers couldn't quite match. Special thanks to U13 regulars Sam Horwood and Gabriel Faragher who uncomplainingly stepped in to make up the numbers in the field. And Sol Faragher who kept supplying the scorers with mugs of hot water to warm their hands on, kept the scoreboard moving and even did some washing up.

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Bathford Innings

James Sutton bowled 16

Freddie Powell bowled 4

Adam Webb-Peploe Bowled 24

Luke Wilkins Bowled 7

Addy Horwood Bowled 0

Zafar Ali Not out 4

Extras 49

Total 104

Bathford Bowling

(o-m-r-w)

James Sutton 2-0-16-0

Freddie Powell 2-0-13-1

Sam Young 2-0-15-1

Luke Wilkins 2-0-8-0

Rufus Homes 2-0-6-1

Roan Younger 2-0-14-0

Zafar Ali 1-0-6-0

Adam Webb-Peploe 2-0-10-3

Addy Horwood 1-0-13-0