Cricket Match Report: Bath Sabres vs Bathford U11

We likes it up the Brownsword, though it is often with a slight tinge of envy that we initially survey this charming little ground nestled in the shadow of Beckford's Tower. It's safe to say that Bath's second pitch is nicer than Bathford's first. Hey ho. Our views are better.

Our teams too, over the years. We've yet to lose a match at the Brownsword, so we felt reasonably confident when we turned up. Sabres are a girl's team, and in fact looked rather like two girl's teams. There was one group of five or six amazonian warriors who appeared to be in their early 20s, and a similar-sized group of small girls from primary school. They do grow up fast and suddenly, young women. And with current rules allowing them to play down two years the group of amazons were actually some mature-looking 13-year-olds. Our teams usually complain that it's not fair to allow girls to play down, though over the years we've done pretty well against the girls we've met, so I'd suggest our experience gives that feeling the lie.

Captain Luke Wilkins lost the toss and we were put in to bat. We'd have done the same thing to Bath as we knew how cold it might get in the field later on... Luke opened with Adam Webb-Peploe and I think it's fair to say that their contribution with the bat won us the match. Luke scored 23 and retired and Adam got to 22 before being bewitched by Bath's best bowler on the night, Lola, and trapped LBW. So the score was on 47 before we lost a wicket, and we were only in the seventh over of 16. Luke's aggressive and open style meant he scored five 4s, Adam played more of an anchor role and picked up just a couple of boundaries.

After that the innings stalled a little. There were worthwhile contributions from Olly Stossich, Luke Demeige and Rufus Homes, but the (swanky electronic) scoreboard only turned over slowly as we stuttered to 78 after 16. All credit to the Bath bowling, which coach Jon described as the best bowling performance he had seen at this level.

So we had a few runs on the board, but the half-time team talk focussed necessarily on what we would have to do to contain Bath's batters. No extras, no overthrows, good backing up; these were the mantras of our fielding performance.

And I'm pleased to report that the performance lived up to expectation. Excellent bowling from every player, combined with an outstanding performance with the gloves from Addy Horwood meant that Bath never really got close to the target. At every stage of their innings they were behind where Bathford had been at the same point, and never showed the aggression they needed to push past us. All their batters contributed runs, but a glance at our bowling figures will show you how well we bowled. Only Roan struggled a little, but I pick him out only because he has such an interesting and unusual bowling style that I hope he perseveres with it - he could be quite some bowler with a little more practice.

Last word - we don't normally do man of the matches at Bathford, but I think we must congratulate Luke Wilkins. Made captain, he encouraged his team well, got the most runs, pouched a sensational catch that came down a long way before it got to him, and took his second wicket with the last ball of the game. Well played young man!

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Batting

Adam Webb-Peploe 22 LBW

Luke Wilkins 23 Ret

Zac Stossich 1 Bowled

Olly Stossich 4 Run out

Sam Young 1 Bowled

Luke Demeige 4 Not out

Rufus Homes 3 Bowled

Roan Younger 0 Bowled

Addy Horwood 0 Not out

Bowling (o-m-r-w)

Luke Demeige (2-0-5-0)

Zac Stossich (2-0-3-1)

Olly Stossich (2-0-9-0)

Rufus Homes (2-0-6-1)

Adam Webb-Peploe (2-0-5-0)

Roan Younger (2-0-19-0)

Sam Young (2-0-8-1)

Luke Wilkins (2-0-9-2)