Wield U9's vs Alton U9's, Sun 26th June

Alton, 225-7 were beaten by Wield, 243-5

Will this rain ever end, or should I say reign?! Wield won again and that makes it eight out of eight for 2016. Sunday 26 June (that’s LATE JUNE!) dawned cold and grey with gunmetal clouds scudding across the sky, threatening rain but never quite breaking. Alton arrived, Captain Thomas won the toss and put them straight into bat. Our opening bowlers Summer and Maddy immediately got to work - Summer caught and bowled two, one after the other and the over finished as a double wicket maiden. Maddy came in and Alton tried to recover before Summer returned and bowled another. Maddy finished on a single in her last over and Alton stumbled to 193-3 after the first four overs – a devastating three wicket session by Summer. Max and Olly stepped up and each bowled maidens - Olly made one a wicket maiden – and at halfway Alton were 197-4. Harry and Thomas took up the attack and Alton’s Kieron and Noah hit out to stage a bit of a recovery. With only one run-out in the four overs Alton went into the last four on 213-5. Charlie and Alex arrived to tidy up the tail and while Charlie held down one end Alex caught and bowled in his first over and bowled one in his second and last of the innings. Alton finished on 225-7. A decisive display from Wield with 35 runs taken by the seven wickets, but still 29 given away in wides and no balls.

And so to Tea. And what a magnificent display it was as ever. Lesley and Elles did an amazing job laying on cakes, brownies and cupcakes and the hot coffee and tea was very welcome as there was quite a chilly breeze coming across the ground. Hopefully another club has gone away to re-think their Tea policy!

Maddy and Summer opened the batting and immediately runs flowed with good calling and quick running between the wickets. Olly and Max took over on 213-0 and piled in themselves. Quick running paid dividends but Alton’s Seth took a single stump run-out in the second over and they took another in the following over. However, at half-way we were ahead on 229-2. Thomas and Harry steamed in with the former hitting a four while the latter backed him up with some intelligent calling and swift running. Thomas was caught on the boundary going for the maximum but they finished their four overs on 242-3. Alex and Charlie arrived as the final pair and went for it! Singles back and forth until the third over when we were brought up sharply by a double wicket maiden from Alton’s Seth again. Charlie was caught and Alex bowled the following ball leaving Seth on a hat-trick for his next game! At 239-5 it was Alton’s to win, perfectly possible if wickets were lost so it was a nail-biting final over. Nerves were steadied however, and we finished on 243-5, a relief of a victory.

Now, eight out of eight may well be the League winning game but we have one game yet to play and some teams have not uploaded their results onto the table. The fielding and bowling was as tight as ever although the extras were high again at 29 – we bowled 26 against Overton and 34 against Oakley. It was a low scoring game overall though and the numbers of their extras restricted our ability to score – 13 wides and 3 no-balls. We won however, showing the strength of the side: persistence and resilience under pressure with true grit working through the game! Many thanks as ever to all the Tea Ladies, another memorable morning for Wield.

Rupert Cazalet