To think that this time last year the U11A side had only completed one game of cricket in the league. How lucky we were to get another sunny evening for our division 2 game against Bromley Blenheim even if the ground we were playing at still leaves a rather sour taste in my mouth after the debacle last season. All started well – we even boasted a full eleven players before the toss, which Bromley duly won and opted to bat. What followed surprised everyone at the ground.

Hugo opened the bowling and after just one over, Bromley were 2/2. Struan, promoted to open from the West Common Road end got another in the second, 8/3. To give everyone a chance, we moved to one over per bowler. Tim didn’t let the party down, sending the bails flying with his first delivery, 15/4. Captain Harrison could smell a wicket and brought himself on for the fourth over. He was right.16/5. Could we get home in time for Eastenders (I don’t even know when it’s on these days…)?

Krishan-Raj joined the party with some excellent tight bowling, 17/6 from 5 overs. Despite bowling good lines, it wasn’t until the 8th over and Jack coming on that we took the 7th wicket, 32/7. Two great overs followed from Albert and Jamie, and half way through the innings Bromley were 38/7. At this point we fell apart and seemed to forget where the stumps were. Fortunately, Bromley were too terrified to hit the accelerator. Ellie finally got her rewards with a wicket in the 16th over and Jack swiftly added a second to his tally leaving Bromley reeling (if they weren’t already) at 79/9 with three overs to bat.

On came the caped crusader, Bromley’s regular opener, who’d been held at school in detention preventing his arrival in time for the start of the game. Relative carnage ensued as he swung at every ball, hogging the strike and blitzing 24 from 17 balls, edging more boundaries than you’ll see in an entire Ashes test match. 98/9 was the closing score leaving Beckenham 99 for a somewhat unexpected victory before the game.

At 38/7 I was planning to give the lower order batters an opportunity to get in early on. Needing 99 meant this was not possible.
Albert faced the first ball, and received a delivery that would have removed every single Beckenham player. An inswinging yorker that defeated a textbook forward defensive and swung fast and late. Completely unplayable. Struan followed in the third over, leaving us 18/2 from three overs. Harrison was out at the end of the fifth over, run out strolling to the non-strikers end after a very fluent 16 from 15 balls – 28/3.

Krishan-Raj was next to fall to leave us 48/4 from nine overs. Jack made a quick 13 from 11, and after twelve we had reached 66/5. Jamie came in and quickly quelled the Bromley excitement with some forward defensives while at the other end, Tim “I’m going hit every ball as hard as I can” Franklin bludgeoned his way to a team high 25 not out (from 28 balls) and retirement, despite his Dad’s requests to “keep it calm Tim”. What could have been a tight end to the game passed without much more event, with Jamie hitting the winning boundary with a square cut off the first ball of the 18th over to finish undefeated on 17 from 21 balls.

This was a much better team performance compared with previous games, despite ten awful overs of bowling in the second half of the Bromley innings. Better fielding and diligent batting got us over the line with some to spare.

Player of the Match goes to Ellie for three beautifully bowled overs. Consistent line and length throughout left Bromley really struggling to hit her bowling and on another day she would have had 5 wickets to her name.

Congratulations everybody. On to the next game, potentially the toughest of those remaining, unbeaten free scoring Catford and Cyphers A, away. I nearly said wrap up warm because it gets very windy, but it looks like we are going to get to 30 plus Celsius on the day, so bring the sunscreen and plenty of water. It will be hot!