The quarter final of the Harry Bright U12 Knockout Cup against tournament favourites Dulwich U12 was played under a beautiful blue sky at Foxgrove Road. All started well for Beckenham with Luke winning the toss and electing to bat first. The fixture date unfortunately didn’t clash with any of Dulwich’s Surrey league fixtures, where they remain unbeaten so far this season, but as good luck would have it, it did coincide with a school residential for a couple of their strong batters!

As expected, Dulwich’s opening bowlers looked very tidy and particularly fast, but good running of byes and wides meant the scoreboard ticked along reasonably. Luke (1 from 7 balls) was out to an absolutely snorter of a delivery in the second over which didn’t bounce at all, beating his defence. Bertie came in and immediately hit two boundaries but runs dried up quickly after that. Struan (2 from 23) was retired following two deliveries hitting him high on the thigh, but had done his job, seeing off the most difficult bowlers. After 8 overs, we had reached 40-1, and pressure was on Beckenham to accelerate quickly. Bertie pounced immediately, hitting 12 from his next three legal deliveries to retire on 27 from 22 balls.

Two new batters at the crease meant a quiet 10th and 11th over with Adi (1 from 6) falling to the last ball of the 11th to leave Beckenham 61/2. The pace quickly picked up again, with Henry Edwards falling for a classy run-a-ball 18 – 85/3 from 14 overs. Jack Buchanan then stepped up a gear, taking 12 from the 15th and eventually retiring having been called off on 24 from 17 balls. Benedict (6 from 13) was caught behind and Tim bowled by an absolutely beauty first up in the 18th, but Harrison (7 from 8) and Reyansh (7 from 5) saw Beckenham reach 135/5. Several of the Dulwich players were boasting how easy this would be to knock off as they walked off – they had after all scored 230/2 from their 20 overs at Hayes in the previous round.

An inspirational team talk from manager Andrew Bibby and Matt Grice saw Beckenham return to the field pumped full of confidence and adrenaline. Matt’s suggestion to open the bowling clearly threw the Dulwich openers, and with Ellie’s first over equally tight, after two overs it was 6/0. Perhaps 135/5 was a much better score than I anticipated.

Cue carnage at Foxgrove! Tim took the first wicket, 9/1 from three, Ellie followed with two wickets in another cracking over to make it 12/3 from 4. Another solid over from Tim (2 overs, no maidens, 1 wicket for 7 runs) followed, and Ellie (3-0-6-3) grabbed another with the first ball of the 6th and her third over. Reyansh bowled the 7th and immediately joined the party, leaving Dulwich on the verge of complete embarrassment at 19/5.

Harrison (2-0-12-0), Reyansh (2-0-15-1) and Luke (3-0-16-0) continued the bowling, as the only batter to really threaten Beckenham, Dulwich’s Jamie Hilyer retired with a fine 27 from 18 balls. It wasn’t until Bertie took a wicket with the last ball of the 12th over that the fun started again. At this point, Dulwich were 53/6, and when Bertie (2-0-8-2) got a second in his second over, the end was in sight. 66/7 after 14 overs became 71/8 after 15 with “Mr Line and Length” Benedict (1-0-5-1) clattering into the stumps with his fifth ball.

This brought Jamie Hilyer back to the crease, but pushing for two on the last ball of the over proved costly as Adi (0.1-0-0-1) finished the match with his first ball in the 16th over.

A win for Beckenham then, and a performance higher than I have ever seen of a junior side. Our batting was excellent first up, seeing off the best bowlers but still attacking the poor balls. Bowling in partnerships was superb, with pressure on the batters throughout, proving out and out pace is not always the way to win games. The fielding and field placings were spot on – a constant buzz of excitement and attack was evident for every ball, with some outstanding stops (most notably from Harrison and Henry) preventing boundaries. Dulwich were never able to feel comfortable and the scorecard more than reflects that.

Dulwich’s manager spoke to me after the game, and after congratulating us, he said that this was the most complete team performance he’d seen at club level. This from a manager who’s side have not been beaten in any competition this season until now.

Player of the match is hard to select. Really canny captaincy from Luke, outstanding keeping from Jack including two stonewall stumpings (one not given…!), beautiful batting from Bertie, Henry and Jack, but the player of the match was actually selected by the Dulwich boss – “she ripped through our batting and it felt like she could get a wicket every ball”. Congratulations Ellie – you’ve already got the match ball as a prize!

According to the league website we are down to play the winners of The Roebucks and Old Elthamians in the semi-finals who play on 29th June, but it is not so easy to tell where we actually are in the proceedings! Bromley appear to be playing Chislehurst and West Kent in the same round as we won yesterday, but according to the website Bexley, Bickley, Greenwich Junior Academy, Sidcup, Dartford and Orpington are still in it, but obviously still at different stages to us. As soon as we get an update on opponents and possible dates I’ll let you know.

Thank you very much for managing Andrew Bibby, your expert pearls of wisdom Matt Grice and the polite, vocal support the team received from the sidelines. It was a wonderful night to be at Foxgrove and one that will live in the memory for a long time. Congratulations to everyone involved.