Wednesday 12th June 2024.
On a pleasant early summers day we lost the toss on an ever picturesque flat belter so duly they elected to bat. This was a 45 over game so we expected them to press on for a score well above 250 but that wasn’t to be as we bowled tight lines and fielded very well. Our opening bowlers Ryan Freeman and Jeremy Bond enjoyed the pace and bounce that the pitch always offers. We didn’t have much luck apart from a decent run out completed by Ryan Freemen at cover and Jack Bramwell behind the stumps. Once we finished the initial power play and the spinners cam eon, we had control of the game and they didn’t put us under enough pressure, Ben Higton bowled 9 over for 17, and Sam Waters did his part the other end. They left it too late to put their foot down and by the time any urgency was applied we could sit back and wait for their mistakes, so a clatter of wickets towards the end of the inning was inevitable. Will Welsh scored a good 100 for them and was the only batter to try to push things on effectively but once he was gone we stayed in control. They finished on 229 and we felt that was at least 30 runs short on a batsman’s paradise. Ryan Freemen ended up with 3 wickets in his decent 9 overs, Will Hammersley chipped in with a wicket and John Carrol got 2 good wickets at the death.
After an excellent lunch we set about the chase, however unfortunately it didn’t go to plan and we lost two early wickets. After some consolidation and a run out we upped the scoring rate with some exceptional hard hitting from Jeremy Bond and Adam Battisson, who both hit the ball to all parts of the ground. Jeremy entertained with some huge sixes and reverse sweeps. Adam scored a solid 76. We then threw 5 wickets away to leave ourselves under pressure at 8 down with over 80 runs to score. With overs not being an issue and some lack lustre bowling from the young players Ryan Freeman and Ben Higton set about building a match winning 9th wicket stand of 83 unbroken to give us a great two wicket win – with 5 overs to spare!
A very good day was had by all, everyone contributed and the game ebbed and flowed nicely. It could have gone either way, but overall we deserved the win having played some decent cricket throughout. They laid on some lovely after-match food and we were well looked after. Always a lovely place to play to decent cricket for the day! Here is a link to the score card with some videos: https://millfieldschool.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110992