A narrow defeat at High Roding

"Are we likely to win this match?" asked Will Bowman on our arrival at sunny High Roding. As Bradley Moon ran in to bowl the final over, the answer to Will's question still hung in the balance.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Will and Alec started positively and after 6 overs we had 27 without loss. Shortly afterwards the pair had posted our second successive opening stand of over 50, and they were only separated when Alec retired for 28 in the twelfth over.

Bradley came in and unleashed a series of exceptional shots, including a remarkable six flicked over long leg, and when Will finally departed for a well made 17 in the 15th over, we had 86 on the board.

The subsequent drinks break seemed to interrupt our stride, and the return of Roding's opening bowlers put the brakes on. Coby fell for a duck and Bradley unluckily played on, and although Joe Burslem looked back in form as he made a quick 13, we only mustered 14 runs from the final four overs.

If we had thought our total was adequate we were soon forced to think again as Roding's pair of 13-year-old openers set off at a blistering pace. Adam Crowther's accurate opening spell would have usually been rewarded with much better figures than 1-38, and Jamie Riley also saw the ball disappearing to all parts as our hosts reached 61 from the opening 7 overs.

After the two openers retired, it took the introduction of Chris Millns and Charlie Peace to slow Roding down, with Chris's four overs costing only 9 runs. Coby Miles also bowled an excellent spell and with two overs to go, High Roding still required two runs to win, having been 93-3 after 15 overs. Alec returned and bowled an excellent penultimate over from which only an inside-edged single resulted, before a wide from Bradley's second ball saw Roding home with five balls to spare.

Overall, it was a good fighting performance from our team. We benefited from 29 extras and some eccentric field placements from High Roding, while their opening batsmen were as good as we'll meet this season. The main thing was that all 11 boys were heavily involved in the game and it was another enjoyable match.