Catches WIN matches, unfortunately St Margs took all theirs!

Some of our players turned up late, so we had to bat first on a slow and damp wicket.

Matt (3) and Daniel L (21) had a solid enough start before St Margs' hot fielder, Mitchel took a diving one handed catch to dismiss Matt. Monty also hit a great shot over the top, but then got caught. Will (16) and Daniel, steadied the ship with a 40 run partnership, although the running between the wickets was more like walking and we could've pushed at least 10 more singles. In tighter matches this can make all the difference. After playing some awsome strokes both Will and Daniel again got caught out to more cracking catches. This then opened the BSCC wicket flood gates, with a couple of stumpings and run outs which were more to do with a lack of attention than ability. We capitulated to 81 all out in the final over.

BSCC started with pace with Monty, Matt, Daniel L and Will, to try to make an early dent in St Margs batting, but the plan didn't work. The bowling wasn't tight enough and there were 15 byes didn't help when protecting a low total. One point was that it was getting very cold with the sun setting and most of the boys were wearing short sleeves and with cold hands, the line and length was being affected, so I would strongly recommend skins or jumper even in summer months! We also dropped a couple of catches, probably due to the same reason. Even though Daniel B, Ollie, Kieren and Cass picked up late wickets each, St Margs' batters were solid enough to comfortably go beyond our target with 6 wickets down and 3 overs to go.

In summary, what I liked was the players' determination and no-die attitude right to the end - they are realising they are representing their town. But there two things we need to work on and cancelled training over the last few weeks hasn't helped, (1) when batting, staying alert, look for quick singles, back up and run the first run as hard as possible, then turn around and look for the second, (2) stay warm during fielding, as this can have detremental affect to your bowling and fielding - I would add that a couple of boys need to stay switched on more.

The next match is the Brian Taylor cup match on Sunday against a strong Harlow side (start time of 9.30am so make sure the palyers have extra layers!) with the finals at the Chelmsford couunty ground, so I will try to select the strongest team available.