U11 win Lords indoor trophy and ESM indoor league

BCC U11: Lords indoor trophy winners

At Lords last Saturday we successfully defended the PHCC indoor trophy. It was a great day out for the indoor squad, including a tour of Lords, selfies with the Ashes, sitting in Andrew Flintoff’s chair, and admiring the Honours Boards.

In the group stages, the first match was vs West Ham CC. The boys were a little nervous with new format (when you’re out, you’re out), but some nervous bowling, quite a few wides, and excellent batting saw an opening stand of 88 between Harry Taylor and Jake Wilson and 100 for 2 was a decent looking target. A good solid bowling and fielding performance including 4 run outs was enough to bowl them out for 80 and a great start to the day. Jake was given man of the match by the opposition for his 26 retired not out and excellent wicket keeping.

The second match vs Teddington CC was a little more challenging and perhaps the sense that batting was easy from the first innings was misplaced as we collapsed to 50 for 4, before Edward Reyner came in and solidified the innings along with Aiden Gajadhar and pulled the score back to enable us to finish on 88 all out. An outstanding first over from Harry set the tone with a run out and an unplayable swinging yorker putting Teddington under immediate pressure. Excellent tight bowling and fielding from the whole team, 2 great catches from Lawrie Gawne and an excellent final ball from Daniel Boodhun reduced them to 22 all out. Edward was given man of the match by the opposition for his batting at the end to transform a poor score to a very defendable score.

In the last group match vs Primrose Hill CC, once again the openers Harry and Jake posted a solid start with an 60 partnership, Harry Taylor was 26 retired not out. Eisah Saba then pushed the score along well as we reached 112 for 2. PHCC moved from a shaky start (after good bowling from Harry and Eisah) to 56 for 2 at half way. For the first time in the day the intensity from the boys dropped (perhaps tiredness) and some panicky fielding let PHCC in. Their main batsman plundered some good runs and they got the score in the final over. It was a very competitive match and some lessons learnt. Harry was given man of the match by the opposition for another stand out batting and bowling performance.

We topped the group on net run rate and went through to the final to face Teddington CC (PHCC perhaps a little unlucky to miss out).

The boys saved their best all round team performance for last. Harry and Jake opened the batting for a third 50 partnership, Harry was unlucky to chop on to his stumps on 24 but both Jake and Eisah retired not out and walked off with bat raised to their adoring fans! An excellent cameo from Freddie Chhabra pulled the score up to an extremely competitive 128. In the field, Eisah who had been “spinning a web” all day, was exceptional and well supported by Aiden, Daniel, Laurie and Edward to really keep the scoring down in the middle of the innings. Edward took the final wicket to bowl them out for 76. Eisah was given man of the match by the opposition for his retired not out 26 and mesmerising bowling performance. As a team, in a final at Lords, they were awesome. This is the second year in a row that BCC has won this tournament and we look forward to next year's U11's defending the title again.

It was a terrific day out, a terrific result, and not often the boys will be able to say they went to Lords to play cricket, and won a trophy! All the parents had a good time too, topped off with Messrs Taylor Senior, Boodhun Senior and Gawne Senior singing their way out of Lords.

Squad members: Daniel Boodhun, Freddie Chhabra, Aiden Gajadhar, Lawrie Gawne, Edward Reyner, Eisah Saba, Harry Taylor, Jake Wilson.

BCC U11: Indoor league

Throughout February and March BCC U11 have participated in the ESM indoor league. We topped the table with 7 wins from 8 over Great Kingshill, High Wycombe, Chesham Boys and Chesham Girls (U15). On Sunday, following the success at Lords, the team destroyed the runners up from the other pool (ESM), and beat Chesham Girls in the final by a very convincing margin. They were unplayable as a team on Sunday taking 16 wickets in 18 overs and scoring handsomely. It’s been an excellent indoor season and the boys have continually improved to the point where they are now a formidable team.

Squad members: Daniel Boodhun, Freddie Chhabra, Aiden Gajadhar, Lawrie Gawne, Edward Reyner, Eisah Saba, Harry Taylor, Jake Wilson. Thanks also to the stand-in players during the earlier rounds: Tommy Evans, Oliver McLaughlin, Ben Taylor.