Match Report - Home v Eccleshall - 28th April

After a morning and afternoon of overcast skies we were fortunate that clear blue skies greeted the players for the start of our Staffordshire U15 County Cup first round clash. It was the fourth use of Pitch 4 which offered pace, bounce, seam and turn to the bowlers whilst also showing that runs could be scored quickly. Unfortunately due to a damaged water pump I was unable to get enough irrigation onto the square and following 10 days of bone dry weather, sunshine and 3 matches in 4 days the pitch began to misbehave with variable bounce as the evening wore on. It was unfortunate that our visitors could field only 10 players due to an injury the night before but fair play to Eccleshall for continuing on in the true spirit of cricket.

Harvey (skipper for this competition) won the toss and fortunately took my advice to bat first! Harvey and vice skipper Arch opened the batting for Church and were immediately looking comfortable in spite of the excellence of the opening bowling pair - Alfie and Isla. Both bowlers were highly accurate and getting the ball to both swing and seam and the Eccleshall skipper produced the first wicket in the second over. The umpire gave Arch out leg before wicket but apparently Arch got a bit of bat on it! I blame the campanologists as all I could hear through my hearing aids was the ringing of bells all evening - sorry Arch!

Fortunately for Church (and the umpire) James came in next and joined Harvey in the middle as they set about the task with clarity, maturity and a penchant for attack-minded batting. By the time the second wicket fell - Harvey being stumped for 36 (at a strike rate of 109) off a very wide ball in the tenth over - a fifty partnership had taken the score to 84. Enter stage right our County player Emilia who decided that the supporting role was hers as she played beautifully in assisting James to an unbeaten 50 (off 44 balls). By the time James was forced to retire and the 16th over had come around both batters were looking comfortable with the score at 116 for 2.

Shropshire County player Oscar came in to join his Staffs County counterpart Emelia in the middle and was quickly up to speed with the task at hand which was to set a difficult total for the visitors to chase down. The County pair added 16 to the total before Oscar was bowled by Isla the Eccleshall skipper for a quick-fire 9 off 11 balls and our skipper’s younger brother, Ollie came to the crease in the 19th over. When Emelia was bowled with one ball remaining for a well-made 10 in came our keeper Jack who was able to resist the bowler and help steer us to an excellent total of 139 for 4.

Once the second innings commenced our usual opening bowler Arch set to work and kept things super tight as usual whilst sending down deliveries at a blistering pace from his preferred car park end. He was joined by new partner Emelia who obviously got the memo to be less than charitable and after a frugal warm-up over decided to go for the jugular by taking the scalp of the opener with a bowled wicket with only 3 on the board. Having missed the wicket of the number two by a coat of varnish in the first over Arch bowled an almost identical delivery with his first ball of the third over as he hit the off stump at such pace that the ball deflected beyond the boundary rope and into the hedge at the farmyard end! With the visitors reeling at 5 for 2 in came the Eccleshall skipper Isla as Arch, recognising the potential danger, uncharacteristically decided to come around the wicket to the left-hander. Having faced Arch for 8 balls and been unable to score more than three singles the Eccleshall skipper no doubt breathed a sigh of relief as Arch bowled the last of his permitted 4 overs for only 13 runs.

Our skipper and leg spinner - Harvey then took the ball at the car park end and promptly dismissed the Eccleshall number 3 - Alfie - who had looked a real danger with 11 runs off 16 balls - with a first delivery - clean bowled. With Eccleshall at 27 for 3 their captain Isla (who had made a slow but steady start against our pace attack) decided to try a more attacking approach once Emelia had finished her stint and was replaced by Henry. Accordingly Eccleshall had moved on to 56 against our spin/medium pace combo before ‘Aitch’ had got into his rhythm. However Henry was not to be shaken off and with his twelfth delivery he removed Isla’s off stump (the Eccleshall skipper top/scored for the visitors with an excellent 28 off 29 balls) before getting her replacement leg before wicket the very next ball.

As Harvey was replaced by his brother Ollie the excellent bowling continued as Ollie took only 6 balls to get the Eccleshall number seven caught by Arch in the covers before Henry returned to attempt his hat-trick. Alas it was not to be as a dot ball was followed by a wide before James took the catch at mid wicket to give Henry his third wicket.
Church then proceeded to take the next two wickets without conceding a run as Ollie added a second wicket bowled before Oscar replaced his brother Henry and trapped the number nine lbw with his first and only delivery to end the match. Church were well pleased with their performance as Eccleshall were bowled out for 58 from just over 14 overs.

James was man of the match for his performance with the bat but he was run close by Harvey for his performance with both bat and ball, Henry with the ball as he took 3 wickets for 15 runs (but unfortunately missed out on his hat-trick by two balls) and Ollie who took 2 wickets for only 1 run. Special mentions go to County player Jack who kept wicket very well indeed on only his second appearance for the U15s (not easy to keep to someone as fast as Arch) and also to Ethan who made his debut for the U15s as a 10 year old!

Thanks go to all parents for giving their support but with particular thanks to Loz for scoring and setting up the ground and pavilion, Gav, Wayne & Mike for moving the sight screens (aided by some of the players) and for Elliot, Wayne, Gav and Mike for staffing the bar xx