Wheathampstead U9's played their second league game against a well drilled St Albans team - and it was another very close, nail biting result. This time your U9's prevailed with a superb well fought victory - our first treasured win of this campaign.
On a wet and windy evening, St Albans racked up a very creditable 273, but a combination of some fine shots, in defense and attack, and excellent running between the wickets, meant that Wheathampstead, lead very ably by Tom Hayward, managed to overhaul their total in the final over of the match.
This was a game that had every thing - accurate bowling, energetic fielding, some high quality batting and well taken catches. The whole side bowled well and with a short boundary did very well to keep the runs down. Pick of the bowlers were probably Joe, Cameron, Tom H and Tom E, who combined pace and accuracy to cause the home side some difficulty early on. Catch of the match was taken by Tom E - a hand stinger that set the tone for the game and gave a sense of belief to the Wheathampstead 8.
Fielding conditions were not great, so it was excellent to see the likes of Ben, Oliver and Jack chasing the ball hard and performing text book long barriers to stop valuable runs.
Our batting display was again excellent. Of particular note was our running between the wickets and all the boys were looking for runs whether the ball had been hit or not. Tom and Cameron opened the batting well with some fine shots and did not lose a wicket. Tom E and Oliver carried on in the same vein with some fine defending from Oliver and lusty blows from Tom. Alexander and Ben ran everying thing they could, which while this lead to a couple of run outs was an example of their desire for runs.
This took us to our final pair of Joe and Jack who still needed 30 runs for victory. Joe struck some excellent boundaries and Jack was solid in defence and and ran very well. There were nervous moments at the end when arguably the home side's best bowler needed one wicket for victory, but both Joe and Jack stuck to their task, encouraged each other and saw out the final few balls for a well deserved victory.
St Albans 273 v Wheathampstead 279
Many thanks to all the supporters who despite the cold wind and rain encouraged and cheered the team on their way and to David for scoring.