A bumper crowd and eight feisty teams enjoyed a remarkable tournament at Castle Hill Cricket Club today. An extraordinary mix of weather which included some pretty grim showers could not dampen the fun. Or indeed spoil the appetite, as marvellous home made cakes and sandwiches made for a Sunday afternoon treat of a tea.
Certainly the tea was of the highest order but alas today our players fortunes were mixed.
Of our two sides the Castle Hill Reds sparkled intermittently with some fine bowling by Archie Steddon, Ollie Paler and Elliot Freeborough; and super stroke play by Archie Steddon, Ben Perry and Johan Jackson being especially noteworthy. Also there was some exceptional fielding by all with special thanks to the Ongley Dellar’s for putting their bodies on the line.
A special mention must go to the power hitting of Ollie Paler. The high energy and exciting play off game against (inevitably) Castle Hill Blues saw Ollie lash out with power and panache. Ollie targeted the short boundary aggressively and so he sent the ball crashing through and over the boundary cones with amazing regularity. Ollie will certainly have bragging rights over his team mates for plenty of weeks to come!
The two wins and two defeats of the day meant the Reds finished with a flourish, winning their last two games and coming in Fifth in the tournament. So, well done to all the team: Robert Vizard, Archie Steddon, Ollie Paler, Elliot Freeborough, Jago Ongley Dellar, Ben Perry, Alex Alfageme, Maxim Ongley Dellar, Johna Jackson and Lucas Best.
Meantime the Castle Hill Blues scored big in each of their four games with Hugo Firmin, Aston Burford, Charlotte Ward and Alec Stephen doing well with the bat. The Blues also had their own big hitter with Henry Parton thwacking the ball over the boundary line to build some very impressive totals across his games.
The Blues bowling was full of passion though occasionally a little wild so the wide deliveries did mount up. Nevertheless the team stuck to the task and did well in the field with Rafe Rayment bowling with pace and taking a super catch. A won one lost three record for the day seems harsh on the team who did play with spirit and commitment.
The players did their best to very last ball: Henry Parton, Alec Stephen, Rafe Rayment, Aston Burford, Robert Henderson Pratt, Ben Anderson, Hugo Firmin, Charlotte Ward, Ethan Haggerty and Harry Bull.The Blues ended the tournament in sixth position.
Wonderful
ReplyDeleteA very good event well done all involved.