What a Difference a Week Makes - CHCC U11 Championship Team

Yet another warm evening and a slightly more focused Castle Hill Championship Team arrived at CHCC to amend for the previous Monday’s events. 

Bells Yew Green elected to bat and Ben A and skipper Harry opened with a fiery four overs down the slope, Harry taking two wickets and Ben A showing how much his bowling has developed this year. The bowling continued to be tight but suddenly the fielding was looking inspired. Rufus was making backward point his own showing signs of an Eoin Morgan stopping ability (guess everyone’s a bit young for Jonty Rhodes now?) which seemed to lift everyone. Ollie then stepped up to bowl, took a wicket first ball and looked round as if wondering what all the fuss was about before being swamped by his team mates. Then Rufus did the same! BYG restricted to 78 in their 16 overs.

After a short tea interval (chocolate fingers, flapjacks, Tunnocks tea cakes, Swiss roll for those who care about such crucial things) and Castle Hill padded up.

Aadi and Artie opened and batted sensibly, with some aggressive intent. Aadi got a good one, which brought Ben P to the crease for a cameo which included a calypso straight drive for four. Harry then found out why leg-breaks are a bit awkward despite looking somewhat innocuous but Artie continued to bat really well and retired on 27. Ollie was run out (still dreaming of his bowling?) which brought Oscar and Callum together. They batted solidly focusing on that 79 target and put on 20 together until Oscar fell. It was left to Callum to hit the winning runs to the boundary with four overs to go....and the team went mad.

This was a really good performance to finish off the league season. BYG had a few youngsters playing but their bowling was good. Castle Hill showed that they have all learned a lot this year and everyone chipped in for the victory. But the key thing, was that everyone was smiling at the end. Also a big thank you to all the parents on the boundary for encouraging the team. An enjoyable evening all round.

CHCC U11 Championship League – ‘Are you England in disguise’

Closing in on posting a league target that might have given us a chance of the title CHCC had an implosion that was heard all over Kent.

The match reporter arrived a little late and was somewhat dismayed to find Harry marking out his run up, either the match was delayed or something terrible had happened. Unfortunately it was the latter, a combination of good bowling, great fielding, kamikaze running and horrific shot choice saw CHCC dismissed for just 20 runs in 7 overs.

In reply the over eagerness of our opening bowlers to redeem the team saw a spell of such pace and anger that the smallest deflection went flying off for 4 runs and by the time we reached the 3^rd over the target had been reached by our opposition.

CHCC lose by 8 wickets.

Under 11 - Touring match - Primrose Hill CC - 8th July

On a scorching afternoon in Kent CHCC entertained a touring side from Primrose Hill Cricket Club.

CHCC won the toss and elected to bat. The opening bowlers from Primrose Hill were fact and accurate, both Ted and Bear were unfortunately undone by good deliveries early and CHCC were rocked. Further issues came when Cameron was unable to bat due to injury, however Ewan and Henry then set about the task of steering the ship to steadier waters. Both boys played some nice shots until further good bowling from Primrose Hill saw the end of their innings. Ollie came in a played some nice shots while batting very sensibly, he held the innings together with other boys chipping in for runs that took us to 110 from 20 overs.

Primrose Hill set about their task slowly and carefully with the CHCC boys bowling some great lines. Ben Anderson took a great wicket but the other batsmen proved harder to shift. However the run rate was kept low as CHCC did well to restrict their batsmen to 50 form 10 overs. With wickets in hand and aided by some wayward CHCC bowling Primrose Hill were able to press the accelerator and despite some great bowling from Ted towards the close they passed the CHCC total with one over to spare.

Primrose Hill won by 3 Wkts

A good game on a very hot day, CHCC were hindered by injury and illness but did well against a top side from London who were all district or borough players which showed in their very tight and tidy bowling.

Well done to all involved on a cracking afternoon.

CHCC U11A's - Go Henry

Go Bear!  Go Harrison!  Go the whole lot of them! Castle Hill U11As inflicted the first defeat on table topping Sevenoaks Vine after another fine all round performance.

Much of the damage was done by a fabulous opening blast by Harrison and Elliot which left the Vine reeling on 3-4.  In fact some thought the game might be over before the England World Cup game started.  That didn't happen as the Vine recovered somewhat but ended up on 89 - 6 with another steady bowling and fielding effort.  Only 2 wides were bowled which is a far cry from earlier in the summer.  Aside from the opening bowlers, other notable performances came from Ollie 1-7 off 2, Ben A only 7 runs off 2 and Bear only 9 runs off 2.

In reply we had another first - Ted was actually dismissed after 6 undefeated innings.  But no matter as Bear and Henry stood up and made their 25s playing very sensibly putting away the bad balls with aplomb.  This left Artie and Elliot to see the hosts home comfortably with over 4 overs to spare. 

Result: CHCC win by 5 wickets.  Far less tension than the world cup game which followed.  

CHCC Championship League - 3 in a row

Looking for their third win in a row CHCC headed to Tunbridge Wells Borderers on a bright and breezy evening.

CHCC captain Ben Perry won the toss and chose to bat. Lucas and Callum opened the batting against two useful bowlers from TWB, good progress was made with some careful play from both boys and making use of a fast and small outfield. Good running put the fielders under pressure and led to some wayward throwing and handy extra runs for CHCC. After 6 overs both boys were retired to give our next batsmen a run out. Harry hit 17 quick runs before being dismissed by a useful delivery, Hugo stuck around for a little longer before being bowled by the same bowler, another good ball. Elliot came in and hit 26 from only 9 balls before being retired, he was followed by Sam, Ben P, Ben A and Oscar who all added a few useful runs although the wickets tumbled too. The Final over of the CHCC innings was an eventful affair, a number of no balls and wides which pushed the total on to 118 before Lucas received an absolute peach on the last ball which bowled him round his legs, impressive.

After a quick turn around TWB started their chase. An immaculate opening spell from Harry and Ben A meant that TWB were on the back foot from the start and lost 3 quick wickets. Their middle order batsmen however dug in well and aided by the occasional wayward one from the CHCC bowlers pushed their total on with 2 boys retiring on 25. However unlike TWB the CHCC boys had done a good job in the field so when their final batsmen began to hit out they still had a way to go to reach the target. At the end captain Ben brought back Harry who duly mopped up their last big hitting batsmen with a fine caught and bowled before dismissing their next batsman first ball. This left TWB needing 22 off the final over with 4 wickets left. Elliot bowled a good last over which they were only able to run 4 runs from, job done.

CHCC win by 18 runs

A good performance from the boys, a difficult and bouncy wicket to deal with and they all coped very well.

2 games left in the season, next up is the return leg against TWB at home on Monday 9^th!