On another gloriously sunny and warm Wednesday afternoon [haven’t we been spoilt this term?] the Colts A cricket team hosted Cottesmore for our midweek fixture. With a large crowd gathered in the splendid setting of the Colts Square, another fine wicket and fast outfield had been beautifully prepared. Cottesmore on winning the toss elected to bat first and so a feast of cricket began. It was a T20 match and with each wide and no ball counting 2 runs, the two Cottesmore openers moved the score along by sensibly rotating the strike whenever possible, against our opening attack of left arm over of Rafe B and Lavinia, who were then followed by Freddy B, having a change from wicket keeping this week, with Edmund producing heroics behind the stumps and Raife J-T coming in to the attack. Cottesmore had amassed 45 in the first 5 overs and a big run chase looked certain. However, a rather [un]fortunate run out at the non-strikers end, led to a flurry of wickets. Ethan B and Louis S were called in to the attack and both bowled superbly with the former taking 4 for 15 off 3 overs and the latter 1 for 11 off his three overs. A wicket apiece for Oscar and Arlo meant Cottesmore finished on 129 for 8 off their 20 overs, so at tea, Holmewood needed 130 to win.
Louis and Edmund opened up and put on 59 for the first week at good pace, with Louis scoring a very solid 36. Joel contributed 11, Conor batting at 4, contributed 6 but it was left to Rafe B and Ethan to see the side home in the 13th over. A well-timed run chase saw the team home by 5 wickets. There weas a marked improvement in ground fielding this week, which was great to see, as that had been much of the focus of the coaching sessions in the run up to the match.
However, most pleasing to me perhaps was the fact that the Cottesmore umpire said to me at the end that the “ Holmewood House team was the most sporting, fair, kind and polite team that they had played against for a long, long time.” Well done under 11 A team – that makes me so proud of you all. Roll on next Wednesday for our next match – that is three from three so far. Let’s try to make it four from four, before we go into the half term break. PM-J
