For the first time this season we saw the introduction of two U11’s teams by four Clubs, one team playing league games the other friendlies, as together with Cleeve, Failand and Weston we had a profusion of youngsters (40) at this age level to try and provide cricket for. The U11’s league team did not do quite as well as expected finishing, as the final League table shows, in joint 5th position, winning 5 & losing 4 games plus one ceded win and one abandoned game. Two results in particular were very close run things against Congresbury (lost by 2 runs) and Cleeve (lost by 4 runs) and should really have been won. This would still not, however, had made any difference to Failand retaining the title again this season with only 1 defeat. Our other U11’s side were scheduled to play 9 games but the weather, as it did with all Clubs throughout this summer took its toll, and they only finished up being able to play 6 games, winning and losing an equal amount.

Our first game at Portishead saw us set a formidable total of 271-4, with Lloyd Davies (22no) top scoring after the middle order batsmen had kept their wickets intact whilst pushing the total along. Tight bowling from Harry Williams, Jack Lyons, Angus Yard & Lloyd Davies prevented the opposition from making much headway into our score and although Slocombe (11no) & Van Laun (15no) started to make an impression we ran out comfortable winners by 31 runs as Portishead finished on 240-5.

We entertained Wrington next and continued our accurate bowling, Archie Wall impressed with (2-1), to restrict them to 226-6. Lloyd Davies (23no) led our reply with another undefeated knock and this start was progressively built on by the rest of our pairings, despite the loss of a few wickets, to a 294-6 total and a comprehensive win by 68 runs.

Away to Congresbury we rued a poor batting performance after our bowlers had held them to a relatively low total (235-5) with some tight bowling and sharp fielding. George Bond (2-5) bowled particularly well with good line and length. After three pairs though we were reduced to178-9 with some careless batting. Harry Williams & George Bond (16no) set about repairing the damage but our last pair, Lloyd Davies (20no) and Angus Yard (6no) came in needing 36 to win off the last 4 overs but fell 2 runs short (233-11) and so we lost our unbeaten run.

A re-arranged Friday evening game verus Failand & Portbury was next and we lost to the team, which it turned out retained League title again with only 1 defeat. Having restricted them to only 234-6, George Bond (2-9) and given ourselves a good chance to reach this target our batting totally failed us as for the second game running we lost over 10 wickets. From the first overs loss of 2 wickets we continued on a downward spiral, losing wickets regularly and hitting a rock bottom 175. The only time we clawed our way back above the 200 mark was through a rear-guard recovery by the last two pairs, who only lost 1 wicket between them, as opposed to the 11 by previous pairs! Lloyd Davies’s (19no) valiant effort was never going to be enough to stave off defeat by 22 runs as we finished on 212-12.

The game against Weston on one of the few brilliantly sunny mornings was to prove our finest seasons performance. No doubt some words had been spoken about the last 2 games efforts and it was a transformed team that took to the field with a vengeance. Weston were hardly allowed out of the starting blocks as accurate bowling, Harry Williams particularly impressing with figures of 3 – 3 – 0 – 2, and tight fielding ensured they only achieved a modest total of 214-5. For what must be the first time ever all our pairs remained undefeated and individually got positive scores which by the end of the 20 overs had accumulated to 277-0. Well done indeed and a superb win by 63 runs.

This impetus was unfortunately short-lived though as in the next game verus Nailsea at Home we returned back to bad ways on the batting front. We had done well to keep Nailsea to a total of 240-6, Douglas Gray and Angus Yard both bowled well for identical returns of (2-7). We, however, never got above the 200 mark until the 10th over, losing 5 wickets at that stage, or looked like getting close to their score. In the final 10 overs we faired no better losing another 6 wickets, finishing on 200-11 and going down to a 40 run defeat.

Cleeve were our next opponents at Blagdon in a Wednesday evening game that took 4 re-arrangement attempts to get played as we accommodated their need to be able to field a good team! In another turn around, and an almost as impressive batting performance as that against Weston, we only lost 2 wickets whilst nearly every batsman got amongst the runs. Principal contributors were Lloyd Davies (18no), Angus Yard (17no), but even included Eleanor Yard (2no) from our KWIK cricket group, as we set an imposing target of 275-2. With only 4 overs remaining and the Cleeve score standing at 246-4, after good bowling and fielding on our part, you could be forgiven for assuming an inevitable victory but we had not reckoned on C.Dent (20 no) wrenching the game from our grasp as 33 runs were scored without loss to give Cleeve an unbelievable victory by 4 runs with a score of 279-4.

Visitors Uphill were put into bat on this Monday evening re-arranged game and with Jack Lyons taking a wicket with the very first ball of the innings this set the trend for the rest of their innings, as wickets regularly fell, Lloyd Davies taking 3 in one over. With tight bowling from the other players combined with sharp fielding Uphill were contained to 231-9. Producing our finest batting display yet we lost few wickets as every pairing piled on the runs, Jack Lyons (10), Lloyd Davies (11), Angus Yard, (12), Will Yard (12) and George Bond (13) as we amassed 313-4 to return to winning ways by 82 runs.

Cheddar were next to be entertained at the Bartons, in yet another re-arranged Tuesday evening fixture, and we opted to bat first but made heavy going of getting runs whilst lapsing back into our old habit of losing wickets. A total of 6 had gone by the 8th over and the score only standing at 192. Thankfully a recovery was made in the next 8 overs with a belligerent (14no) from Angus Yard being added to by some wayward Cheddar bowling. Come the last 4 overs we were on a much healthier 230-8 but although we scored further runs during them another 3 wickets were lost too so we had to settle for a total of 242-11. In what was one of our better bowling efforts we then dominated the Cheddar batsmen who found the going hard against the accuracy of William Yard (2-0) and George Bond (2-2) plus some pretty smart fielding which accounted for 3 run-outs as we reduced them to 188-10 at the finish, gaining a handsome 54 run win.

As it turned out this was the last game to be played; outstanding fixtures versus Claverham and Clevedon (twice postoned by them) were still awaiting contact from the both Clubs before we called it a day! Points awards expected in our favour!

Summing up we had a good season with excellent team spirit but again lacked that element of consistency which makes all the difference to challenging for honours but at the end of the day the participation is the most important thing. On the facts front we used 20 players with the bowlers achieving an average of 6 wickets per game and our batsmen averaging a similar loss but spread between some pretty highs and lows!

Next season, however, we lose 15 of the squad (in bold in the list below) who will no longer be eligible to play in the U-11 age group. So there will be some re-adjusting for the depleted though still adequate squad remaining but they will have the opportunity to prove themselves. The 2003 season will be a challenge, which we will hopefully respond to positively.

Playing Home to Failand & Portbury and with couple more weeks coaching under their belts we were optimistic that our bowling would have improved. This certainly appeared to be the case as we restricted the visitors to 223-5. However, concentrating on the bowling backfired as we went to pieces batting and apart from Matthew Eagon (8no) no one made any substantial score as we regularly lost wickets. We were finally reduced to a score of 179-9 and a defeat by 44 runs. More work still to be done!

Our next opportunity against Failand came 3 weeks later and they again batted first, improving on their first game score to 243-5, but Steve Huggins showed good bowling form with 2 maidens (0-2). We again looked to be struggling until our girl pairing of Martha Richards (7no) and Megan Chastney (0no) started a rescue act from the 9th over onwards when we were down to 198-3 and we finished with flourish from Cameron Hastie (10no) to a total of 253-5 and recorded our first win by 10 runs. Smiles all round!

A visit to Weston next full of confidence, the first of 3 consecutive games against them, was a high scoring encounter which came down to an exciting last ball finish. Batting first Weston picked up the pace throughout their innings, losing few wickets, and eventually reached 281-3. We were some way away from that total at 211-4 by the 12th over but an very strong batting performance from our final 2 pairs, Steve Huggins (13no), Cameron Hastie (12no) and Tom Coles (19no) brought the crowd to its feet as we poached victory with a 4 off the last ball to win by just 2 runs. Just what cricket should be all about!

We returned to Weston’s ground for another encounter the following week. This time with 2 KWIK cricketers, Eleanor Yard and Craig Mcauliffe, in a reduced strength team. Nevertheless we gave a spirited account of ourselves, not losing too many wickets and finishing with a flourish, thanks to a quick-fire 23no (five 4’s) from Will Yard, to total 246-6. Weston’s reply started at a gallop and by the end of their first 2 pairings had already reached 235-1. Good bowling and fielding in the next 4 overs brought us 4 wickets, including 2 run outs, to bring the score back down to 231-5. Weston rallied again and edged the score up to 243-6 by the time their final pair arrived. Despite a burst of 2 wickets from Will Yard (3-15) they hung on to a slender lead of 1run from the first ball of the last over and secured a 5 run victory with a 4 off the last ball which took them to 251-9.

In the final game at The Bartons Weston batted first and again looked to be building to a big total as at the end of the 16th over they were on 246-2 and not been troubled too much by our bowling. That changed in the final 4 overs with impressive spells from Will Yard (3-10) and Steve Huggins (1-0), which left Weston on 239-5. We gradually climbed towards that total with our first 3 batting pairs reaching 223-3. From there on, however, we ran away with it, none of our batsmen being out. Cameron Hastie (12no), Douglas Gray (8no), Steve Huggins (3no) and Will Yard (11no) all contributed to a large final total of 288-3 and a 49 run win.

The remaining games against Cleeve (2) and F & P (1) were unable to be played due to either time constraints or their unavailability of players.

We also played one other game in June between our own U11’s squads to keep their eye in when there was too long a period without any scheduled games.

The introduction of this second U11’s team was a great success and brought forward the development of both boys and girls who would otherwise not have had the chance to play. It also enabled us to discover some talented players whom, on occasions, we were also able to draft into the League team and are bright prospects for the future.

In conclusion I would like to give my special thanks to Ian Yard for taking over the full time role as Manager of the League team, together with Shane Lovatt as assistant, and also to John Huggins who was a great help to me with the running of the newly formed B team. Other thanks go to new coach Paul Lawrence who had his work cut out in coping with our vastly increased numbers at the sessions, when the weather permitted, and Jan Lyons who remained my stalwart for her behind the scenes administration/communications. A final thank you to all the other parents who assisted with the refreshment duties, transportation & scoring, our groundsman Fid and of course our Youth Sponsors recorded above.

Awards:
Most promising Young Player - George Bond

Blagdon C.C. U11’s Squads

Name - Games played – League + Comp
Harry Blythe – 2 + 2;
George Bond – 7 + 0;
William Brenor – 2 + 0;
Edward Brown – 0 + 4;
Harry Brunsdon – 0 + 1;
Toby Brunsdon – 0 + 1;
Megan Chastney – 0 + 4;
Tom Coles – 2 + 3;
Alastair Cullen – 0 + 4;
Clayton Davies – 0 + 5;
Laura Davies – 0 + 0;
Lloyd Davies – 7 + 0;
James Day – 0 + 5;
Matthew Eagon – 1 + 1;
Joe Ford – 4 + 2;
George Gillard – 1 + 1;
Harry Gordon – 0 + 3;
Douglas Gray – 1 + 3;
Cameron Hastie – 0 + 6;
Tom Hendzel – 4 + 0;
Steven Huggins – 1 + 5;
Ben Lipfriend – 0 + 1;
Jonathan Lipfriend – 0 + 1;
Josie May – 0 + 0;
Tom May – 0 + 3;
Anton Lovatt – 6 + 0;
Jack Lyons – 7 + 0;
Craig Mcauliffe – 0 + 1;
Ross Mcauliffe – 4 + 5;
Jonathan Mitchell – 0 + 1;
Anne Paine – 0 + 0;
Stephen Paine – 0 + 2;
Joe Plumb – 0 + 1;
Martha Richards – 0 + 5;
Luke Smith – 0 + 3;
Archie Wall – 8 + 1;
Edward Williams – 6 + 1;
Harry Williams – 6 + 1;
Angus Yard – 9 + 0;
Eleanor Yard – 2 + 1;
William Yard – 9 + 2