Team Manager - Lionel Harrison
Assistant Manager - Graham Withers
Coach - Paul Lawrence
Team sponsored by Mike James and MJT Controls

We expected our U13’s team to do well this year and that was the case, only losing one (KO Cup) game all season and remaining undefeated in 10 League games. However, despite that we were unable to finish all our League games (12), the key one being against Cleeve Comets who were also unbeaten. So because we could not mutually agree on a re-arranged end of season date to play the title-deciding clash, as the final League table shows, we finished in the runners-up spot, on a technicality. A very disappointing end to all the seasons efforts and no reward to the team.

Our first game was against our last opponents and U13’s League Champions in 2001, Nailsea so we immediately had a test of our mettle. We did not start well and were struggling at 25-3 after 10 overs but Ben Lyons (49no) and Archie Stead (17no) came to the rescue as we finished on 92-4. Our bowlers stuck to their task well and with 2 wickets apiece from Ben Lyons, Josh Chastney, and Jacob Hartrey, backed by good fielding, we restricted Nailsea to 63-8 in their 20 overs and got a first well earned victory against them.

Following an unprecedented period of 4 weeks inactivity due to continually atrocious weather conditions and an ignominious KO Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Weston in the preceding game there was a need to make amends in this League encounter with them. This was duly achieved at breakneck speed as this time we performed to our capabilities and ran though their side in 16 overs for a total of 43. We only needed 5 overs to knock off the runs and record a 9 wicket victory.

We next entertained an even weaker than last season Clevedon team and we posted a respectable total of 119-2, Archie Stead (48no) batting throughout the innings. Clevedon were blown away inside 10 overs for only 18 runs, which included a hat-trick by Adam Burroughs. An overwhelming victory by 101 runs. Portishead were our next visitors and much the same pattern emerged, we batted first and scored a large total of 147-4 with Rhys Davies (58no) batting throughout the innings, Ben Lyons contributing 40. Portishead were never near the required run-rate but put up a spirited attempt to get them, assisted by a profusion of wides from us, finishing on 110-6 with J.Kelly (27 and 2-21) being their main performer. A smaller 37 runs winning margin than it need have been.

A visit to Uphill Castle, where we batted first, saw us reach our highest ever U13’s 20 overs League total of 166-3. This all thanks to a virtuoso batting performance, which everyone present savoured, from Ben Lyons who single handedly re-wrote the record books by scoring a superb century (101), eclipsing Garth Tiley at the other end who did well to score (38no), when he had a chance at the bowling! Unfortunately the occasion was somewhat marred by an injury to Ben whilst fielding, resulting in a broken thumb and him taking no further part in the game but instead having to visit the local hospital. Nevertheless our bowling and fielding was not unduly troubled by Uphill who managed to reach 115-3, with A.Luke (46no) batting throughout for them, but not affecting what was a good win.

Although we were now into August we had a fixture backlog of 7 games due to all the earlier season postponements, which virtually meant having to play 2 games a week. The first of these was away to Cleeve Crusaders (their second string U13’s team) in one of our weather re-arranged games. Batting first, another record found its way into our books as brothers Rhys and Lloyd Davies proceeded to compile a 102 run opening partnership. Both were out just short of their 50’s Rhys (49) and Lloyd (42) as we reached 134-2. In what, through the season developed as a worrying trait, we provided Crusaders with over half (41) of their total 79-3 (N.Roberts 20no) in extras. The need for accuracy apparently seems to be less important to the bowlers when, as we have been doing, we are continually scoring over a 130! Simon Hill (2-4) was our only really effective bowler in this convincing 55 run win.
That week’s 2nd game against Cheddar was yet another one to be rained off!

Wrington and Congresbury were to be our following weeks dual opponents at Blagdon with all sides struggling to find players during the now peak holiday season. The Wrington game was played with reduced numbers, including U11’s, to 8/9 a-side and only 16 overs. We amassed another big score 158-2, Rhys Davies (89no) doing as he so often had this season batting the entire game and would surely have emulated Ben’s earlier ton at Uphill had it been a 20 overs match. He was ably supported by Archie Stead (33) and Ben Lyons (31). Wrington struggled to make any inroads into our score, so we again assisted them by providing 35 of their 54-7 total in extras! However, Garth Tiley, Alex Milward and Anton Lovatt took 2 wickets apiece to give us a substantial 104 runs victory margin.

The Congresbury game, although both clubs played with 11 a side, was pretty much a 50/50 mix of U13’s & U11’s.
Again batting first yet another big total was accumulated 152-1 but this time through Garth Tiley (88no), whose turn it was to bat the entire innings and Tom Williams (33no), as Messrs. Davies and Stead were ‘given a rest’. Using 8 bowlers we again showed our benevolent mood by assisting Congresbury to their total of 77-6 with 45 extras! But another comfortable 75 runs win.

Our next pair of matches during week commencing 19th Aug were to be versus Cheddar - Away (21st) and Optimists at Home (22nd) in re-arranged games. Cheddar would present us with serious opposition, as they were U13’s league runners-up last season, even though they and us were having to field teams with 3 or 4 U11’s. However, yet again our batting rose to the occasion with the trusty opening duo of Rhys Davies (67) and Archie Stead (39no, another entire innings effort), creating a record 1st wicket partnership of 119 until Rhys was bowled in the 17th over. Garth Tiley (16no) joined the fray for the final overs adding, as it turned out to be, an invaluable 25 runs with Archie as we finished on a very challenging 144-1. Cheddar certainly rose to this and gave us quite a scare, to which we again contributed with an excessive amount of bowling extras (50). At 90-3 in their 11th over they were well ahead of the asking rate but the game was turned round with the introduction of Archie Stead who removed the dangerous J.Butler (41) with his second ball and in his 4 over spell returned match winning figures of 4 –1–18 – 4. As a result Cheddar collapsed to 125 all out in the 19th over, having lost 7 wickets for 45 runs in 8 overs, giving our bowlers well earned redemption through this dramatic recovery, and assuring us victory by 19 runs but our closest game yet.

Optimists was an altogether different game as they were only able to muster a team of 9, including many U11’s, to which we loaned them 2, (George Bond and Harry Williams) to make up numbers. The now familiar pattern of us batting first resulted in another mammoth total of 158-3 being reached, again through the consistency shown by Rhys Davies (70no) who for the fourth time this season remained undefeated throughout our innings, recording his fourth 50 and over score. He was solidly backed up by Archie Stead (21) and Tom Williams (19). Optimists offered little resistance, except for C.Benson (14), as we spread the bowling amongst all 10 players to get them out for 55, with 2 wickets apiece for Tom Bond, Ali Palmer and Josh Chastney and gain a 103 run margin of victory – our tenth and maintaining our undefeated record.

There were, however, still 2 outstanding games to play, versus Failand & Portbury and Cleeve Comets but due to last minute changes in availability it meant we had only this same week during which sufficient players would still be available for us. It had prompted the need to ask Comets (also undefeated) to bring forward the title deciding match, re-arranged for 29th Aug, into this week and also to play F & P. With games already re-arranged against Cheddar & Optimists this just left 3 days in which to play these games. Neither Club could agree on a ‘mutually convenient’ date with us! The F & P game would, under League rules, be awarded to us as they ‘defaulted’ on the original fixture. The Comets game was originally weather cancelled but Comets, backed by the League, could only play the fixture during the first week in September, despite knowing that we would be unable to raise a team of sufficient merit, certainly not one to compete for the title deciding game. Because of this we were deemed to have ‘defaulted’ on the fixture, so Comets obtained the title by ‘default’ and we finished runners-up.

A very disappointing end to such a promising season and it was a great shame the League season ended in this way, with no reward for the U13’s to show for all their efforts. It was particularly dis-heartening as for many of our players it was their last season with us, as they move on to boarding education outside of the area, and perhaps their last chance to have won some silverware. Nevertheless they are all welcome back during holiday periods etc.

In the U13’s NCA Cup KO we fancied our chances of going all the way in this. Our 1st round opponents were Wrington and we made short work of securing our passage into the next round by bowling them out for 40, with Garth Tiley taking 4-10, aided and abetted by a hat-trick from Ali Palmer 3-4. We needed just 10 overs to reach the target, Garth (32no, including 7 fours) hitting the majority of the runs to see us home by 8 wickets on 42-2.

Tougher opposition in round 2 came in the form of Nailsea whom we had already defeated in the League. To prove that was no fluke we restricted them to 87-3 and were 81-2 by the 11th over with victory seemingly a formality. But on the retirement of Ben Lyons (30no), under KO rules, we dropped our concentration and proceeded to lose 5 wickets for 5 runs in the space of 4 overs. Thankfully though we held our nerve and scored the necessary 2 runs to win by 3 wickets.

So to the Semi-Final against our old KO adversaries and it should be added jinx side Weston, who ousted us last year in a tied game by losing fewer wickets. In that now infamous game, which will for forever haunt us, we chose to produce our seasons worst performance as we failed to take a wicket and gifted Weston 65 extras out of their total of 102-0. Normally even that sort of total would have been well within our batting capabilities but we failed to reach it by 1 run and, therefore, handed the Cup to Cleeve Comets who comfortably beat Weston in the Final.

Statistically, in total, we played 13 games, losing only 1, scoring 1,547 runs for the loss of 38 wkts. Our batting performance throughout the season was exceptionally strong, with scores of more than a 100 in 9 of the games. Archie Stead and Ben Lyons averaged 55 and 54 respectively, but Rhys Davies excelled even these with an average of over 86, a fantastically consistent performance.

Our opponents scored 958 runs and we took 87 of their wickets. By comparison, however, our bowling, with a few exceptions, was well below par if you consider that 409 (42%) of these runs were as a result of extras from us, [Wides and No balls 333 (35%)]. It is fair to say that our batting won us the games by putting the totals beyond our opponents reach, despite our bowling indiscretions which were also mitigated to a certain extent by good fielding. Whatever happened to our bowling this season will, however, have to be put right in 2003, as we will not have the same depth of batting then.

Unfortunately in 2003 we lose many of our existing U13’s (highlighted in bold below) who move away from the area for their education and we wish them well and hope to see some of them return to play for us during summer breaks and holidays etc. Nevertheless we still have an enthusiastic and committed squad with which to tackle our entry into the U15’s League next season, including the expected return of Jenny Withers, Adam Crooks, Luke Groves, Richard Veater and Edward Anstee, who were ruled out this season due to age restrictions.

Finally my thanks to Graham Withers for his assistance in running the team and also Axel Palmer for standing in on occasions too, Paul Lawrence (Coach), Jan Lyons for her administrative work and to all parents who helped with the refreshment duties, transportation etc. We must not, of course, forget our Youth Sponsors recorded above and our groundsman Fid who had a difficult season getting wickets prepared in the weather conditions experienced. Matt Colwill, our statistician, continues to mesmerise us with the figures and reports compiled on our website for all our teams.

Awards:
Young Player of the Year - Rhys Davies
Hat trick takers - Adam Burroughs & Alistair Palmer

Blagdon C.C. U13 Squad

Name - Games played
Tom Bond - 6
Adam Burroughs - 8
Josh Chastney - 6
Lloyd Davies - 5
Rhys Davies -12
William Day - 4
David Eagon - 4
Arron Ford - 3
George Gillard - 1
Douglas Gray - 2
Jacob Hartrey - 7
Simon Hill - 7
Steve Huggins - 2
Anton Lovatt - 2
Ben Lyons - 9
Alex Milward - 2
Russell Moore - 6
Alistair Palmer - 8
Oli Payne - 7
Luke Smith - 1
Matthew Smith - 4
Archie Stead - 10
Garth Tiley - 12
Alex Wall - 2
Tom Williams - 10