| The first game of the season was played on a typically cold evening with the main concern being the warmth of the players rather than the number of runs being scored.
After turning up with only 5 players, we managed to borrow Fergus Foley who had come along to watch his brother Isaac.
The Grange coach was agreeable to some of our players batting or bowling more than once, and also lent us some spare fielders which was very sporting of them. Fortunately there were no situations where the Grange fielders had to try to take a catch to dismiss their own team mates!
The children got to play on a lovely looking ground where there was plenty value for money for shots when batting. I did however feel sorry for them whenever any hard shots were hit at soft, cold hands that hadn’t played much hard ball cricket!
Carlton bowled first and started off with Ben and Isaac, both boys with mile long run ups. Isaac soon realised that a shorter run up was going to result in more accurate bowling and picked up three wickets clean bowled. Ben’s accuracy improved during his spell resulting in a maiden over to finish his spell.
Zaara and Max then came onto bowl and bowled very accurately, making scoring difficult for the Grange batsmen. This was the same story when Ghazi and Fergus bowled, with Fergus clean bowling one of the Grange batsman.
Due to this good bowling, Grange were restricted to 248 (each team start on 200 and lose 5 runs per wicket).
I had been umpiring the first innings when Carlton were bowling, and swapped with their coach for the second innings. I was therefore slightly side-tracked as I was now helping children pad up etc so didn’t see the Carlton batting in quite as much detail!
What I did see however were some great shots, some good defending of straight deliveries and some good boundaries from wider ones.
We didn't lose many wickets which is always crucial in these games, and it is already great to see the children improving so early in the season.
I will aim to keep a closer eye on both innings going forward!
Carlton ended up on 297, so a convincing win which helped the team forget the cold!
Well done everyone!
Carlton Lions Team:
Ben
Isaac
Zaara
Max
Ghazi
Fergus
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