On a very bitter and cold Friday evening, our highly promising Under- 11 unit travelled to Inverleith to face SMRH. On the back of a very convincing win against Watsonians the team wanted to continue in strong suit.

The team this week saw 4 new changes including Under-11 debutant Callum Johnstone.

After captain Gregor won the toss he elected to bat first and opened alongside Harry who helped get the side of to a flying start with 33 off the first 4 overs. What was most pleasing with the opening pair was their electric running between the wickets and their thirst for singles almost every ball.

Kieran and Kjartan then continued where the openers left off with a flurry of boundaries from both batsman to take their score to 20. The chirpy Adam then came to the crease along with Callum who both notched the score up to 268. Adam produced the shot of the day with a leg glance that went all the way to the fence. Callum showed us what a talent he has with his dropping and running persistence through his innings.

In the absence of Peter in the 1st innings Seb provided a show with some big hits along with Gregor as the final pair to take the total score to 293. The team batted superbly clearly taking on board the various techniques that they have been working on in training. Especially in taking quick singles and always looking for scoring opportunities in the gaps.

Our opening bowlers Peter and Gregor got things going but had no luck as the SMRH captain was very classy and put anything away that was short posting an opening score of 223. Seb then came on to produce a fine spell of line and length along with plenty of pace that the next batting pair couldn't handle. Callum joined in the action and picked up 3 wickets in his 2nd over including a hatrick ball! The SMRH score was then reduced to 221. Adam was next and bowled 3 fantastic overs refusing to give the batsman any excuse to hit him away. Our strength and depth in bowling was furthermore emphasised when Kjartan came on and picked up a 2 wickets in his first over which had SMRH really struggling and losing wickets/runs frequently. Peter and Seb came back on at the death overs and were ruthless bagging up a couple more wickets each that left SMRH on a final score of 211. The boys have been working especially hard at fielding in training which paid off as the side held all their catches and the ground fielding was also immaculate.

Another fantastic all round performance from the boys including immaculate fielding. The strength and depth of our development squad should hopefully give the boys confidence so they can kick on from here and make this a very successful season!

Photos

Friday 3rd August.  For once, not raining.  The end of a full week’s cricket training for many of the Carlton U11’s.   How to relax?  Watch Andy Murray get into the Olympic men’s final at SW19?  Cheer Victoria Pendleton onto yet another Team GB cycling gold?  Not a bit of it.  There’s more cricket to be played!  And so it was that Carlton’s U11’s finally got their match underway against Grange Sharks, in a match originally scheduled for May.

Winning the toss, and electing to field,  Carlton’s players bowled well.  Taking 5 wickets in the allotted 16 overs, 2 of them run outs (a particularly sharp one from debutant Ben Swann, bowling, fielding and then throwing down the stumps at the non-striker’s end), Carlton kept the visitors to a net score of 154.  Kieran showed growing confidence with the wicket keeping gloves, with some good takes behind the stumps, and Kjartan’s clean bowl was perhaps the pick of the wickets.  A good score from Grange and some impressive shots in their innings, but one that perhaps Carlton felt they could better.

It was not to be.   Scoring steadily, Carlton clawed away at the deficit as each over went by.  But, it was the loss of wickets at key moments that was to prove Carlton’s undoing.  While some of these were down to the sharp bowling or catching from a Grange team who all showed good cricketing awareness in the field, a couple of run outs perhaps could have been avoided, and by the time that the last pair came in to bat, 36 runs were needed from 4 overs to win.  A tall order.  With Grange putting 6 players on or near the boundary when captain Ruairidh was on strike, to score 33 of the 36 runs was impressive.  But with 2 wickets coming as well, Grange ran out deserved victors by 12 runs.

The boys’ disappointment was clear.  But, despite losing the match, they should all be proud of the manner in which they played.  They played the match as a team, and when wickets went down the first words to be uttered were words of encouragement and support.  Well done! A team effort.

Photos

A lovely summer’s evening for cricket, with thermals and kagoules left at home, led to an entertaining cricket match enjoyed by the many parents who turned out to watch.  A performance where everyone contributed with bat, ball or in the field ended up with an 88 run victory for Carlton’s U11s with Carlton scoring an u11 score of 221 to Heriot’s 133.

With Carlton winning the toss and electing to bat first, the final statistics read 146 runs scored for the loss of 5 wickets with fifteen boundaries scored.  Highlights included:

• Ruaridh’s 5 consecutive boundaries off the first 5 balls in an over.  Would he go for another off the sixth?  And lose strike?  No, no! A single will do.
• Murray and Gregor both hitting 4 boundaries each, one almost removing the Carlton youth convener (not a good move boys, prizegiving’s on its way!)
• A reverse sweep by Alastair for one of his 2 boundaries.

Special mention to Kieran, who finding himself 9th man, bravely fielded with Heriot’s and stopped at least 2 dead cert boundaries for Carlton.

Carlton’s field performance was also high quality with Heriot’s restricted to scoring 63 runs for the loss of 6 wickets.  Wickets were shared by 5 bowlers – well done to Douglas for his brace, and to Pete, Kieran (now appearing for Carlton), Callum and Gregor for one a piece.   Catch of the night went to Kjartan.  Murray, as ever, kept extremely well and took some sharp takes behind the stumps.

Thanks to Heriot’s for a good match, and for perseverance in rearranging the tie over many weeks.

Let’s hope that the boys can keep up the good form on Sunday in their U11 cup match against Watsonians.

Photos 

The local traders of Craiglockhart will have been grateful that Carlton’s U11 cup match against Watsonians was scheduled for such an early Sunday morning start.  Swapping coffee and croissants while reading Sunday papers, a number of parents were seen sneaking off to the local shops and returning with tea, toast and bars of chocolate.  Parenting by example! 

In return for their culinary sacrifices, they were treated to an entertaining match of cricket that saw Carlton run out comfortable winners by 71 runs to book a date with Grange in the regional U11 final.

Carlton’s pre-match coin tossing training proved decisive once more and the decision to bat first was made.  Carlton’s score progressed steadily with each partnership, with the first three pairs returning scores of 18, 21 and 24. 

The final two batsmen came to the crease with the score on 163.  Ruairidh then went on to prove that guessing heads or tails was not his only skill as he duly smashed 8 boundaries from 19 balls and finished with an individual score of 40.  This combined team batting performance put Carlton in a strong position as they concluded on 215 after 16 overs.

Carlton’s bowlers were not to disappoint either.  With four clean-bowled wickets, one run out, a fair few vocal appeals for lbws and run outs, and tight fielding, Watsonians were restricted to a final score of 144. 

Good bowling all round, and special mention to Alastair Curtis Walcott for his 3 wickets for 7 runs (off 3 overs).

Great to see such a good performance from a team that has developed and gelled over the season.  Credit and thanks to coaches Mo and Herdy for all their hard work with the boys. 

Bring on Grange in the final.

Photos

Carlton's U11 team went into their cup final against Grange with an impressive record of 6 wins out of 8 this season.  Their two losses, however, were both against Grange teams, so would it be third time lucky for Carlton, or would Grange prevail once more? Unfortunately it was to be Grange's strength in depth, both in batting and bowling, as well as excellent fielding, that led them to a well deserved victory on the night and saw them progress to the regional finals as worthy winners of the East & Mid section of the cup.

Carlton won the toss and elected to bat.  With Grange bowling and fielding well, the 74 runs Carlton scored could have created a competitive target, but the loss of 6 wickets led to a net score of 44 runs which was always going to be difficult to defend.  A couple of good boundaries were hit, but the calling and running between the wickets could have been better, leading to a number of run outs and a fair few palpitations for the watching parents.

Facing an uphill task, Carlton bowled well, but failed to take as many wickets and conceded more runs.  Grange ended up scoring 115 runs for the loss of just 2 wickets.

So the end of the season for the U11 Development team, and despite this loss, a good season for all.  It has been a pleasure to watch all their matches this season, and see the way that the team has matured and developed.  Here's hoping for less rain and more cricket next year.