U15 Boys Indoor Cricket

Older boys come up against strong Gordano team

On Thursday 19 January it was the turn of the U15 boys to compete in their indoor cricket qualification round against the same 4 schools that had been drawn in the U13 group. This time St Kath’s had drawn Gordano in their semi-final match knowing that this would be a tough test. They had played Gordano before and were well aware of their capability but knew they had the potential to beat them.

St Kath’s took to the field determined to put the squeeze on knowing that their strength was probably in their batting line up. It is funny how in sport the earliest moments of a competition can have such a profound effect on the rest of the performance. Caolan stepped up in his role as captain and took the first over against the Gordano opening pair and his first ball was right on the money and was blocked straight back to a fielder. The Gordano boys both came down & met in the middle and amid the confusion SK managed to collect the ball and throw to the stumps. Unfortunately the ball narrowly missed and was thrown with such venom that Caolan was left powerless to stop it from hitting the wall for an overthrow. From this moment onwards the SK boys were uncharacteristically sloppy in the field conceding far too many easy runs and letting potential catches hit the floor. Gordano wasted no time worrying about the first ball of the game and got straight down to the business of setting a big total. They played some lovely shots and scored well off of all of the bowlers. Alex mounted a bit of an attack with his 2 overs cleaning up 4 of the Gordano boys but they were already well on their way to a big score and finished on 81 from their 36 balls – a very impressive rate indeed. You couldn’t help but wonder how a dramatic run out might have changed the direction of momentum from ball 1 but at the same time admire the way that Gordano boys had gone about attacking to get their total.

Things had definitely not gone to play with the ball so the boys were looking to get back on track and chase down a big score to get their games going. Quite quickly it became clear that it just wasn’t going to be their day as opener Alex Wilson was unlucky to be run out having only faced a handful of deliveries. Caolan and Matty both battled hard for their runs but it wasn’t easy going and you can see from the scorecard that had it not been for Gordano extras the boys would have fallen a long way short of the target. There was not 1 boy who enjoyed any luck with the bat except for possibly Louis who made runs when the contest was still a tiny glimmer of hope in the distance and George who made runs batting as last man standing.

The group were all a little disappointed with the outcome of the first game but there are just some days where no matter how hard you try it just isn’t your day – that is the beauty of sport. Determined to give a better showing in their runners-up final against St Bernadette the boys were tasked with setting the total on this occasion.

The going was still hard work and the boys scratched around for their runs in the main with the exception of Matty who smashed a 6 and a 4 in his 19 and Caolan who managed a boundary 4 in his 15. They were looking for somewhere closer to 80 but in reality dug in and made a gritty 59. These boys showed some real resilience in this game as when things aren’t going your way it can be all too easy to throw the towel in and give up. The real improvement came about with ball in hand as there was reward across the bowling attack. There was also a real improvement in the field with George and Matty both holding difficult catches after the ball has rebounded around the sportshall wall in attempt to make it as tricky as possible. The both made sure they talked their team mates through exactly how difficult their catches were and how the ball had bounced around before they had secured the catch. A special mention should also go to Louie Dun who stepped in at short notice and bowled well in both games. The plight of a spinner is never an easy one and Louie has really come on since last year. He lead by example in the U13 competition and more than held his own in the U15 competition.

Eventually the St Bernadette boys finished on 28 having lost all of their wickets. I did stay to watch the final and Gordano were equally as impressive in that match beating Ashton Park to progress to the next round. Gordano restricted Ashton to around 30 and chased them down with relative ease but not before an outstanding display of direct hit run outs from the Ashton fielders momentarily rattled the Gordano boys!

There are just some days where things don’t go your way no matter how hard you try and this was certainly one of those. This group of boys have a lot of talent on the cricket pitch so I am really looking forward to seeing how they get on outdoors later in the year. There are still plenty of opportunity for this group to get involved in some umpiring and coaching of other age groups if they are interested.

Well done gentlemen on a tough evening of cricket.

Mr Cook