The U9s took to the cricketing arena earlier this week, as they travelled to South Manchester Cricket Club to take on St. Bedes.  On a gloriously sunny afternoon, it was a pleasure to see the hard work of the boys in recent weeks finally pay off.

In pairs cricket, every one of the eight players had to bowl as well as bat and field. With each team starting on 200 runs, any runs scored would be added to the total. However, each wicket lost would reduce the total by five runs.  Not losing wickets was going to be the key factor in the game.

St. Bedes batted first and it was quickly obvious that Bridgewater was the much stronger team all round. St Bedes struggled to score against the fine bowling of Alfie, Josh, Seb and Luca B in particular. The fielding was equally impressive, with Alfie and Luca C involved in several run outs and stumpings. St. Bedes scored 39 runs in total, but with the loss of 8 wickets, ended up with a net total of 199.

In contrast, Bridgewater batted with control and efficiency to score 50 runs in their first innings. With the loss of just one wicket, Bridgewater went into the second innings on a net total of 245. This dominance continued in the second innings with St. Bedes only scoring 29 runs, but again losing 8 wickets to give them a total net score of 188. Bridgewater improved further in the second innings to score 69 runs, again for the loss of only one wicket.

Alfie was the top scorer with 34 followed by Luca B with 18 runs. However, all eight players chipped in with positive scores to ensure a resounding win by 309 to 188.

It was a fantastic performance by each member of the team and a great introduction to competitive cricket for most of the team. Below is a breakdown of each player’s bowling figures. All bowled two overs each and the end column shows how many wickets they took and for how many runs.

Well done to all the team and remember to keep up the practice at break and after school on a Thursday.

Alfie 2-1-3-5  Seb 2-1-5-1
Josh 2-1-6-3

Aarav 2-0-16-0
Luca B 2-0-4-2

Luca C 2-0-9-2
Harrison 2-0-15-1.
Jackson 2-0-8-2