With the unavailability across the club the scheduled inter club game between the 4th XI and the U13s Dads and Lads had to be cancelled but thanks to Gary Williams, a game was arranged for the dads and lads away versus Westcliff and we braved the A127 towards Southend on a sunny day for the match at Rankins CC
Our team was comprised of 6 under 13s with four of the dads having the opportunity to play with their sons, which was nicely mirrored on the Westcliff side who had 4 adults, 5 under 15s and a couple of under 13s
Winning the toss, we elected to bat on the greenish pitch to hopefully avoid fielding in the hottest weather, with Brace Senior and Wiles Senior striding to the wicket. Westcliff opened with an impressive young lad who bowled left arm inswing from a very straight run up and he struck early with a full length ball trapping Wiles LBW. Wiles junior replaced Darren and young Alexander was quickly off the mark and then played some fine defensive shots to see off the opening bowlers, before mistiming a leg side shot and was caught at mid off. This brought a Brace of Braces to the crease with Matthew joining Ian and they built a useful partnership with Matthew hitting one lovely 4 through the covers, before also not connecting properly with a leg side shot and being caught for 15. Ashton Davis came in at five and played well defensively allowing the score to tick upwards before being bowled by a good ball having scored 4. The sensible batting of the youngsters allowed for Brace senior to accumulate runs at the other end and with a single into the covers he reached his half century. By this time Tony Davis had joined him in the middle and a couple of well timed shots down the ground thundered away for 4s. A mistimed drive ended Brace's innings being well caught at point and unfortunately next ball Rohan Taheny-Clarke received an excellent delivery to be bowled. Jack Meadows came to the crease for the hat trick ball and with fielders crowding round, successfully defended it and got off the mark with a cut shot, before being caught out shortly afterwards with the Westcliff player surprising himself as he shouted "oh no" as the ball was going over his head. With Tony Davis being bowled it brought the Whysall father and son combo to the crease and both played some excellent shots in a partnership that took the team passed the 150 mark, before Ben departed for 13. As we only had 10 players the Westcliff captain very sportingly allowed Rohan to come back and bat again as the 11th man and it was great to see him get his first runs. With a couple of other elegant lofted shots from Dan, we ended the 40 overs with an impressive score of 189.
With a very defendable total in our back pocket we were hoping that the dual threat of the Whysalls would get us off to a good start, but none of us in our wildest dreams expected what happened next. A double wicket maiden to start from Ben, followed by Dan picking up a wicket in his first over. Ben then followed that up with another wicket maiden and not to be outdone Dan picked up the 5th wicket inside the first four overs. Having failed to take a wicket in his third over and to make it worse conceding some runs, the captain had no choice but to make a bowling change. After that the bowling was done by the remaining under 13s and the wickets kept coming with Jack, Ashton and Matthew all getting a wicket each and with Tony Davis and Alexander combining for a run out at the 20 overs drinks break Westcliff were at a very precarious 42-9. Their last pair kept us out in the field with good innings before Dan returned for an over a top edged shot was confidently taken by Rohan to end the game. Both Rohan and Alexander bowled very accurately and were unlucky not to pick up a wicket.
What was also pleasing was the concentration and good habits the u13s showed to the end in a game that was at that point already won.
So in the end the winning margin was 108 runs
Bating wise, Ian Brace (66), Dan Whysall (28no), Matthew Brace (15), Ben Whysall (13) and Tony Davis (12) were the main contributors along with a number of extras.
Bowling figures were Ben Whysall 5-12 (5 overs), Dan Whysall 3-5 (3 overs), Jack Meadows 1-11 (5 overs), Ashton 1-20 (5 overs), Matthew 1-9 (2 overs), Rohan 0-16 (6 overs), Alexander 0-9 (4 overs).
A very enjoyable game played in the right spirit and great for three of the under 13s to have their first taste of a longer over game with older players, doing some umpiring and all scoring their first runs or being involved in a wicket.