Primrose Hill CC v Ealing CC

The game was played under the following rules:

24 over game
12 players a side
Each team starts on 200
Lose 5 runs for each wicket
'No-balls' and 'Wides' give away 2 runs and are not re-bowled

The Ealing boys returned to Primrose Hill hoping to put right the wrongs of the first game of the season. We had a more or less different team to the first fixture, with only Zuhayr, Tayyab and Nicholas having played the earlier game at the start of the season. But from memory, Primrose Hill fielded much the same team again. It was a delightful day with parents enjoying the game just as much as the children. The exuberant crowd were mainly from the parents of the Ealing boys as they were in full support of the team whose performances made us extremely pleased

The game was played as 12-a-side and every Ealing child was on time ready to start the game at 10am, as they have been for every game of the season so far. Unfortunately, Primrose Hill had a few players short at the start of the game and therefore, it was agreed between myself and my Primrose Hill counterpart for them to bat first considering they were waiting for a few players to turn up. This obviously stopped our captain for the day Tom M, from going out for the toss, but we will give him the opportunity again in a future game

The bowling was disciplined, but we still bowled a total of 30 wides in our 24 overs. Wides tend to be the highest individual score in matches, so the less we give away, the better. We managed to get 7 wickets in total. Two wickets apiece were shared between Nicholas and Silas, with three run outs courtesy of Zuhayr, Aidan and Alexander G. Both of Nicholas’s wickets were supported extremely well by Nikhil who showed exactly how balls should be caught. As we have always mentioned in practice, keep your eye on the ball, cup your hands and let the ball fall into them.

At the half way mark, Ealing were set 283 to win and the boys had me bursting with pride with their running between the wickets and shot selection. It seemed all the hard work they had put in at practice sessions, was now showing on the field of play. Quick singles were taken and aggressive shots were played with control. There were some outstanding pulls and drives played to the boundary and we had 4 players in double figures; Zuhayr (11), Aidan (16), Arun G (16), Tayyab (11). There were a couple of suicidal run outs that we need to be careful about moving forward, but generally the batting was very good

This was our first 24 over game of the season and in all honesty, I think those extra 4 overs per innings dragged the game on a little bit, so I don’t think we will be doing that again anytime soon

Another pleasing fact is that in previous games there have been one or two stand out players for "man of the match", but in this game, there are several candidates which makes me believe we are building a great team between us all. The coaches, the parents and the children all play their part and without us all working together, this would not be possible. Small things like watching the game unfold, to scoring the game, to taking photos all make a difference. So thank you to everyone