ECC U17 overcome Wembley in the April gloom

There was a moment in mid-way through the Wembley innings when you could have mistaken this for rugby. Not that the players were piling into bad tempered rucks and mauls - far from it - every match I've been involved with against Wembley has been played in excellent spirit . But with blood streaming from two Ealing players' mouths and one of the Wembley team pressing ice to a bruised knee, the casualty list was worryingly long. Oh, and the umpires were shivering from the late April chill. But what of the cricket?

With GCSE and AS Level preparation starting to take its toll, the Ealing team had a very young look to it. But Ealing's deep reserves of talent mean that even with 5 under 15s we had a talented line up with plenty of batting and bowling. We also welcomed newcomer Zeeshan for his Ealing debut.

The match was reduced to 15 overs to make sure we finished before dark (just as well as even after just 15 each we couldn't finish before 8.10). Wembley won the toss and chose to field. Sam T picked up where he left off on Friday evening at Osterley, scoring freely and elegantly on a pitch that had more pace than one might expect at the end of April. Oliver took a little longer to get a feel for the pitch - and was given a couple of lives by dropped catches - but the fresh air shots and mistimed drives were punctuated by some clean hits. The run rate was helped by the fact that Wembley had only 10 men on the pitch for most of the innings after one of their number took a ball full on the knee cap (that makes a horribly distinctive sound) and had to hobble off to get ice on it. Sam (34 from 24) was out with the score on 84 from 9. Oliver (50 from 35) retired as soon as he got to his half century, and Zeeshan (13 from 10), Ben (14 from 13), Yusuf (10 from 6) and Josh (1 not out from 2) all contributed with aggressive cameos. We finished with an imposing 143 for 5 from our 15 overs.

Wembley's opening pair picked up the challenge and despite tight bowling from Munjot and Craig, got off to a decent start. In truth they were never able to get close enough to the run rate to put real pressure on us, and once Oscar removed their captain (stumped by Sam), the innings fell away. A steady flow of wickets (2 each for Oscar, Yusuf and Ben), and admirably accurate bowling by Tomek and Charlie through the middle of the innings set up a comfortable win by 63 runs - Wembley finished on 80 for 6. The ground fielding was generally good - particularly as we had only 9 fielders for three or four overs while Josh and Yusuf were having their cut mouths seen to (see below) - but two dropped catches give some scope for improvement.

A couple of special mentions: firstly to Yusuf and Josh who both took nasty blows to the face diving to field firmly struck drives. Great courage and commitment - particularly to have come back on to the field for the last few overs. And secondly to Sam who topped his runs with 3 stumpings.

Thanks to the U15s who stepped up at short notice and all contributed fully. And well done to Zeeshan: 13 quick runs and a catch on his debut.

Richard