Former Under 13’s v Bim Select XI
On Bank holiday it saw many players of past, present and of no cricketing experience take the field in Watchet, where former U13’s who have represented the club play against a make shift side put together by their former coach.
With keenness of the youngsters showing 17 players turned up to represent the youth and only a meagre eleven turned out for the more senior opposition. On nice day and a good wicket the captain for the under 13’s Phillip Milton won the toss and elected to bat despite the cloudy over head conditions and the white ball inevitably swinging!!
With the game being played in a good spirit the under 13’s allowed their
senior opponents an extra 2 fielders while they batted to try and even
up the numbers a little bit. 
The opening pair of Tayler Maddock (left) and Warren Knight (right) got the youngsters off to patient but steady start, due to the tight bowling of Steve Waterman and Fred Powis, however a bowling change bought a wicket.
Knight was dismissed LBW for 8 by the immense turn of David Milton!!! This started a mini collapse and soon the youngsters were 49-4 with David Milton dismissing two other former students with his spin, and the suicidal run out of Matthew Bowden thanks to the quick fielding of Martin Strong and the keenness of keeping the strike of Ben Saddington!!! At this point it looked likely that all 17 players could be getting a bat but come in Adam Bishop his first game in 3 weeks and with the support of Ryan Strong and Liam Woolgrove got the total ticking over and in the 24th over the hundred was bought up and Bishop had to retire for a nice knock of 33.
With Maddock back in the pavilion he managed to get hold of Andrew Woodward’s car keys and suitably entertained all players and spectators with some of his musical tastes including Daniel Beddingfield, Lou Begga, Survivor and S Club 7.
Philip Bowden was introduced to the attack and soon had Woolgrove and then followed it up with the dismissal of Chris Wookey (who had already survived a nippy over from Phil Sylvester) thanks to sharp reactions of Edward Martin who eventually picked up 5 stumpings during the 45 overs.
In the 34th over Jamie Milton walked to the crease and quickly bludgeoned 33 in 8 overs, 18 coming off of one of David Milton’s overs.
The youngsters finished up on 207-10, with a healthy contribution of 20no from Andrew Woodward. David Milton picked up 4-30 and Phil Bowden 2-10.
Bim’s
team opened up with the youthful players of David Knight and Ed Owen,
and with an aggressive 10 man slip cordon it looked like the youngsters
were determined to attack. The pace of Jason Strong and Chris Sully
meant their opponents couldn’t get the ball on the bat, let alone off of
the square!!
The picture shows Ed Owen facing Jason Strong with opening partner Dave Knight and umpire Andrew Pyne looking on.
Wickets fell at regular intervals, and the youngsters picked up the prize wicket of the dangerous John Harris, thanks to the well flighted ‘Basil’ delivery of Maddock and a safe pair of hands on Andrew Martin.
Bim’s team were finding it hard to find any gaps in the double blanket field set out by the youngsters and had to work hard for every run. Martin Strong showed some good resilience and was caught by Sully to finish on 29.
With the run rate low chances had to be taken by Bim’s team and despite Wookey dropping a dolley when barging team mates out of the way David Milton’s turn at the crease was short lived as he was bowled by his son (revenge for the first innings) for 7.
Mat
Bowden came on and started cleaning up the rabbits of Ed Martin and Phil
Sylvester a
nd
was well supported by Andrew Martin who was bowling well from the other
end.
It was left to Andrew Woodward to take the final wicket of Nigel Merrick (right) to dismiss Bim’s XI for 123.
Former Under 13’s 207-10
A Bishop 33
J Milton 33
D Milton 4-30
P Bowden 2-10
Bim’s Select XI
M Strong 29
D Knight 23
P Milton 2-3
M Bowden 2-8
Thank you to everyone who turned out, it was good fun and maybe next year we could get some 20 – 20 stuff going on with big Terry Woodward supplying the music?
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© Watchet Cricket Club 2005