Catlin’s Juniors Report: Week 3

Preston under13 vrs St Albans
Cancelled Rain
Preston under 14 vrs Knebworth
Cancelled Rain

Preston under 10 vrs Old Albanians
OA 229/6 Preston 252/2
On a damp pitch and wet outfield the lads welcomed OA to the rec, and on winning the toss Jacob decided to bowl. The first over from Jacob finished with him taking an excellent caught and bowled. A maiden from Arham and another wicket for James saw the first pair finish on 206/2. The next four overs saw a wicket for Awad on debut as tight bowling kept OAs to 215/3. The third pair batted well scoring a net 19 with Awad getting his second wicket. With four overs to go the score was 236/4. Our strong quartet of Harry (wicket maiden), Arham (wicket maiden),  Awad (maiden) and James (2) reduced OA to a final score of 229/6. A very good fielding display and some great stops by Nathan behind the sticks.
The reply was all about not getting out after last weeks dismissals. Jacob and Nathan batted sensibly to score 11 by taking the extras on offer. Awad and Bid, who look solid in his defence, played in a similar vain to leave us at 214/1 at the half way stage. Harry and Freddie stepped up to post 15 with Harry (7) displaying some lovely shots and finding the boundary. With the scores level James and Arham strode to the wicket and with Arham hitting 2 boundaries in the first over we were looking good. Some sensible defence by James and good running saw us on 250/1 entering the last over. An early wicket saw the parents get nervous but Arham found another boundary as we finished on 252/2. A game played in great spirit by both teams, well done boys on your first hard ball win.
Preston Under 9 vrs Hitchin
PCC 304/1 Hitchin 228/1

On a glorious evening in Hitchin, the under 9s lost the toss and were inserted. Freddie and Nathan started well with 13 off the first 2 overs with Nathan cutting a four. A couple of tight overs saw 6 scored in extras. The next pair of Xander and James found the boundary 3 times, with James dispatching the ball to the backward square boundary twice. They put on 29. The best innings of the day came next when Nid batted superbly to play some excellent cricket shots of drives and pulls to score 25 as he and Awad scored 30.Harry and Luke faced some interesting bowling which saw Harry bowled before he hit some powerful boundaries as the score went past 300 and we finished on 304/1, Harry scoring 16.

The bowling started well as Freddie got a wicket in the first over, Nathan then followed it with his first wicket of the season. Xander was up next and got a wicket thanks to a great catch by Harry. After 4 overs Hitchin were 199/3. Nid then got a wicket caught again by Harry, the next two wickets were run outs thanks to Harry and James. After 9 overs the score was 203/6. The next 7 overs saw some tight bowling by all as Xander got his second wicket and the innings finished on 228/7, to leave the boys winners by 75 runs.

Preston U13 v Knebworth Park 

KPCC 86/4 PCC 85/5
The final game of the week saw Preston entertain Knebworth. Losing the toss the boys saw themselves in the field. The first over saw what was a vital catch drop as the opener went on to make 30 runs. Tom Spinks bowled with pace to take a early wicket but we struggled bowling up the hill as the first 4 overs went for 27. Once the opener retired the scoring slowed with the slow bowling of Olly (1/9 off 4). Spinks returned to finished with 3/6 off 4 as KPCC finished with 86/4.
This was a going to be a challenging score, but with a top order who have all been posting 30 it should have been within range. Unfortunately Joe play on first ball and then Jack and Olly rebuit the innings with some well-timed drives and clips, but there were a lot of dot balls. After 11 over the score was 50 and we were on top, but the change bowlers then changed the game. Olly went bowled, then Luke after hitting a good 4 was also bowled, and then Jack ran himself out to leave us 57/4 off 14 overs. Some tight overs saw only 5 runs scored, and it then looked an almighty climb. But Oliver J had other ideas as he and Jack C started to time everything and Oliver hitting 2 excellent boundaries left us needing 7 of the last over. With singles off the first 4 balls Oliver was run out going for a single off the last and with Jack not managing to get the ball through the field with 3 needed off the last ball we came up agonisingly short on 85/5. A few lessons to be learnt from the game, but that’s cricket.

Ash