The penultimate round of the season saw SHCC U11 Div 1 Gold take on Marrickville Crawford at Lees Park - a curtain raiser for the big Division 8 game to follow that afternoon (or was the Division 8 game the curtain closer for the U11/1 clash)?!
u11 Div 1 Match Report : Sean Richardson
Summer Hill Gold 140 def Marrickville Crawford 123
With James and Alexander both kindly helping out the Blue team, and Finn on school duties, Gold were sent into bat. Though the team have been quite successful at chasing down totals this season, this was a good pre-finals challenge to set and defend a target.
Isa and Mac opened the order and batted well through tough early conditions. Good loud calling and running between the wickets showed they’d paid attention during Assistant Coach Jonny’s drill the night before! Eli and Oliver cemented a solid partnership during the middle order, both hitting some lovely strokes, finding the boundary on several occasions, and converted several 2s from hard efforts between wickets. As the temperature and humidity rapidly rose, Henry and Cam rounded out the batting by putting pressure on the fielding team with some excellent shots and aggressive running.
At the much needed break between innings, the team talked through the importance of urgency in our fielding, always backing up, and taking wickets to help defend our total.
Cam opened the bowling with some tidy initial overs, and Ollie rattled the timber early with his trademark pace deliveries. Mac and Cam both took some excellent catches behind the stumps, and Eli and Isa teamed together for a great run out (again, great drill on Friday Assistant Coach Jonny). Isa, Eli and Henry all ended up with 2fers showing the importance of line and length… and bowling the ball on the stumps.
More than anything, it was great to see some excellent teamwork and sportsmanship from Gold. Positive talk in the field, checking on the opposition players when injured, and celebrating each other’s successes - all hallmarks of a champion team.
Finally, one for the cricket aficionados - a no ball, bowled by Gold, was caught in the field. With the catch given not out, the Crawford batters elect to take a run. Can they be run out? While far from a controversy, this unusual scenario tested our stand-in umpire (of course Coach Andrew was away this week)… and was ultimately determined to be a dead ball after consultation with the opposition umpire (with no additional run awarded). Did we get it right?
