A moody sky provided the backdrop for the U13s 2nd game of the season up at the John Hawkins Ground as captain Zac came back with the news that we were to pad up and bat in the overcast conditions. Opening pair Charlie and Jake set about defending the good balls and hitting the loose ones, Charlie racing to a retired not out 31 with some lovely batting. Jake stood firm and held his bat till about 5 overs to go with some dogged defending and some nice off side shots for little reward. After a little upper middle order panic with a few quick wickets falling as well as some unwelcome precipitation, Lewis steadied the ship with some lovely shots and Daniel came in with a couple of glorious boundaries to inject some pace to the total. George and Zac helped deliver us up to three figures at the end of the 20 overs for the loss of 4 wickets, with Charlie and Jake primed and ready to come back in and finish things off if needed.

A strong Stroud team had 101 from 20 overs to win and set off in a considered fashion seeing off the opening bowling from Will and George for not too many runs. The bowling continued to be accurate with Zac once again proving very handy behind the stumps fielding the bowling extremely well. Charlie cleaned up one of their openers with a beauty and seemed to have another caught behind…? Everyone chipped in with the bowling today for little return - was one of those games where we found the edge many times, but the ball didn’t go to hand as it could have done. Some great fielding, in particular from Chloe sweeping on the boundary and firing in accurate throws was great to see. Stroud got to the required runs with a few overs to spare for the loss of a few wickets.

Hawkesbury U13 100/4 from 20 overs
Stroud U13A 101/1 from 16 overs