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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Neil Pande

Some morning showers did little in the way of providing a reason as an alternative to what was simply a mediocre performance by the HAMPSHIRE side against one to the contrary from Durham. With one of the fundamentals in this form of cricket being the avoidance of losing wickets whilst batting, the thirteen in our innings were far to many to be competitive as was our total of 29. The Durham boys bowled well as most of our batsmen failed to adapt to the irregular bounce of the pitch. Most, but not all. Special mention must go to Philip Heaven, who delivered his season's best with 11 not out with some fine hitting, and Neil Pande who played with real control. In contrast to the batting, we bowled and fielded well for the most part to a Durham side no doubt bolstered by their own effort. Bowled wickets fell to Ben Megson and Kush Warule with 2 each; Neil, Ronan Gogarty-Watson picking up one each. Catches went to Ben and Kush, with Ben's earning the magic moment. Neil was awarded POD for a fine all round game. While disappointed, the boys need just realise that this is the nature of sport: sometimes things don't follow the intention and you must accept quality play by the opposition. The answer is pick one's self up, learn from the events and come back improved for the next round. Thanks to Durham for the match. Thanks too to Bryan for umpiring and Susan for the scoring.

Durham | Player of the day:

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Middlesex | Player of the day :

Bristol | Player of the day: Yannick Wikramanayake

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Essex | Player of the day : Lachlan

Gloucestershire | Player of the day:

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : William Gibson

Good run for the Glamorgan boys on a shocker of a pitch. Several of the Ellerslie boys took one in the face off balls that just jumped straight up off a good length, but full credit to them all for shrugging it off and batting on. For Glamorgan, 4 players got into double figures with the bat – William Gibson smashed 29, Matty Ellis got 22, Archie Taylor 19, while Yash Culpeper notched up his highest score this season with 13 and got him a Magic Moment. Bowling - Oliver Holmes, Rupesh Laxman, William, Matty, Archie all got a wicket each and Dominic Shirreffs was unlucky not to get one charging in off his long run. Other Magic Moments today went to Rupesh for a superb throw resulting in a sharp runout and Matty got a Magic Moment for holding a great catch and a direct hit runout. POD though was picked up by William Gibson for top scoring today and also grabbing 1 for 1 with the ball from his 2 overs. Again many thanks to Brett Shirreffs for umpiring and Derek Holmes for running another professional scorecard.

Ellerslie Rennells | Player of the day:

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Essex | Player of the day : Ronan

Glamorgan | Player of the day: Archie Taylor

Previous couple of games Glamorgan came out on the right side of close finishes. This time it didn’t go our way and Essex thoroughly deserved to win it. Glamorgan boys just couldn’t put it together on the day, even though they came back towards the end with a few wickets it came down to needing another one off the last ball. It whistled through just missing the off stump, but fittingly disappeared for a bye. With the bat William Gibson top scored with 21 for Glamorgan and also grabbed the MM with a well judged catch in the field. Best bowling figures for Glamorgan went to Matthew Ellis with 2 for 11 and he also got a caught behind for the only other catch we managed to hold onto. Player of the Day was Archie Taylor who got 17 with the bat and bowled on the spot with 1 for 4 off his 3 overs. Thanks to Brett Shirreffs for umpiring and Derek Holmes for running the scorebook.

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Kent | Player of the day : Henk Tomkins

Great to have a rare game at Cornwall although the bumpy surface made for some interesting bounces throughout the match. Kent won the toss and elected to field and gave one of our best performances of the season with everyone working hard to keep the extra runs down to a minimum. Our bowling was also pretty tight with Josh Oliver picking up 4 wickets, Jacob Duffin 3, and Jack Rogers and Liam Thompson 2 a piece. Henk Tomkins gave his best bowling performance of the season with excellent line and length - great to see as he has been working hard on this at training. We managed to keep Devon's total down to 64 and asked the boys to concentrate on keeping the score board ticking over and not going out when we were batting - they must have been listening for a change as this is exactly what they did with only 6 outs in our innings. We had 5 batters in double figures with Liam top scoring on 29, Josh 25, Henk 20, Jack 19 and our fill in player for the day - Lachie Dixon - 15. Henk Tomkins picked up our POD for a great all round performance and also rewarding his hard work at training...keep it up Henk. Thanks to Lachie for filling in...I hope we didnt give up too many of our secrets as we are playing your team next week!! Thanks also to Paul for umpiring and Jo for scoring. Thanks to Devon for the game and good luck for the rest of the season.

Devon | Player of the day:

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Bristol | Player of the day : Amri Arshad

Leicestershire | Player of the day:

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Joe Southcott

Nice to be back at Cornwall for tonight's match against Dorset. It turned out to be a well contested match up to a point. Thereafter, Dorset took the game by the scruff of the neck and powered on to a very well deserved win by quite some margin. Sent into bat, the HAMPSHIRE boys batted well for the third week in a row against a competitive feilding side, losing only 4 wickets. Rocky Parsons and Philip Heaven continued their growing understanding getting us off to another solid start. The second partnership of Joe Southcott and Ronan Gogarty-Watson played very well together with both using newly learned technique to hit the ball well, Joe playing a superb cover drive, his first ever. With the score at 11, the third partnership of Darian Brook and Ben Megson continued where they left off last match stoking and placing the ball very well adding 33 without being dismissed. Neil Pande and Kush Warule were last up and they too played each delivey intelligently and with a combined confidence to take us through to a total of 67, again, without losing their wickets. Seemed a competitive total but the Dorset team were batsmen with fire in their hands delivering shots all round the ground. Superimposed on what was a disappointingly lack luster out feilding effort at times by some of our guys Dorset romped away to the win. Run outs went to Neil - a beauty which won him Magic Moment, Joe, Philip, Kush, Ronan, Ben and Darian, either singularly or in various combinations. The sole catch was a nice one taken by Ronan. In terms of bowling, some of us bowled very well at times but the opposition played to their strengths in a match of good spirit. POD went to Joe for a fine all round performance, one of his best. Many thanks to Mark and the Dorset kids for the match, Bryan and Anil for umpiring, and to Susan for being our scorer.

Dorset | Player of the day: Alex Williams. Capt Levi

Thanks for the generous words and a good contest Julian. Dorset for some reason decided they had come to play tonight and put up their best all round performance of the season. Levi was the only one to get the bails off with some tight bowling (Magic Moment) and the lads fielding was very sharp with Xavier and Alex holding well deserved catches. It was the batting that got us home though with every one of the boys putting in a big effort and really putting the pressure on the field. Our gross was 155 off the bat, but we suffered at the hands of some excellent bowling and fielding by Hampshire losing 33 runs in wickets/catches/runouts. Best batting scores of the season went to Xavier 25, Alex 31,Levi 28 and Lachie 38. Alex picked up the POD with some excellent fielding and 3 overs of tight fully pitched deliveries yielding only 12 runs of top of his best batting performance to date. Levi arrived just in time to win the toss for us and lead by example as skipper for the night. Thanks for the bbq Donna and Wilco, for umpiring Marlon and for keeping a very tidy scoresheet Prasad. Well done boys - a great performance.

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Gloucestershire | Player of the day : Alec Paton

Our Friday evening feilding wasn’t to bad but wides on the bowling and overthrows crept in at times allowing Durham to get twos and threes off what perhaps should have been ones. Our batting started well as we climbed into the late twenties for our first pair. We tried hard with our batting throughout the innings but we didn't get a good foothold in the runs and got some unlucky run-outs and lost wickets. Durham’s fielding was just a bit to tight and consistant. A reasonable effort from all the players with Alec getting “player of the day,” and Charlie scoring the magic moment for fielding some great throws back to the stumps.

Durham | Player of the day:

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Kent | Player of the day : Liam Thompson

A very exciting game that was decided in the last over of the match. Kent won the toss and elected to field. 2 wickets in the first over bowled by Liam Thompson got us of to a great start & some tight bowling by Josh Oliver, Henk Tomkins and our fill in player for the day - Liam Bracey - kept the sore down to 11 after 6 overs. Derbyshire then put together a couple of good partnerships that helped them amass 77 for their innings. Kent gave their best team performance of the season in the field with very pleasing committment and solid bowling throughout the team. Our run chase began well with 31 from our first partnership with some excellent batting from Liam Bracey. Things slowed down a little in our next 2 partnerships leaving Josh Oliver and Liam Thompson needing 21 from their last partnership for victory. Some excellent hitting from Liam in his total of 20 got us home and earned him our player of the day award. All in all a good days cricket - very exciting and played in a good spirit. Thanks to Liam Bracey for filling in - not sure we would have made it without him!! Thanks also as always to the umpires and scorers.

Derbyshire | Player of the day:

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Ben Megson & Kush Warule

Winning the toss on a fine morning at Michaels Ave, HAMPSHIRE took to the field first against the Devon boys. Fantastic fielding discipline and team work from our boys yielded 9 run outs against the running of the early Devon partnerships. In a great display, Ben Megson and Kush Warule were involved in 5 each, with Darian Brook and Rocky Parsons in 1 apiece. HAMPSHIRE bowled superbly also not allowing the batsmen anything easy and the accuracy delivered bowled wickets to Neil Pande, Joe Southcott and Kush with 1 each and a catch to Kush and a first catch to Joe - fantastic stuff which earned him the Magic Moment. All in all, a fine approch to the task at hand while bringing their skills to the match meant the HAMPSHIRE guys had a total of 38 to chase after the interval. The mature approach to the match continued with Philip Heaven and Rocky batting better than ever before working splendidly as a team in doubling their previous best, getting us underway with 17. With this solid start, Ronan Gogarty-Watson and Joe played well together, Ronan in particular hitting the ball very hard at times. With the team score at 14, Darian and Ben came to the crease looking to build on their last innings together and they didn't disappoint anyone, not least themselves. With technically correct powerful stroke making to all parts of the ground coupled with tremendous running, they compilled 40 runs taking the game away from the opposition. Last in were Neil and Kush with the score now at 54 and they continued the momentum in fine style. Top quality communication and running fueled by effort realised full value for their fine strokeplay and we ended the day on a winning total of 93. The improvement all the boys are showing in every aspect of cricket is very, very pleasing and they are entirely worthy of the pride of the coach and the delight of the wonderful supporters. It was impossible to seperate Ben and Kush with respect to the POD and they were joint winners of the award. Many thanks to the Devon side for the match, to Jiwan who did a fine solo umpiring job, working both ends, and to Susan for once again doing a top and much appreaciated job as scorer.

Devon | Player of the day:

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Dorset | Player of the day : Levi Simiona. Capt Alex Williams

Gloucestershire | Player of the day:

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : Everyone

Phew - another tight one right down to the very last ball! Some brilliant fielding in a low-scoring game of high excitement that had all the players, parents, coaches, umpires and scorers riding the rollercoaster for a couple of hours. Glamorgan only put 63 on the board through tight bowling and good fielding on a difficult batting track. No huge scores, but most got into double figures; Rupesh Laxman and Archie Taylor 14 each, Dominic Shirreffs 13, William Gibson 11 and Matty Ellis 10. Practice makes perfect and our boys knew they had to field like they never had before – and they did! Lots of runouts and a couple of catches, all wrapped into some great bowling from everyone. Good batting from the last Durham partnership brought it down to the last ball – they needed 3 to win, Oliver Holmes the bowler with all the pressure. Full length ball, nice on-drive, brilliantly piece of fielding from William who fired the ball back to the bowlers end for a game-winning runout. POD went to all the Glamorgan boys, everybody contributing in a top team performance against a good side. Lots of Magic Moments: Jessie Black’s miracle runout, Dominic’s career top score, Rupesh’s outstanding batting and fielding, Archie’s super catch, Matty’s 2 wickets and 3 runouts, Oliver’s last over and reflex caught n’ bowled, then William’s match winning runout. Thanks to Brett Shirreffs for umpiring and Mark Gibson for another professional scorebook. Kevin and his Durham boys, many thanks for an exhilarating match played in fun and competitive spirit. That’s what cricket is all about.

Durham | Player of the day:

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : John Powell

A beautiful morning at Michaels Ave and 2 teams with 8 players each. A little dew on the ground and the winning of the toss meant Ellerslie ASB chose to bowl first. The pitches on all grounds are very unpredictable but this didn't stop James (13) and Randima (23) getting us off to a brilliant start with 36. Jack and Sam kept up the pressure with a further 16 runs while Josh and John combined for 17 and 3 respectively, a great knock from Josh and a stoic performance from John. Adam and Danny finished off with 14 runs to give us a total of 86. The Ellerslie bowling was fierce at times and as the game progressed their fielding improved fashioning a couple of run outs and taking 8 wickets in total. Their response was nipped in the bud early on with the first 8 overs going for only 4 runs, John POD being the pick of the bowlers with a much improved effort. The next 8 overs for just 15 but the last 4 overs were plundered for 29 runs to bring an air of respectability to the total. A huge improvement in the field for Leicestershire saw a deserved win. The game was played in very good spirits and great enthusiasm from the spectators. Thanks to the Ellerslie ASB team, the umpires and scorers.

Ellerslie ASB | Player of the day:

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Lancashire | Player of the day : Hivin Diyagama

It was a lovely morning for cricket at Windmill Reserve. Captain Dhruv Chitta-Patel won the toss and quickly put Bristol into bat. Lancashire did themselves proud again in the field, with Bristol’s total after 10 overs standing at just 10 runs thanks to some great bowling and fielding. Stand-out bowlers were John Ryan (3 wickets for net -5 runs) and Luke Rabjohns (2 wickets for net 3 runs), and there were some great run-outs from John (2) and Shahriar Hassan, and catches taken by Zachary Wong-toi and John (off his own bowling). At the end of 20 overs, the Lancashire players had done well to restrict Bristol to a chase-able total of 59. The batting innings was off to a good start, with John and Hivin Diyagama amassing 41 runs off the first 5 overs without losing a wicket. Shayanne Reis and Zachary consolidated the innings, and Shahriar (7) and Oliver Brew (15) batted with confidence to see Lancashire past Bristol’s total. However, Bristol stepped up when it was needed and some good bowling and fielding meant that runs were hard to come by for Dhurv and Luke in the last partnership, and wickets fell a little too regularly. In the end the game was decided on the final ball of the match, which saw a wicket taken by Bristol to seal a 1-run win. Well done to all the boys for making it such a close game. Magic moment went to Shahriar for his long-range direct hit to effect a run out, while Hivin earned player of the day for a good all-round performance and top-scoring with the bat (22) for the second week in a row. Thanks to Rifat & Nicola for umpiring, and to Sungita for scoring.

Bristol | Player of the day: Billy Steed

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Dorset | Player of the day : Levi Simiona. Capt Alex Williams

Gloucestershire | Player of the day: Henry Briggs

Our batting today was not on form this morning. We stuggled at times with the only highlight being Emily getting 18 runs with no outs on her great partnership with Olivia. Dorset steady and consistant in their fielding diminishing our scoreline to 49. For our fielding we never really got a good foothold and we were fuzzy at first. We rebounded a little bit later in the innings but much to late to stop Dorset marching over the 100 mark. We had a sprinkling of great catches particulalry from John who got a magic moment flying catch. Henry had a good all round game, particularly bowling and wicket keeping earning him "Player of the Day."

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Essex | Player of the day : Liam

Ellerslie Rennells Jewellers | Player of the day:

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Yorkshire | Player of the day : Michael Woodard

Many thanks to the Middlesex team for a keenly played game in rather blustery conditions.

Middlesex | Player of the day:

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Middlesex | Player of the day : Matthew Casey

Matthew Casey received Player of the Day for bowling in gettign 2 wickets and fine batting display in the final partnership. Runs where hard to come by as Warwickshire bowled a good line and length in the whole innings. Our Magic Moment went to Levi Prentice for his bowling as well. He has toiled away all season and it is great to see all the hard work pay off when one gets a wicket. Well done to Warwickshire for their win. Best of luck fo rthe rest of the season.

Warwickshire | Player of the day:

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Bristol | Player of the day : Elliot Ching

Kent | Player of the day:

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : Dominic Shirreffs

They don’t come any tighter than this, so congrats to both Glamorgan and Dorset teams. Dorset batted first and rattled up bang on 100 boosted by an outstanding last wicket partnership. Overall a good bowling performance by the Glamorgan boys, highlights were Oliver Holmes and Jesse Black both finishing with figures of 2 wickets for 10 runs and Matty Ellis taking 2 for 2. Few dropped catches, heaps of byes and overthrows so lots to work on in the fielding department. Glamorgan batting improvement continued though as we cracked the tonne for the 2nd week in a row. Everyone in the runs again - Archie Taylor top scored with 21, Matty Ellis 17, Rupesh Laxman and Oliver Holmes got 15 a piece, William Gibson 10, Jesse Black 9 and Dominic Shirreffs who got 8. Magic Moments to Oliver Holmes for getting a couple of wickets and Archie Taylor for top scoring. POD was Dominic Shirreffs who hung tough right at the end and hit what turned out to be the winning runs. Many thanks to Chris Taylor for umpiring again, Mark Gibson for running the scorebook and to the Dorset boys for a fantastic match with lots of excitement and tight calls.

Dorset | Player of the day: Grayson Pronk. Capt Harsh

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : Samuel Davison

Another fine day interspersed with some light showers allowed all 4 games to go ahead on a park which is unsuitable for year 4 kids to play this many games on with balls crossing pitches every over from all pitches. Unfortunately another glaring mismatch with Yorkshire batting first and scoring 102, which would have been closer to 150 had the surrounding bank not stopped numerous pulls to the onside. The Leciestershire boys didn;t bowl badlyy but were hit to all quarters, player of the day Sam, managed to pick up a brace in the same over but only 5 wickets were taken in total. The reply was understandably well short with some fierce bowling from Yorkshire some of it virtually unplayable at that speed from only 15 metres. John who has only started playing this year was hit very hard on the fingers but was very staunch in carrying on. Higlights of the batting were Josh with 12, James with 15 and Adam with 15 for the second week. If the same number of players are registering for midgets next year, then somewhere other than Windmill needs to be found for year 4, there are simply too many "better" cricketers for such a small area. Thanks to Yorkshire for a well spirited game, the spectators and the scorers.

Yorkshire | Player of the day: Matthew

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Lancashire | Player of the day : Dhruv Chitta-Patel

Lancashire was unfortunately down to a team of just 6 players when captain Luke Rabjohns lost the toss and they were put into bat. The opening partnership between Luke and Oliver Brew netted 25 runs without losing a wicket. This was to be the continuing story of the innings with only one wicket lost and 101 runs scored in total. This fine batting display, the best of the season so far, saw Hivin Diyagama top score with 33 in a 53-run final batting partnership with John Ryan (20), and a valuable contribution from Zachery Wong-toi (16). With only 6 bowlers to choose from the bowling and fielding had to be first class - and it was, with 14 wickets taken during the Ellerslie innings. Hivin topped the bowling with 5 wickets from 4 overs and a net run total of minus 9, an outstanding all-round performance. There were so many magic moments in the game with 6 fine run outs and 3 excellent catches from John, Hivin and Zachery that they could not be separated. With Dhruv Chitta-Patel listening to the coach and improving his bowling he was awarded player of the day. If Lancashire continues to keep the wickets lost to a minimum and bowl tightly then the second half of the season looks promising. Thanks to Stuart and Nick for coaching and umpiring for the second week in a row, and to Ellerslie ASB for lending us a couple of players to assist our depleted team in the field.

Ellerslie ASB | Player of the day:

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Gloucestershire | Player of the day : Emily Jerrom

We got a bit loose and sloppy at times through our first innings of fielding against Devon. The bouncy ball off a dry slightly lumpy pitch seem to shake us a bit. There were some good highlights though with Henry getting a great catch of a bash. A couple of wickets of note were from Olivia and John with some good catches by Harry and Alec. Overall the bowling was okay with a good reduction in the number of wides. The overthrows and missed ball crept in however and let Devon stretch ahead to an impressive 104 runs. We lifted our performance for our batting innings with our first pair of Laksihta and Charlie. Both got some good clean hits away and good runs. By now it was evident that the half time lollies had kicked in with our second pair of Olivia and Alec who pushed our total to 68. The whole team did excellent calling on the running. Our last pair saw nail-biting all round as the big 100 loomed within sight. It was going to be close. Devon intensified their fielding nailing precious wickets in the dying overs with good bowling and fielding. John and Harry however dug in deep and changed tactics with excellent short hits clocking the singles up. Our batting dug us out of a hole and we pushed through to a hard won victory of 133. Top all round performance from Emily getting her player of the Day.

Devon | Player of the day:

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Essex | Player of the day : Oliver

Durham | Player of the day:

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Darian Brook

Lovely to be playing back on the hallowed Cornwall turf for a match against the Derbyshire boys on a great Friday evening for cricket. At the start of a contest played in fine spirit throughout, HAMPSHIRE won the toss and elected to bowl first. After a good practise session midweek the coach was looking for a quality performance in the field and wasn't disappointed. Utilising all the fundamentals required for success in bowling against what was an accomplished opposition batting side, the HAMPSHIRE boys picked up wickets throughout, due to accurate bowling by individuals and many to fine team work, ending up with 12. Bowled wickets fell to Rocky Parsons and Kush Warule with 1 each. The remaining 10 wickets fell to great out fielding with catches going to Ben Megson and Kush with 2 each and Saahil Bali and Rocky with 1 apiece. This was Rocky's first catch after much hard work during practises and justified both the Magic Moment award and his delight. Run outs were achieved by Ben, Darian Brook and Kush, Kaarthik Dangwal and Kush and Saahil and Kush. With a competitive score of 78 to chase, HAMPSHIRE opened up with Philip Heaven and Rocky and the two of them presented their best ever batting for the side just when it was required setting us off to a rolling start. Neil Pande and Kush were next at the crease and delivered some fine stroke play backed by communicative running in adding 24. The third partnership of Darian and Ben had the job in front of them at a crucial point in the match and met the challenge head on combining for 41 in taking the team score to 74. Kaarthik and Saahil then entered with bats in hand and they too delivered with a partnership of 37. A final total of 106 for the loss of only 6 wickets gave HAMPSHIRE a hard fought win, the best of the season so far. With 3 overs for only 5, including 2 maidens, and the top score of 22 without losing his wicket, Darian was deservedly the POD. Thanks to the Derbyshire side for a good competitive match. Many thanks go to Kaarthik and Saahil for filling in for absent players, Biju for umpiring and to Susan for once again doing a tremendous job in scoring.

Derbyshire | Player of the day: Shrey Varma

Derbyshire put on a superb display of batting on very pleasant friday afternoon. Everyone played some terrific strokes. It was a pleasure to watch such sweet timed off side drives. Poetry. Only problem was we came up against a team that feilded very,very well. They took all there chances. Losing 39 runs from going out so much gave us a defendable total. Just not an intimidating one... When it came to feilding we did pretty well. Some great throw-ins from the outfield, especially Shrey. Our bowling was good. But any stray bowling was dealt to severely. Saxon got magic moment with a smart and well judged run-out. He managed to pull a hammy doing it! Somehow. But with an ice cream after the match he made a miraculous recovery. Shrey got PoD for a great all-round display. Good work boys. You're getting better and better

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Middlesex | Player of the day : Harry Stanbridge

Game got off too a late start. We lost the toss and where asked to bowl first. Some fine batting from Surrey put on a solid opening partnership. Middlesex bowlers responded in the following several overs with Thomas McGann getting a double wicket maiden!!!! 4 wickets in a row .. amazing bowling and two great catches form the boys in the field. In all really good fielding from all the boys. Levi was presented with a couple of real screamers which almost stuck like glue. Great effort Levi. Everyone player was involved in getting a wicket (19 in all) in some way or the other. Surrey where given about 15 soft runs from poor over throws and not concentrating. (Wonder what Thursday's practice is gong to be on!!). In all Thomas got 5, James Davies got 5, Nik Leelaratna 4, Vib Leelaranta 2 wickets. In all our batting was solid, with good calling between wickets, and good shot selection ......... on occassions. Harry (16), Nik (12), Levi (5), James (15) and Zac (24). The win wasn't achieved until the second to last ball. Thanks for the great close battle Surrey, and to the umpires, scorers, supporters and the kids that played the game.

Surrey | Player of the day:

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Essex | Player of the day : Rishab

After a great start with both the ball and bat we couldn't make the most of the advantages we hald at various stages in the game. A fine last partnership from the Dorest batsmen saw them add 46 for the last pair. At the half way stage we had reached 47 but lost momentum from then on and could add 16 runs in the second half of the innings. Well done to Rishab for an excellent bowling performance to win POD and Nicholas for a direct hit to win the MM award. Thanks to Mark and the Dorset team for a game played in an excellent spirit.

Dorset | Player of the day: Max Jennings. Capt-Grayson.

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Gloucestershire | Player of the day : John Campbell

Our first batting pair of John and Henry withstood a barrage of fast ball from what seemed like a never ending series of Derbyshire fast bowlers. Our boys and girls tried hard with their batting and managed some good hits and runs when opportunities arose. Derbyshire however were quick on their feet during their fielding and throttled back our 3s and 4s. Things to improve on would be foot placement and batting stance on the crease which was a bit rusty. We also had a few miss-calls on the running. Our fielding saw Harry nail some good wickets on his overs with Olivia and Charlie doing some good keeping around the sticks. Lakshita, Emily and Henry managed to maintain some good lines with their bowling and Charlie as usual served up some very accurate ball. John got player of the day for a great batting and fielding effort. Harry got the magic moment for a brilliant catch which was one of many. Derbyshire the better team on the day edged ahead to a 70 run victory to our 42

Derbyshire | Player of the day: Andrew Mcluskie

I didn't see too much of the match. By all accounts Josh took a screamer of a catch from his own bowling. That earned him magic moment. Andrew continued his awesome improvement. His bowling is getting better and batter. You're getting some real speed and accuracy now. Batting was ok going by the figures. And bowling and feilding must of been pretty good to restrict Gloucestershire to 40. well done on a good victory boys

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Ronan Gogarty-Watson

Good to be back on the park, this time against Bristol. As has been the case all season, the match was played in a good spirit. Fielding first, the HAMPSHIRE bowlers were up against some very good opposition batting. Everyone concentrated hard and, indeed, bowled very well over all. Bowled wickets fell to Ronan Gogarty-Watson with 2 and Darian Brook, Neil Pande, Kush Warule and Rocky Parsons with 1 each. Joe Southcott, Philip Heaven and Randima Dodangoda all contributed with accuracy in restricting Bristol to 65. Some quality fielding, at times, backed up the bowling effort in restricting the flow of runs. Notable efforts were: a tremendous direct run out side on from the outfield by Darian, a run out to Kush then the two combining to complete a catch behind the wicket off Darian's bowling. When it came to chasing the runs with the bat Ronan and Joe opened up and, showing good concentration, in keeping out some nice deliveries. Neil and Randima were next in and exhibited some fine stroke play while adding 29 runs. In his best performance of the season Philip hit the ball very strongly while calling well in making 11 in his partnership with Rocky. The last pairing of Kush and Darian completed our effort taking us through to 53 which, on the day, wasn't enough to beat a well drilled Bristol - congratulations to them. POD went to Ronan for a good all-round performance. May thanks to Randimah for filling in for us and to Jiwan for umpiring and Susan for scoring.

Bristol | Player of the day:

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Lancashire | Player of the day : John Ryan

For the first time since round four Lancashire were back to full strength, having their former rep player John Ryan return from injury. John was duly made captain for the day and soon chose to bat having won the toss. This eagerly anticipated “Battle of the Roses” match got off to a cracking start with some big hitting from the Yorkshire batsman. Wickets were hard to come by and Lancashire did well to restrict the opposition to 76 runs. This was partly due to some improved fielding when under pressure. Stand-out bowler was Luke Rabjohns with 1 wicket for 2 runs in his 3 overs, including a wicket maiden. Hivin Diyagama & Druhv Chitta-Patel also picked up a wicket each. When it came around to Lancashire’s turn to bat the run rate remained low throughout most of the innings. This was due to some very tidy bowling from the Yorkshire bowlers who restricted the score to 38 runs. The last batting pair did well to double the total due to a fine captain’s knock of 14 runs from John with good support from Hivin. This batting innings, along with a fine catch, saw John Ryan being awarded player of the day. Magic moment went to Oliver Brew for hitting the only 4-run scoring shot of the game. Lancashire now has to hope that they can get a settled side together for the rest of the season and get back to the winning side of the final equation.

Yorkshire | Player of the day: Ethan

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : Oliver Holmes

Good start to the 2nd half of cricket by the Glamorgan boys. Batting first, we broke the tonne for the first time this season through 4 pretty equal partnerships and everybody in the runs – Matty Ellis (18), Rupesh Laxman (17), Archie Taylor (13), Jesse Black (12), Dominic Shirreffs (11), Oliver Holmes (9) and William Gibson (6) - Rupesh, Jesse and Dominic all beating their previous personal highest scores so well done boys! Defending 102 in the field we were a mixture of comical and brilliant. Scratchy to start with - couple of dropped catches, few wides, loads of overthrows and after their first 2 partnerships Devon were looking good in their run chase sitting on 60 with 10 overs left. The boys knew they were in trouble, but as it got hotter and hotter so did the bowling and fielding. The comical became brilliant and we restricted Devon to just 7 runs over their last 2 partnerships. 5 slick run-outs (Archie, Jesse, Oliver and 2 for William), 2 quality caught and bowled’s (Oliver and Matty) and 1 screamer of a catch at mid-off by Jesse. Magic Moment for Dominic Shirreffs whose batting practice on the beach over the summer paid off as he slugged his way to 11. POD was Oliver Holmes for a fantastic all-round game – 9 with the bat, held onto a great catch off his own bowling and a superb run-out. Thanks to Devon for a good competitive game and to Chris Taylor for umpiring at both ends.

Devon | Player of the day:

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Bristol | Player of the day : Lucas Dasent

Hampshire | Player of the day:

match report

Leicestershire | Player of the day : Adam Dryden

The first game back for the second half of the season was also probably the hottest, very muggy with little wind, although it didn't seem to affect the kids. Warwickshire's captain won the toss and was coerced into fielding. Sam and John batted first and despite a score of -1 for the first 5 overs, they have both improved markedly since the start of the season and that in the face of some good attacking bowling. Randima and Danny managed to get the score to 6 with Randima claiming all 7 runs and Danny's 3 erased when his wicket fell. Adam and Jack bolstered the innings with a cavalier 21, with Adam belting 15 of them and Jack keeping his end up with 6. Josh and James each claimed 7 apiece to post a modest 41 total, which in light of the opposition was not going to be enough. The lads did bowl and field well though and encouraged each other despite the onslaught, which was kept to 83 with some keen run outs, best of which was Danny shaving one stump to tease the bail off, and accurate bowling. All in all Warwickshire deserved their win and the game was played in very good spirits with good support from the parents and spectators. Thanks again to Lalita and Sam for scoring and Wilbur for umpiring.

Warwickshire | Player of the day:

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Warwickshire | Player of the day : Kamal

Our last game for the year before the xmas break and what a cracker!!! Today our opposition was Derbyshire and we were back at Windmill. We won the toss and decided to field. A hastily re-organised bowling line up saw Oscar bowl first and he got a wicket with his 4th ball. I thought all our boys bowled very well today, with only one over that really got away from us. Lloyd went great with only 11 runs off 3 overs, Kamal had 5 off his 2 overs, and Taylen 4 from his 2 overs. Matthew ( a super sub this week ) bowled superbly for only 11 runs off 3 overs and in the field made an enormous effort & almost held a classic catch. Ethan it must be mentioned bowled really well but without luck today. With our opposition batting well , wickets were at a premium and we missed a few run outs with either poor throws or forgetting to get behind the stumps to take the ball. But overall I was happy with having to chase 82. So our openers today, Oscar & Matthew got us going with a solid 25. Oscar finding his rhythm this week for a contribution of 17. No outs make such a difference. Rhys & Taylen followed and struggled to get bat on ball against some very quick bowling but gave us 10. Ethan & Lloyd followed and like the previous two found runs hard to come by but still got us a positive 6. Running between wickets is something we can work on following xmas, matched with some definite calling. So that left our final pair of kamal & Josh ( helping us out today ) a mountainous task of 40 runs required for victory. Well they ran on everything and even when there wasn’t one they ran anyway, turning ones into twos and even some coach killing threes. But getting us home in the end by a thrilling 3 runs.!!! Josh’s determination not to get out on the last ball saw him pull out a sweep shot that was so low that it not only kept the ball out but cleaned the pitch as well.. Kamal’s 24 runs saw him back to his best stroke making and running with determination that saw him earn Player of the Day. Well done to Derbyshire for a very competitive game and thanks to Peter G for providing the umpires, who did a great job. Thanks also to Andrew from our side for scoring. As this is my last game as coach before heading off back to Sydney & handing over the reins, I would like to say thanks to all the parents for helping me out over the last 9 weeks. Big congrats to the boys for some terrific cricket in the first 8 games. Keep up the effort, keep enjoying yourselves and the results will take care of themselves. GO WARWICKSHIRE!!!!

Derbyshire | Player of the day:

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : Jack Caldwell

The final game of the year against Hampshire and while the score suggests otherwise, it wasn't a walk over. The match was played in great spirits by both sides and all the boys gave it 100%. Leicestershire batted first and the opening partnership of 24 by Adam (13) and Jack (11) set a good foundation. John and Sam while scoring in the negative, both played some good scoring shots and are showing good signs of improvement from the beginning of the season. Dan and Josh chipped in with 12, while James and Randima rattled off 19, the highlight of which was a superb cover drive by young James. 53 was always going to be a tough score to defend but a solid enough start by the bowlers made it a seeming possibility. After 5 overs the score was just 8, Adam and Dan both picking up maidens. Josh was equally tight, then Sam got a pasting for 10 although his over was accurately bowled with no wides and a wicket to boot, well done lad. The enthusiasm continued and the score kept creeping up, the last couple of partnerships finished the job off for Hampshire, but not before John picked up another wicket and Adam and Randima took a couple of sharp catches. Well done to Hampshire, always a pleasure playing sides coached by Julian, whatever the outcome. Thanks to Forrest for umping, Lalita for scoring, the crowd for their enthsiasm and the kids for making it a good morning's sport. We look forward to the New year and some good weather to play in. Leicestershire wish you all a great 2010.

Hampshire | Player of the day:

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oxfordshire | Player of the day : Willaim Laughton

A test for the team in reduced circumstances: two players lost to Christmas already so a challenge all round. Notwithstanding our shortcomings the Oxfordshire boys (led by captain of ther day Isaac Verhulst) took up the challenge with bat and ball. Sent in to bat first Oxford set the challenge for Durham with a good total of 51 runs. Top score from William Wild (12 not out) showed how hard fought runs were against Durham's bowling attack. Solid batting from Durham clawed back runs on the board and while met with stiff resitance from the bowling of William Laughton (1 wicket for 6 runs off three overs) and wickets from Lewis Williamson (with a great catch also) and Max Hithersay it was still not enough to contain the Durham batsmen and their 96 was a great result for a well played match.

durham | Player of the day:

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Devon | Player of the day : William S

Xmas holidays left us with 6 players for this game and all the boys tried hard to fill the gaps. We managed to set a target of 61 to win against some slick bowling from Surrey, a great result from the boys. The quality we saw from the surrey bowlers was matched by there batsmen as they overtook our total and went on to score 105. Some stand outs for us was our catching and pressure on the runners, all the boys bowled well with William S being a stand out, taking 3 wickets and a runout to be our man of the match

Surrey | Player of the day:

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Kush Warule

Final match of the 2009 half of the season with the Leicestershire boys as the opposition. Must say at the outset it was a fine contest played in a great sporting spirit with both sides giving it their all. Certainly both coaches enjoyed the skill that was on show. HAMPSHIRE won the toss and skipper Ronan Gogarty-Watson decided to field first. Against some quality batting at times with the ball in hand we couldn't have got off to a much better start with Norman Cardon bringing about a run out off the second ball. Rocky Parsons continued his bowling improvement becoming much more accurate with his left-armers. Joe Southcott has also added to the quality of his bowling by doing some hard practise and it really shows. Same goes for Ronan with some obvious and pleasing improvement. The Cardon brothers, Norman and Stanley, have certainly developed their game from last season and were a pleasure to watch. Darian Brook, Callum Lowe and Kush Warule delivered quality yet again and while the former was unlucky to not pick up a bowled wicket, Ronan, Kush and Callum picked up one each. Good catches were taken by Ronan and Kush. In the run out department two players shone: Norman got 2 by himself while Darian got 1 and they combined for another which all helped in dismissing Leicestershire for a useful 53. HAMPSHIRE's first batting partnership of Joe and Ronan complied 8 without losing a wicket which was a good start. Next in were Callum and Stanley who, with some tremendous stroke making, added a further 33 runs. Rocky batted his best ever and with Norman took up the challenge next and they put on another 17. Last in were Darian and Kush and they combined well in all facets of batting in putting together 33. When all said and done, the partnerships delivered 91 runs and a good win. For an all round performance Kush deserved his POD award. Must say, we were very grateful to Stanley, Norman and Callum for standing in for absent players. Many thanks to Charlie and his side for the match. Thanks too, of course, to Forrest for umpiring so well and to Susan for another good job at the score sheet.

Leicestershire | Player of the day:

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Essex | Player of the day : Vidu

Another lost toss and batting first. After a slow start, Harry and Ronan had a great second partnership of 24 with no outs to kick start the innings. Solid batting from the rest of the boys saw us score our second highest total of the year. After the first 5 overs bowling we looked to be heading for a heavy defeat but the boys all picked up their game with some tight bowling and great fielding. The game was in the balance right to the second to last ball when 2 runs were scored by Notts to secure the win. An excellent, close game played in great spirit by both teams. Well done to Vidu for player of the day after his excellent bowling and Ronan for his direct hit to win magic moment. Merry christmas to everyone.

Nottinghamshire | Player of the day:

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Gloucester | Player of the day : Alec

We grabbed the bat first against a strong Middlesex team and got down to business right off the first ball. All our pairs batted and ran hard, piling on the pressure consistently through every over. Emily found gaps and sneaked excellent shots down slips and square leg. Harry and Charlie got some great deep hits off some of the faster Middlesex bowlers. All the team had top class run rates, with Alec trampling the grass at 36 runs. What was great to see wasn't just slogging the ball, but some great cricket shots from all the Team. Olivia up for the first over sliced a wicket on her second ball and later got a great runout, hitting the stumps from a flick of the wrist. We notched up further wickets from the quick reactions of John, Harry and Charlie around the sticks. Emily and Lakshita spun some nice accurate bowls. Likewise with Henry doing some straight shooting on all his overs and tidy keeping to boot. Charlie and John tamed the outer field with some excellent ball recovery. Alec grabbed two great catches from the covers. Middlesex pushed back hard at times and tried to break our momentum with some good clean hits to a point where we needed deep cover. We managed to hold our fielding tight and lowered the overthrow count with good backing up and ball handling. A great game and a great way to end the first half of the season. The Christmas stockings may be a little fatter than expected this year for such excellent all-round effort.

Middlesex | Player of the day:

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Yorkshire | Player of the day : Liam

Today was the last day of cricket for 2009 before we all have a (much needed) break. Our team arrived with their usual enthusiasm to play. Liam, our captain for the day, won the toss and perhaps against his natural inclination chose to bat. This was a significant moment for us as this was the first time this season that we have won the toss. We were at an almost full strength side with only Ethan away – still recovering from his trip to Samoa. We played our usual batting partnerships with only Alvaro who normally partners with Ethan mixing it up with other team members. All partnerships contributed well with the bat against a generally good attack. There were a few moments during our innings where the fielding side seemed to get on top of our batsmen; however the boys soldiered on and accumulated a respectable total. Notable moments included Matthew’s mastering of the slog sweep shot, some nice straight driving from Raghav and some big hitting from Liam. Once in the field we started strongly taking wickets regularly with some accurate bowling and typically good fielding. Bristol however were saving their best till last and came back at us with the bat in the second part of their innings amassing 47 runs for the loss of only three wickets. Well done to the Bristol batsman. Highlights for us in the field included some fine bowling from Liam and Stephen who was nursing an injured foot and included run outs by Matthew, Alvaro and Liam. Liam took a nice caught and bowled and for his all round performance got to look after the player of the day trophy for the summer holidays. Many thanks to Bristol for an exciting game of cricket and for being good sports.

Bristol | Player of the day: Lucas Dasent

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : Jesse Black

Batting first, Glamorgan didn’t quite put enough runs on the board and were chased down by Northampton in the last few overs. Our batting highlight was a last wicket partnership of 34 between Matthew Ellis who top scored with an elegant 19, and Archie Taylor who got 15 in very confident fashion. Our bowling and fielding was erratic at times, but there were some real high points. William Gibson bowled beautifully to finish up with figures of 4 wickets for 2 runs from his 3 overs, Rupesh Laxman did well again with 2 for 6 and Yash Culpepper picked up a couple of wickets too with 2 for 18. Dominic Shirreffs chased hard in the field - his bowling has come on sensationally since our first game. William Gibson got a catch, both Matty Ellis and Oliver Holmes took 2 catches each - Oliver’s second catch was the catch of the century with the ball hit so high it disappeared up into the clouds and when it finally came back down he lined it up to absolute perfection for our Magic Moment. In between we just gave up too many runs through mis-fields and overthrows – bit disappointing given the amount of time we spend on fielding at practices. Player of the Day went to Jesse Black who got his highest score this season – well done Jesse! Thanks to Northampton for a good competitive game, Mark Gibson for umpiring and Chris Taylor for scoring.

Northampton | Player of the day: Nabeel Azafer

Over cast conditions with warm temps at CCC17 Northampton faced Glamorgan, as Nabeel team captain for Northampton spelled out to his players that he wanted a WIN!!! with that in mind he let the umpire toss the coin and quickly called for Heads and he won the toss, without any further thoughts he asked Glamorgan to bat 1st. As Jake for Northampton bowled his 1st ball he immediately drew 1st blood and earned himself a wicket which put smiles on team Northampton. Callum our 2nd bowler also had a big grin on his face as he took 2 wickets with his 1st 2 balls and finished with just 1 run off his over, as Northampton had their Tails up and looked confident. Northampton fielded and bowled well as the match progressed as they took wickets from time to time which hampered the run scoring for Glamorgan, Over all there was good effort from Northampton players on the field. As Northampton openers went into bat for their innings they scored well with all their pairs and had consistent run partnerships as their last pair put of the Highest score of 35 runs which brought home the winning runs to the final score of 88. Thanks to the umpires, scores, and a huge thanks to Callums Dad for his BBQ which the boys all enjoyed and had a yummy feed, thanks to all the parents support, have a very merry xmas and a happy new year till next year.

match report

Gloucester | Player of the day : Lakshitha

We had a great game, with our batting and fielding coming together nicely. Harry got a great field catch and Lakshita got Player of the Day for some excellent fielding, batting and running. Alec won the Magic Moment for a maiden over and a great wicket. All the team played well for most of the game, with each player doing some great bowling and batting. All our pairs managed to get runs in the 30's. Ellerslie never gave up though, and fought hard to the last ball, getting away some good hits when chances arose. Our top shelf performance, however, gave us a great win with our highest score to date at 144.

Ellerslie ASB | Player of the day:

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : Yash Culpepper

Good team effort from Glamorgan and great to have everybody available for the first time since the opening game this season. With consistent scoring throughout the order, we were happy to finish with 60 given traditional low scoring encounters at Windmill - Archie Taylor knocking up our highest score with 17. Highlight was how we defended our score through tight bowling and fielding, especially at the death, to restrict Bristol to 47. William Gibson got a couple of wickets, Rupesh Laxman got his first wicket this season, Matty Ellis got 2 run-outs with direct hits, Yash Culpepper also threw down the stumps for a nice run-out, some good line and length bowling from Dominic Shirreffs, Oliver Holmes, Jesse Black, as well as the catch of the season in the gully by Archie which was our Magic Moment. Yash was POD for not only posting his highest score this year, but also getting his first run-out this season – well done Yash! Thanks to Bristol for a good close game, Mark Gibson for umpiring and Derek Holmes for scoring.

Bristol | Player of the day: William Thursfield

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Ben Megson

The drizzle faded away and an enjoyable match against Yorkshire played in fine spirit was the result. HAMPSHIRE won the toss and we decided to take the ball first. Most of the guys bowled well. Bowled wickets fell to Darian Brook with 2, Ben Megson and Kush with 1 apiece. Along with Callum Lowe, these boys stood out in bowling superbly. Rocky Parsons, Joe Southcott, Philip Heaven and Ronan Gogarty-Watson continued their improvement. Run outs this morning went to Joe, Kush and Callum while Kush took 2 catches also. Keeping the Yorkshire team to 43 was a very good effort against some good batting. When it came time for HAMPSHIRE to chase a winning total of 44 against a useful bowling attack we got off to an indifferent start leaving us with a negative deficit but the second partnership of Darian and Ben batted soundly playing some fine shots without losing a wicket in compiling 28. Unfortunately this good work was undone in the next partnership which put our score into reverse gear. Callum and Kush were last in and their score of 12 gave us a final total of 25 which was well short of the target. Losing 15 wickets is a very tough way to win matches and the HAMPSHIRE batsmen need to begin to think more seriously about how to play good quality bowling such as that from Yorkshire. Ben played a fine all round game and was a most deserving POD. Many thanks to Richard and his boys for a game well played. Thanks too to Bryan for umpiring so well again and to Susan for scoring.

Yorkshire | Player of the day: Stephen

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Devon | Player of the day : Ollie

The boys tried hard, but missing 2 players made it a hard day. batting first the boys faced a fired up Durham attack and never really looked settled we were consistently run out taking too many risks to add more runs, some fantastic catching hurt us too, and the Durham bowlers rarely missed the stumps when we missed the ball... however the kids had fun and Ollie bowled some great spells to be our deserving man of the match.

Durham | Player of the day:

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : Adam Dryden

Well another day and the penultimate match of the year saw us get hammered by a far superior team. It is blatantly obvious there are gulfs between teams like ourselves and Somerset. Whilst last season's player rating system was supposed to allow for more even sides, it has left a Premier League like situation with the top teams glaringly apparent and the lesser teams equally apparent. Having said that the whole idea, as I was led to believe in 2006, is that the kids have fun. I know our kids are trying very hard but are getting fed up of being leathered. This particular morning was no exception and bowling first was no advantage, as Somerset plundered runs, losing only two wickets in the process of accumulating 127. Our guys didn't bowl badly but any ball within hitting distance was dispatched. Half time oranges, a wee chat and the chase was on. Notable efforts were Josh (16), Randima (12) and James (11) notching up 80% ofhe final 52 run response. Played as usual in good spirits despite the dodgy weather and thanks to Samuel, birthday boy, for bringing a few lollies to soften the blow. Thanks to the Somerset umpire, who's name escapes me, Lalita and Sam for scoring again, the spectators for braving the weather and all the kids for their enthusiasm. Well done Adam for a good bowling effort to pick up POD.

Somerset | Player of the day:

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Essex | Player of the day : Harry

After losing the toss and batting first, we struggled for momentum in the partnerships against some good bowling and excellent fielding and catching from the Derbyshire team. A score of 45 was always going to be a struggle to win from. Despite this the boys bowled and fielded well and kept a strong Derbyshire team to a respectable total. Well done to Ronan for getting the magic moment (great square drive off the front foot) and Harry for Player of the Day (excellent batting performance).

Derbyshire | Player of the day: Andrew McCluskie

As a coachs, Rahul and I really enjoyed this match. Once again team Derbyshire feilded really well. We have been doing a lot of practice in catching. Today we took 12! Jamie the only 1 not to take a catch in the team and I think that's only because none came his way! Our bowling is getting better and better. Both Andrew and Saxon bowling the fastest I've ever seen them bowl. Come batting time our running between wickets was much, much better than last week. Really good effort there too boys. Special mention should go to our openers Shrey and Sid. A chanceless innings of 28 got us off to a good start which everyone added to. Saxon was in impressive form with the bat. Hitting some lusty blows. It seems there are other batters in good form on Windmill, too. We had a few feilders running across our wicket retreiving balls smacked by someone. We might all need helmets soon! Carry on loving your cricket boy's. You're all playing really well. Magic moment went to Sid for a beautiful, straight bat, off-side drive.

match report

Dorset | Player of the day : Lachie Dixon

Ellerslie never gave up depsite a lopsided scorecard. Still had a spring in their step and plenty of laughing etc all the way to the last ball - fantastic team spirit and a great demo of how cricket can still be a fun even when things aren't going your way...note to self! We had a great game as the score indicates. Max our Captain had a superb day with the ball, taking wickets with each of his overs. Xavier followed suit and really concentrated with his spell, rewarded in his 3rd over with a good wicket. Alex took a fine catch of Lachie's (POD) much more consistent bowling effort, and the rest of the team fielded crisply making any runs for Ellerslie hard won. Our super sub this week was Mathew Illing(sp?) who had never played competition cricket before. His bowling just got better and better and he was unlucky not to get a wicket. The pitch was a shocker and a bit of water on it made it even more unpredictable. So a bit of a gamble for both bowlers and batters. Alex opened with a great knock of 14 ably assisted by Xavier (8) who may have enjoyed contact a bit more if he'd got rid of his concrete shoes! No problem when he's running though and his calling was on the button today. Levi and Mathew put together a safe 15, before Zaiden and Grayson came to the crease. Zaiden managed a sweetly timed 22, while Grayson supported him with much improved running and calling making it into double figures with comfort. One shot in particular - a study in concentration - was rewarded with 4 runs and earnt Grayson a "Magic Moment". Lachie and Max then ran themselves to a standstill in their season-best partnership of 71. Max displayed some deft shots with good wrist work and Lachie's footwork delivered some fine shots too. A very entertaining partnership with plenty of near misses and time on their bums, but the bails stayed on throughout their innings. Thanks to Stu for looking after the scoresheet and to Dave and Mark for keeping everyone honest. Many thanks to Ellerslie's coach Ben for finding the fun for his team even when taking a loss.

Ellerslie Jewellers | Player of the day:

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Kent | Player of the day : Frank Anderson

After having lady luck on our shoulder for the last 3 weeks where we had sneaked the win in 3 very close games she obviously went to watch another game today as the bounce of the ball deserted us somewhat against Warwickshire. Having said that we were beaten by a better side so no complaints with the result and congratulations to W/shire for a good performance particularly with the bat. Kent batted first today and we never really got enough momentum to post a reasonable score with only Josh Oliver, Jack Rogers and Liam Thompson in double figures by the end of our innings. Despite taking 10 wickets to the 8 we lost our fielding was a little lethargic today and W/Shire pinched extra runs whenever they could and had surpassed our score by the 15th over so were well worth their win. There were however some highlights in our fielding effort with Frank Anderson picking up POD for 3 great overs taking 4 wickets and giving up no runs. Harrison Sommerville collected the magic moment for 2 great catches - even though one of them was taken when he was substitute fielder for the other team so ended up costing us a wicket...doh!! Ah well you win some you lose some. Liam Thompson had a good day in the field with some lovely bowling featuring a maiden over, 1 wicket, 2 catches and a very spectacular run out with a long distance throw for a direct hit. Josh also bowled well but for once his accurate bowling didnt get the reward it deserved and he collected just one wicket and credit to W/Shire for some good blocking when alot of his balls were on the money had they not defended so well. Congrats to W/Shire and good luck for the rest of the season & thanks to Stu for umpiring and Jo for scoring.

Warwickshire | Player of the day: Taylen Paterson

Our day didn’t start well with Oscar injuring his wrist and not able “to lift a spoon “let alone a cricket bat. So we went into the game with 6 and borrowed a fielder from Kent. Many many thanks to Kent & William their coach for helping us out there. So we won the toss and Ethan our Captain for the day agreed we would bowl first. Ethan led from the front and I thought bowled really well with some good pace & accuracy. He was well supported by Kamal, Taylen and Akshay ( our super sub for the day ) We did some good backing up at times in the field which is pleasing to see the boys remembering what to do automatically. We took 8 wickets and restricted Kent to 52. It should be mentioned one of those wickets went to Harrison a sub fielder from Kent via a nicely judged catch !!!!. Thanks Harrsion, I hope your team mates didn’t give you too hard a time. We opened our yet again reshuffled batting line up this week with Kamal & Akshay. They batted very well for 25 runs. Ethan & Lloyd were next and against some very quick, accurate, commendable (and you would have to add unlucky at times) Kent bowling managed only to get out once each. Staying in line, full face of the bat stuff, with no big swings was a sensible approach. Rhys & Taylen came in and got moving again for 27. Well done Taylen for no outs this week mate. It makes a big difference now it’s minus 3 runs. Our last 5 overs were shared amongst our core group with numerous partnerships contributing 13 in total. So in the end we got 72. Two fairly even teams today with probably only a few run outs here & there making the diff. Thanks to Sonja for scoring and Glenn & Sammy for sharing the umpiring. Congrats & thanks to Kent on a terrific game played in good spirits and best of luck for the remainder of the season.

match report

Middlesex | Player of the day : Vib Latarana

Friday evening presented us with fine weather and a very firey and bouncy wicket. Our opening partnership struggled agasinst some good bowling from Oxfordshire. Fine batting later on from James (18), Zac (20) and Harry (6), helped the team to a good respectable score. Oxfordshire opened their batting in fine style and punished any lazy and lose bouwling from Middlesex. Our bowling this evening was not the best performance of the season .. way too many easy wides and soft deliveries gave Oxfordshire unnecessary runs. Also our fielding was not upto our normal standard and we gave away several over throws. There were some spectular run outs from throws from the deep by James (2), and doubles with Zac and Levi and along with a couple of good catches from James and Saxon helped pull the target back. Final over and Oxfordshire got home. Good close game and thanks to Adam and his team, the scores and umpires and the kids and the Y4 Convenor (sorting out a techincal issue) made a great night.

Oxfordshire | Player of the day: IsaacVerhulst

Cricket on a Friday evening on a sunny day at Cornwall is hard to beat (some more olive trees to shelter under would add to the atmosphere). The prosepcts of our last Friady evening game for 2009 suggested a close, competitive and enjoyable challenge. Led by Captain of the Day Lewis Williamson we took the ball and set about putting all our practice to good reward with good line and length and special performances from Oliver Burkhardt (2 wickets for -3 in his frst over) and Lewis Williamson and William Wild with two wickets each. The bowling was again suppported by some good fielding. William Laughton was chased around the park by a series of high balls including behind the stumps which were well held. One disputed low catch was honourably resolved by Wiliam Laughton who confirmed he had not caught the ball. This demonstration of sportsmanship earned him a well deserved POD prize. Led in to bat by the dynamic pair of Wiliam Wild (16) and Lewis Williamson (21) saw a positive opening partnership of 37. Constructive batting and retention of wickets from the whole team was highlighted by Akshay Parekh (21) and a final partnership of William Wild and Oliver Burkhardt to overtake Middlesex's 86 in the lsat over keeping everyone on their toes. Great cricket everyone.

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NORTHAMPTON | Player of the day : Krishan Patel

Northampton's Captain Norman Cardon lost the toss and hence were put into bat as the Friday Evening sun bathed the Cornwall Cricket Ground warm Temps and Humid conditions took its toll as players looked sluggish and tired, As Northamptons openers started very slowly with their run score in the 1st over, but after 5 overs they reached a reasonable score of 16 runs off the opening partnership, Nottinghampshire's Bowlers bowled well and kept the runs hard to come by with Northampton's 2nd pair as they lost wickets and lost runs from the total. Last pair for Northampton picked up valuable runs in order to keep them in the game the pair of Krishan & Callum scored 32 runs partnership which carried their total run score of 70 runs. Norman started the 1st over well but Nottinghamshire scored runs at will as Northampton's team players did not back up at stumps and over throws amassed every over, Fielding was poor by Northampton as they also missed catches hence we did not win the match. Many thanks to all the parents, Umpires & scorers and everyone for their support, cheers

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE | Player of the day:

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NORTHAMPTON | Player of the day :

The game at Michaels Ave could NOT be played due to over night rain hence the Ground was closed.

Ellerslie Rennells Jewellers | Player of the day:

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Gloucestershire | Player of the day : Olivia Bullock

Back to the beloved Cornwall. We fielded first with a reasonably tight performance of good back-up, wicket cover and tidy throws back to the pitch ends. Everyone fielded reasonably well, despite the ball getting a bit of skid on the damp pitch from the heavy rain over night. Harry got the first wicket, with some great bowling. Likewise with Olivia, who scored “player of the day”. Charlie also grabbed a great catch. The 62 runs from Yorkshire were “reachable” as we went to the break. Our batting got “off the mark” at first with good pace, but the jandal slipped off the clutch some while later. Our batting got fuzzy and the running a bit out of sync as Yorkshire continued to screw down the fielding through our line-up. We exposed too much wicket, paying the price with only 23 runs.

Yorkshire | Player of the day: Raghav

Well things certainly looked rather gloomy prior to this match both from the perspective of the weather - it absolutely bucketed down Friday night – and from the perspective of the team - we were down three players - Ethan, Nathan and Liam. Surprisingly the weather cleared and three new players joined our team for the game. Many thanks to George, Matthew and Manav for helping us out. Michael, our captain for the day strode over for the toss – he called tails. The coin came up heads - Gloucestershire elected to field. Our sixth straight loss – we definitely need to put some practice in here. Matthew and Raghav opened with moist field conditions making it hard to get the ball away against a concerted bowling attack. Alvaro and Michael followed upping the run rate without losing a wicket. They were followed by Stephen and George who continued to amass runs steadily. Our helpers Matthew and Manav also contributed with a nice partnership without losing a wicket. Our guys once again played sensible cricket with the bat - we only lost three wickets. Stephen opened the bowling from the western end with Michael wicketee. It very quickly became apparent that Gloucestershire was a team that employed the tactic of “suicide running” as Matthew Sansome so nicely put it. Our guys adjusted quickly taking aim at the stumps as the opposition came running through in wave after wave. We started to take wickets – still Gloucestershire challenged our field undeterred. The cricket was fast and exciting – there were some magic moments – Stephen threw a direct hit from 32 meters, Raghav took a terrific catch as wicketee off Matthew Sansome’s bowling – Michael took a nice catch at point – Alvaro, Matthew, Stephen all contributed with runouts. Gloucestershire placed themselves under increasing pressure as they were forced to take more risks to peg back the ever increasing runrate. This eventually became insurmountable. Another excellent team effort from Yorkshire both with the bat and in the field. Congratulations to Raghav for player of the day for a solid all round performance. And thanks to the Gloucestershire team for a fast moving game of cricket.

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : James Philpot

Luckily for us we were playing in a pitch which was open for business. Windmill reserve isn't favoured by many teams but it serves a purpose and is the same for both sides. The weather was very kind and it was a warm, windless morning appreciated by all. Oxfordshire lost the toss and were put into bat. Randima, still recuperating from his broken leg, bowled first and some slack keeping allowed 7 runs. The slack keeper, Adam, then redeemed himself in spades with a bowled a caught and bowled and pegging back 2 runs to leave the score on 5. Josh and Danny kept things neat and tidy only giving up 3 and 2 respectively. Jack got a bit of a slapping for 6 off his first foray, while James evened things a little taking a wicket for just 1. Our two, ever improving, novices Sam and John only allowed 3 and 2 from their first bag keeping the score to a respectable 22. Oxfordshire were batting well and it was a good contest with the fielding side holding their own too. Randima redressed the balance with 2 good wickets in his second spell and by the time the boys had bowled twice Oxfordshire were on 32. James grabbed another wicket, thanks to a clean bowled,and this effort rightly earned him player of the day. Jack gave up 6 runs in his second spell but robbed the bank by taking two wickets in the same over, denying the runs on the board. Oxfordshire batted well, and while 47 doesn't seem a big score, it's worth noting the grass was a touch too long and the boundaries were short. A good score from them and a very pleasing bowling and fielding effort from the Leicestershire boys. Samuel and John were the first pair up, after the half time oranges, and batted valiantly in the face of some fast accurate bowling from the Oxfordshire lads. John scored no runs but did well to keep the wicket protected, Sam wasn't so lucky and was cleaned up 4 times. -10 on the board but not unsurmountable. Josh top scored with 11, paired with James who contributed 2. The most fruitful partnership was Danny and Jack who hit 9 and 10 to all parts and enjoyed it. Adam kept a clean sheet and notched 6 while Randima (who had a runner for the second week) got a miserly 3. 31 was the final score for Leicesterhire, not quite enough on the day but a good performance from the Oxfordshire team gave them a deserved win. Well done to both teams, an enjoyable days cricket for all involved. Thanks to Lalita for scoring again, much appreciated, both sets of spectators, and the Oxfordshire umpire. Magic moment went to John for clean bowling Oxfordshire's best batsman.

Oxfordshire | Player of the day:

When the heavens ahd spent the previous day watering the pitch and everything else the dawning of a bright blue day was a pleasant relief. We quite like Windmill Road notwithstanding its particular shorthcomings. The shelter of the trees provides helpful shade in the morning. Led into a competitive match against Leisterchire by Captai of the Day William Wild we found ourselves bating first with a dewy and lush outfield. Runs proved hard to find and a total of 47 appeared below par. Top scores from Lewis Wiilliamson (10) and Willaim Wild (10) showed resistance against good bowling and put pressure on our feilding effort to demonstrate good line and length and support from the fielders. This proved the case as Lewis Williamson ripped through theLeicestershire batting with a POD performance of six wickets for -13 from three overs. Good teamwork in the field supported the efforts with the ball and included a great catch from Max Hithersay.

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NORTHAMPTON | Player of the day :

The Michaels Ave Grounds were CLOSED due to over Night rain, so NO game was played

Ellerslie Rennells Jewellers | Player of the day:

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Kent | Player of the day : Jacob Duffin

Kent seem to be perfecting the "lets snatch victory from the jaws of defeat" game plan after our third victory in as many weeks by under 5 runs secured in the last over of the match...exciting games but not good for the coaches nails! Kent won the toss and sent Surrey in to bat. Our bowling and fielding was pretty good today with Josh Oliver putting in his usual firey accurate spell picking up 4 wickets for -3 runs taking his tally for the season back to -1 run given up off his bowling...great stuff. Josh had good support in the bowling attack from Jacob Duffin with 2 wickets giving up only 1 run and Frank Anderson also with 2 wickets for 5 runs. Some good tight fielding by the boys managed to restrict Surrey to 51 and just as well as Surrey bowled and fielded very well taking 14 wickets during their innings. There weren't too many highlights in our batting performance today with some poor shot selections and indecisive running betwen the wickets being capitalised on by the consistent Surrey bowling. Liam Thompson was the stand out batter today with 23 runs and his partnership with Lachie Dixon (filling in for Harrison) brought the team home....just!! Jacob Duffin picked up our player of the day for his excellent bowling & Frank picked up the magic moment for the best cover drive of the season to date. Thanks to Lachie for filling in for us, Jo for scoring and Paul for umpiring and thanks to Surrey for the game and good luck for the rest of the season.

Surrey | Player of the day:

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Philip Heaven

After the night's downpour it was a pleasure to find Windmill Park in splendid condition for the six-a-side match against Warwickshire. HAMPSHIRE batted first and showed some improved skill but runs were hard to come by against some good bowling and top fielding. Ronan Gogarty-Watson certainly hits the ball with real power when he gets on to one. Joseph Southcott, Rocky Parsons and Philip Heaven concentrated very hard on their technique. Kush Warule and Darian Brook batted beautifully with a real awareness of how and when to run to gain full value for fine strokes all round the ground in scoring the bulk of our total of 28. Darian was the standout with the high score of 24. So, it wasn't a big total to defend but we set about it in tremendous style with great concentration and effort not to mention a healthy and welcome amount of competitiveness. HAMPSHIRE claimed 17 wickets in all: Darian and Kush both claimed 2 direct run outs and combined for 2 others with both combining with Philip for another each while Joe got 1 too. Catching form was outstanding with Philip taking his first for the season, Kush taking 2 and Ronan taking a caught and bowled as part of a near hat-trick. Our bowling was of good quality in the face of fine striking by the opposition and clean bowled wickets fell to Rocky, Ronan, Kush and Joe. Philip was the well deserved POD for what was without question his very best match by miles. Many thanks to the Warwickshire side for a game played in a great spirit and well done to them on the win. It was such a good encounter and with our guys fundamentally improving out of sight in some areas that the loss was no big deal as far as the proud coach was concerned. Thanks to Anton for scoring once again and to Anil for umpiring.

Warwickshire | Player of the day: Ethan

For a game that 24hrs earlier I didn’t think we were a chance of playing, we arrived at Windmill Reserve down to six players to find our opposition in the same boat. So a game of super sixes ensured. Actually, Warwickshire were probably 6.5 as a fill in from Dorset, Xavier, joined in mid game. We fielded first and led by Rhys, our captain for the day and opening bowler, we started on fire taking 3 wickets off the first 6 balls. What a start!!! He was supported in bowling by Lloyd, Ethan, Oscar & Kamal who all had minus runs off either their first or second overs. Our practice session last week had us throwing down the stumps and we brought this to the game in spades, with some terrific direct hits from the field. Special mention to Oscar who threw down the stumps on 3 separate occasions, one of those practically from the car park!!! That had to be a magic Moment if ever there was one. Ethan earned Player of the Day for a brilliant low down catch as well as a run out from wickie. So we did some good work in the field and I think the boys thought job done. We opened with Oscar & Lloyd this week and in the face of some accurate bowling, solid catching and the occasional poor run call we struggled to 10 runs. Rhys & Taylen in next and again found hard to get bat on ball. When we did, we found the fielder and probably should not have run. Kamal & Ethan played some better shots and put on 18 for us. Xavier (our fill in) brought us home with an over each from our first 5 batters. We kept moving forward which was the instruction going out there. So in the end we got the runs in a game where bowlers & fielders from both teams dominated and did a great job but let themselves down a bit with the bat. That sounds like the Blackcaps mantra. ( sorry ) Thanks to Glenn for umpiring & Andrew our resident scorer. Also to Xavier for making the effort and helping us out. Many thanks to Julian & Hampshire for a game played in good spirits.

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Lancashire | Player of the day : Oliver Brew

Both teams were down to 7 players when the Lancashire captain Shayane Reis won the toss and sent Somerset in to bat. The overnight downpours had done little to the pitch, which played well. Up against a much stronger team on paper (again), Lancashire did well to restrict Somerset to 80 runs. However, a couple of missed easy run-outs and some wild throwing in the field could have seen a smaller total to chase. Hivin Diyagama, with 2 wickets for 7 runs, and Shariar Hassan, with 2 for 14, were the stand-out bowlers. With some poor batting, the Lancashire team was always going to struggle to get near the total and quickly fell behind the run rate [just like the Black Caps!]. A mixture of good bowling from Somerset and some poor decisions cost Lancashire 11 wickets this week. Player of the day went to Oliver Brew who opened the batting against some fierce bowling and also took a wicket. Magic Moment had to go to Shariar for a magnificent catch in the field. Some more practice next week will pay dividends for the Lancashire team who are still missing their only rep player who remains injured.

Somerset | Player of the day: Christian Smyth

7 players a side put pressure on the boys to take additional responsibility and which they did. Yash batted brilliantly well supported by Christian and Kaarthik. Saahil scored a valuable 15 runs too. Overall a team performance in batting. Chris bowled well bowling 3 overs gave 1 runs and took 2 wickets. Nick, Saahil and Yash bowled well taking wickets too. William had a great bowling spell and took 2 wickets. Great wicket keeping by Olwyn. All these efforts limited the scoring chances for Lancashire who batted well and put Somerset under pressure. Thanks to Jeremy for scoring as always. Shalveen for umpiring. Magic moment to Olwyn for billiant keeping.

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Bristol | Player of the day :

Essex | Player of the day:

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NORTHAMPTON | Player of the day : Norman Cardon

Sunny Late Friday Evening at Cornwall Cricket Club and Team Northampton's Captain Krishan called Heads to win the toss and without any hesitation elected to put Middlesex into bat. Northampton started well with their 1st over by giving just 3 runs on the board. Fielding from Northampton was a little lack luster and giving Middlesex unnecessary runs on over throws and missing catches which should have been held, which cost vital runs to Northampton, the Bowlers also did not help by bowling wides upon wides which again gave Team Middlesex run feast which did not help Northampton. As Northampton went into bat with their opening batsmen knowing that they had to score more then 85 runs to win the game it put them under pressure as they lost their 1st wicket in the 1st over and just put on 5 runs to open their account for Team Northampton. As Middlesex bowled well and applied pressure from the start Northampton lost wickets regularly and from then it was all down hill with a team score off 68 runs. Thank you to the umpires and scorers and all the parents support, many thanks indeed from the coach, cheers.

MIDDLESEX | Player of the day: Matthew Casey

Firstly I would Like to pass on my sincere condolences to the Smyth family for their loss early in the week. Young Christian who plays for Somerse lost his father suddenly. Christian .. our prayers and thoughts are with you and your family. We where back to a full strength team for this Friday night game. The winds had died down and made the evening more pleasant. We lost the toss and where sent into bat, A brilliant opening partnership .. best of the season of 30 by our POD Matthew (16) and new comer Harry (14) set a great platform from which to launch. Good contributions from James (19), Zac (19), Nik (8) and Vib (7) helped us to a good total to defend. Tight early bowling from Harry was magical. No wickets, but good line and length, Good fielding from his team mates paid off after Thursdays practice. And good encouragment from Matthew to cheer his team mates on. Good bowling by all, with James just missing out on a hat trick. Grab 4 wickets to add to his telly. A few dropped catches, but the effort to get to them and tidying fielding by all the boys was encouraging to see. Well done boys. Remember to concentrate and have fun. No point yelling at you!!! Our Magic Moment went to Levi for his best game in the field so far this season. HesSnared a couple of run outs. Brilliant!!! Thanks again to Viraja for umpiring out in the middle .. defenitely a tough place to be sometimes. And always a big thanks to the scorers and Team Northhampton. Best of luck for the rest of the season.

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Lancashire | Player of the day : Shayane Reis

The Lancashire team were two players down, so did well playing against a strong Oxfordshire team. Oxfordshire batted first and made 106 runs. The best of the Lancashire bowlers were Liam Thompson (standing in for the injured John Ryan) taking 3 wickets for 14 runs; Oliver Brew taking three wickets for 20 runs; and Luke Rabjohns taking two wickets for 15 runs. The Lancashire batting saw Liam Thompson score 25 runs, Shayane Reis 12 runs in a total of 55 runs. Shayane was player of the day for a great batting effort and a wonderful throw at the stumps to achieve a run out. Liam Thompson was awarded a the Magic Moment for an excellent catch & 3 wickets in one over (yes two special moments for Liam!). Better luck next week Lancashire!

Oxfordshire | Player of the day: Isaac Verhulst

Like Lancashire Oxfordshire were two players short and managed to field a full team with the kind help of Yash and Kaarthik (many thanks to you both). Led by Captain of the Day Akshay Parekh into bating first the opening partnership of Akshay and (POD) Isaac Verhulst put on a sensatinal 34 runs. This helped the untired partnerships in the middle order before the inings was closed off by a well compled 27 by Willaim Wild and Lewis Williamson seeing Oxfordshire break te ton for the second time this season. A noticable improvement from our last outing saw some much better committment in communicating as batting pairs. The bowling was fantastically supported by some special fielding performances with Max Hithersay off the ground to collect one catch at midwicket, while Yash majic moment) snaffled two great catches behind the wicket off the fast and bouncing bowling of William Wild. Good signs of improvement from everyone (yes even Lewis Williamson who has finally been dismissed in an inning with the bat tis season!!).

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Warwickshire | Player of the day : Oscar

WOW!!! What a terrific game of cricket with both teams scoring over 100 runs!!! This week saw us at Windmill to take on Gloucestershire. We again loss the toss and our captain for this week , Lloyd agreed with the decision of the other captain that we would bat first!! Thomas & Oscar opened up and smashed 46 for their best opening stand yet. Thomas didn’t want to leave anything in the tank, as he is away till after xmas now. What will Oscar do without his partner in crime at the crease?? Lloyd & Jack combined terrifically well this week, getting away some great shots for 2’s & occasional 3’s to get a solid 19. Jack is also off now till after xmas for a trip to England. Keep practicing that bowling action while away Jack. It is getting better each week. Rhys & Taylen partnered again well , with Rhys taking the lead role ( I think they take it in weekly turns to score the majority of the runs ) Kamal was partnered with Ethan today and they ran well at the end for a total of 108.. So with 108 on the board and a wicket off the very first ball, via a good catch to Taylen, I think the boys thought they were home already. But some good stroke play from our opposition saw the match evenly poised all the way through. Ethan stamped his authority in the field with a fabulous low down catch off a nicely hit on drive.( Magic Moment 1) A few missed run out opportunities due to panic saw the game getting closer & closer. Rhys took a screamer of a catch at wickie ( Magic Moment 2) at a vital time to get our noses back in front. So into the last over, the call comes out, 14 needed for Gloucestershire to win. Thomas is the man with the responsibility for bowling the last over today. Their was some earlier speculation that if it got too close our coach may need to revisit the Greg Chappell school of bowling tactics. LOL .. But that was not needed today thankfully as Thomas delivered like a pro only giving up 5 runs.. Player of the day was a close run affair but the votes went to Oscar for a great All Round performance. Special mention must go to Thomas. He battered superbly and bowled even better and yet got pipped by a nose for POD. Thanks to the umpires and Andrew our scorer ( yet again ) for assisting. Big thanks to Gloucestershire for a terrific match played in good spirit.

Gloucestershire | Player of the day: No one

This Saturday morning didn't see us getting off on the front foot with our fielding. We were a bit lack-lustre for much of the early to mid-batting lineup, only gaining a little composure late in the order. Despite a lot of our bowling being reasonably accurate and down the line, Warwickshire still managed to smash their way into the 60's by their second pair, pushing through to an impressive 108 runs. With big numbers to chase, the whole team seemed to pile on the pressure right from our first batting pair. All our team managed to get some good whacks away off some stiff ball from Warwickshire. Despite this, we clocked up an unprecedented number of lost wickets due to our overcooked running. We cracked the ton with 101, but still fell short. No ice creams on the way home this time.

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Bristol | Player of the day : Matthew Carey

Durham | Player of the day:

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : Randima Dodangoda

Perhaps one of the colder days to play on an unprotected ground, with a chilly SW making sure those who had brought jackets, were glad they had and those who hadn't wished they had. Well Nottingham lost the toss and our Captain Josh decided to field first. With Randima, our only rep player, back from his broken leg and playing at 50% first up to bowl, the team were confident. His first over produced -1 runs and a wicket. Danny followed up with 3 off his over and things were looking promising. The opening Nottingham pair however picked up the pace, helped by a number of wides,and put on 26 for the first 5 overs. Another 23 off the next 5 overs with more wides, despite another maiden from Randima. Runs came steadily from the more experienced Nottingham players and a total of 86 was set to chase. The batting was even worse than the bowling with John scoring -2 meant only 5 runs from the opening pair with Josh contributing 7. The Nottingham bowling was there to be hit but was more often missed; James had a nightmare getting -7, while Danny snagged a noteworthy 10. Worth mentioning that Josh (fielding for the other side) took a searing catch at mid wicket to get the Magic Moment, an ironic measure of the day's play. Samuel (2) and Randima (11) made 13 with Randima having a runner due to his cast being taken off only a week previously. With the game all but lost, the senior side's opponents decided to have a game of football on our pitch while we were playing; exceedingly bad manners. Adam and Jack came to the crease with 65 needed. Due to the time being almost 10.30 we agreed to play one over of the last 5 and multiply the pair's score by 5. Adam belted 4 and Jack 5 giving a total of 45, probably inflated, but given the time constraint it made the score more respectable. Thanks to the Nottingham umpire (not sure of your name) who did a superb job as did the other bloke. A good game played in good spirits and enjoyed by the fans and parents, despite the cold. Thanks to Lalita and Sam for keeping the score - greatly appreciated as always.

Nottingham | Player of the day:

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Essex | Player of the day : Lachlan

After winning the toss and bowling first we restricted an under strength Ellerslie to 43 runs. Despite not bowling to our potential some fine catching (esp by Rishab) and good ground fielding helped keep the total down. Batting second we reached our highest score for the season with good consistent partnerships right through the innings. 7 of the boys all reached double figures which was a great effort. Lachlan had a fine allround match and desrved player of the day while magic moment went to Harry for a beautiful cover drive. Liam top scored with 27 and shared a fine last wicket partnership of 48 with Nicholas. A fine win for the boys after 4 defeats.

Ellerslie ASB | Player of the day:

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Devon | Player of the day : Kabir

Wow, what a game. The boys batted first and had to defend some slick bowling as the overhead conditions had the ball swinging around and pitch which had plenty of grass on it, was offering assistance to the bowlers, survival was the first priority. William S and Ollie did just that as the blunted Ellerslie's attack, like test openers and at the end of their partnership strode off with our total on 1. Next in were Filippo and William, a strategic move here, while pitch was offering plenty of assistance Filippo took the attack to Ellerslie with William playing a great supporting role knocks of 23 and 19 respectively saw our total hit 37 at the halfway stage. Next in Lachlan and Harrish again demons in the pitch played a part and the boys defended our total as they added a further 6 runs. Last in were Jack and Kabir and you could be forgiven for thining it was guy fawkes, these two batted strongly with no outs as they added a further 45 runs bringing the team total to 88, but will it be enough.... Our bowlers limbered up and got straight into their work, ironically the chase got to 1 also at the end of the first partnership, Lachlan contributing with -5 off his first over. The next pair came out to bat and wickets tumbled as we saw 1 bowled, 3 run-outs and 2 catches and they were on -6 at the halfway stage, the third partnership fared no better and the score remained at -6. Finally the last pair came out but continued pressure by Devon which saw 8 catches, 5 run-outs and 4 batsmen bowled, complimented by tight fielding to restrict runs being scored saw Ellerlie reach -4 at the close. Huge effort boys, William L 19, Filippo 23, Kabir 21 and Jack 24 set the foundation, an outstanding fielding and bowling effort from all the boys.

Ellerslie Renell Jewellers | Player of the day:

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Yorkshire | Player of the day :

Glamorgan | Player of the day: Rupesh Laxman

Really strong bowling performance from the Yorkshire boys who gave us a good old-fashioned spanking. Track suited the twins in the Yorkshire team who bowled fast and were well supported by their team-mates. Rupesh Laxman and Matty Ellis shared equal top score with the bat, Jesse Black won a Magic Moment for a glorious drive through long-on, while William Gibson, Dominic Shirreffs, Yash Culpepper and Oliver Holmes never took a backward step even though the ball was zipping through and around them. All-in-all some positive scores, some negative scores, poles got knocked over a few more times than we would have liked, but this was a good learning experience for our boys who have not been exposed to that bowling speed before now. Yash got a MM for his batting grittiness – also made a right decision in the field by ducking under a tracer-bullet heading his way at square leg that would have otherwise required surgical removal. Well done Rupesh on your POD – solid with both bat and ball, topped off with a nice catch in field. Thanks to Brett Shirreffs for umpiring, our official team scorer Derek Holmes and the Yorkshire boys for showing our boys what level they need to aspire to.

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Dorset | Player of the day : Max Jennings

A game to instill self belief today for Dorset who started off the game 3 players down! Thanks to Issac Murphy - our super sub from Yr 3 cricket, and our brave injured skipper Levi who both helped Dorset grab victory from the jaws of defeat. Dshire won the toss and put us in to bat. Depsite an early injury to Alex, who departed the field briefly, his partnership with Xavier was memorable in seeing off some lovely fast bowling from Saxon without losing their wickets. Xavier also sustained some blows to his body but they both kept at it and it was only late in their partnership that the bails flew for the first time. Grayson pulled off some sweetly timed shots and got in to double figures for the 1st time is his very short cricketing career. Zayden put together another solid total and supported Grayson with some excellent hungry calling and quick runs - very entertaining! Lachie and Max came to the crease and hammered away putting together one of their most exciting partnerships. Max, sporting an impressive 'shiner', was literally batting and bowling one-eyed and should continue to wear a patch given his display with both bat and ball today. Both lads were bent over their bats at the end of each over gasping for air as they ran themselves in to the ground. Tremendous effort from both of you. The surprise package was Isaac who batted through a miriad of partners while facing some keen Yr 4 bowling. Apart from the odd runout his bails stayed intact and judging from the big smile on his face - he had a ball. We feared the worst on the turn given Dshire's previous scores and their strong winning record. With 96 to defend, Max (POD) got us off to a flyer with 2 wickets in the 1st over of the innings. He featured again in the catching department and runouts throughout the game. Everyone seemed inspired in the field today. The bowling wasn't quick but it was accurate, tricky catches were held and there were some great stops and quick-witted throws. 2 overs from the end a call came out from the Dshire camp that they were one run ahead of our total. The effect on Dorset was immediate and they moved in and turned up the srews for a thrilling finish. Dshire threw everything at us, including Peter Gough!, but the lads held tough and ground out a tenacious come-from-behind win. Special mentions to Zayden for a huge workrate in the field and for the beautiful catch by Alex which helped take us down to the wire. Thanks to Dshire and Rahul for a lively entertaining game, our scorer Stu, and to our umpires Dave and Mark who were challenged by some extraordinary cricket moments from both on the pitch and off it - Ole ole ole!

Derbyshire | Player of the day: Joshua D'Silva

If ever there was a team that looked down on their luck, beaten and bruised it was team Dorset. There were black eyes, broken fingers everywhere AND the team needing little brothers ( I think? ) to help fill in. If you have kids turning up to play while injured it means 2 things to me. They love their cricket and they have a great coach and team who they want to play for! Still missing 1 player, team Debyshire were, actually, in good health. We ended up feilding first and bowled and feilded pretty well, I thought. Jamie got knocked around the park a bit but the rest of the team gave between 8 and 11 runs each. I was pretty happy and was surprised that Dorset had racked up 96 runs! That's a pretty good total. I did, however, feel team Derbyshire were capable of hauling in that target. Our turn to bat and 1st bowl our opener got clean bowled! We were clearly in for a tough game. Sid (0) and Andrew (11) had a torrid opening. Dhruv (16)and Josh (13) did a great job and righted the ship with a chanceless well worked innings. It's always a good idea to bring in big hitters in at the end of the innings with the bowlers and fielders tiring a little. So in walked our resident slogger Saxon (26) was partnered with the more finesse player Shrey (22). That left Jamie (-6) to partner with the rest of the team. He was doing swimmingly and we were plodding along to a nice victory. Then on the start of the penultimate over someone from our team found out the score and yelled that we were currently 1 run ahead. That's when everything turned to custard. Poor Jamie and Dhruv ( he was partnering Jamie at the time ) were getting yelled at by the entire team about how to play and how they shouldn't go out ( incredibly unhelpful advice...) parents started getting involved and umpires were telling thier child when to run and not to. Needless to say it freaked Dhruv and Jamie out and they promptly went out 3 times in a row! This is where I felt I had to step in. I told my team to please be quiet. Gave evil looks at parents and the offending umpire. And told our batsmen to relax and play thier own game. They did but the damage had been done and we could not claw back the lost runs in the last 2 balls and the next over. Dorset were deserved winners on the day. Despite looking like they had just come from an emergency ward they played with true grit and determination.

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Kent | Player of the day : Frank Anderson

A perfect Friday evening for cricket at Cornwall was matched by a high quality game that went down to the wire in the last over with both sides displaying some excellent skills and committment throughout the game. Sommerset were sent in to bat and Josh Oliver and Liam Thompson opened the bowling for Kent with 2 pacey accurate overs keeping the score down to 1 and picking up 2 wickets in the process. Sommerest then fought back with 12 runs in the 3rd over and began steadily amassing their total with some nice stroke play and good running between the wickets. Kent managed to keep the total under control however picking up 15 wickets in the innings with their best fielding display of the season to date. Frank Anderson was named player of the day for Kent with 2 caught behind catches and 4 wickets when bowling - 3 of which fell in one over at a critical stage of the Sommerest innings. Needing 18 runs per partnership for victory Josh Oliver and Henk Tomkins got Kent off to a solid start with 20 from their partnership putting our nose just in front of the required rate. The Sommerest bowling was very consistent and pegged our second partnership back so we were on 32 and just behind the required rate. Liam Thompson and Jack Rogers then put on an impressive display with 37 runs for our 3rd partnership putting us 1 run ahead of the total 68 required with Liam blasting 24 runs from 19 balls. Just as well because runs were hard to come by in our final 5 overs with only 3 runs coming from the partnership as Sommerset finished strongly and had us back on level scores of 68 with 1 over to go. 4 runs in the final over was enough to see Kent just squeeze home and provided a great finish to a great game between 2 very evenly matched sides. I enjoyed seeing some dogged determination and will to win from both sides throughout the game but with a good smattering of humour amongst the boys at the same time...sport was the winner as they say!! Frank Anderson also picked up our magic moment of the day with his 2 fantastic caught behind catches. For the second week in a row a few extra wickets was probably the only difference between the sides with Kent taking 15 for the 12 they lost. Thanks to Sommerest for the game and good luck for the rest of the season and as always thanks to the umpires and scorers.

Sommerset | Player of the day: Yash Verma

Excellent weather conditions and a strong opposition means an exciting finish. That's what exactly happened . Yash Verma produced some terrific bowling after contibuting with the bat too. This bagged him the player of the day. Outstanding keeping by Olwyn saved few singles. But some excellent batting skills by the opposition ensured them a victory in the last over. Good team effort by the boys. Boys like Adam, Saahil and Nicolas stepped up and took additional responsibilty on the field. Well bowled by Kaarthik once again and a classic bowled out by William. Inspire of the loss, I felt the boys did extremely well as a team. Well Done, Somerset

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Somerset | Player of the day : Saahil Bali

Saahil batted well to score 23 runs. Equal contribution from Adam, Christian, Kaarthik, Olwyn and Yash ensured a total of 93runs. outstanding fielding by Nicolas and William. Great catches from Yash, Kaarthik and Saahil put pressure on Hampshire who batted well and hit few impressive shots. Good opposition team. Enjoyed playing. overall performance from Saahil won him the Player of the day and a high catch from Yash was the reason for Magic moment. Excellent keeping by Olwyn. Good to see the team jellying together slowly

Hampshire | Player of the day:

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : Archie Taylor

WOW what a game, with Glamorgan sneaking home off the last ball against a good and previously unbeaten Warwickshire team. Bowling first Glamorgan put in a much improved all-round fielding performance. Wicket-takers were Matthew Ellis who hit the timber 3 times and William Gibson who snicked a caught behind (also got a nice run-out from a direct hit). Archie Taylor bowled his heart out; Dominic Shirreffs and Rupesh Laxman both in their first seasons have now found a good rhythm with their bowling actions. Magic Moment in the field went to Oliver Holmes who took a lovely catch behind the stumps. Chasing 92 to win, the Glamorgan reply got off to a great start with openers William Gibson and Archie Taylor putting on 35 together - William blazing 22 and Archie hitting 13. Next in Rupesh Laxman and Oliver Holmes kept building and put on 17 combined, Rupesh finishing on 9 and Oliver getting 8. Yash Culpepper and Dominic Shirreffs contributed a positive partnership that would have been higher if not for a few run-outs. So team score at 54 and with last partnership Matthew Ellis and Boyd Curry (our ring-in this week for the unavailable Jesse Black) walking out needing 38 runs to win. At least a run a ball was the target and they calmly worked it around against a very good Warwickshire bowling attack. Finally it came down to the last ball – Warwickshire had to get a wicket to win it, but Matty pushed it for 2 and in the end they had built a partnership of 41 runs with Boyd getting 23 and Matty finishing on 18. Other Magic Moments were awarded to Rupesh for a majestic pull shot in his knock and Boyd for batting so well and backing up for us after his Friday game. Well done to Archie for his POD. Big thanks to Warwickshire for a great spirited match and the closest finish we have had at Cornwall, Mark Gibson for umpiring and Derek Holmes for scoring. Again thanks to the parents for beating the challenge of getting their boys to practices – can’t get any better without practicing.

Warwickshire | Player of the day:

This week saw us take on Glamorgan on a great morning for cricket at Cornwall. Thomas & Oscar opened the batting innings with a terrific 33. Jack & Lloyd followed but struggled to get clean back on ball against some tight bowling. Getting our front foot towards the ball is something we can all work on to combat straight bowling. Rhys & Taylen followed and again proved a good partnership compiling 39. Taylen hitting and running on everything, sometimes not calling so as not to alert the fielders he was actually running!!!! Taping your partner on the shoulder and telling him to run is a dangerous way to play… Kallis & Kamal finished off the innings very well giving us a total of 91 runs. Our pocket rocket, Kallis was playing his last game before xmas as he and his family are heading overseas for an extended holiday. His valuable contribution to the team will be missed. We have not had to field second this year from memory and it showed in our effort ( or maybe that should read concentration) The boys seemed to just go through the motions, expecting 91 to be enough. But against some smart, sensible stroke play from Glamorgan’s boys, we seemed to lose our way for the first 10 overs. We regained it for the next 5 but then the last partnership ran well and combined with no outs and took the game in a thrilling finish. Thomas bowled well today with figures of minus 1 off his 2 overs. Rhys also found the spot only going for 2 off his 2 overs. Two magic moments today from the one run out. Oscar for his terrific throw from a long way out right over the stumps and Lloyd for his smart play in being right behind the stumps to collect the ball & whip off the bails…Just liked we practiced at training hey Lloyd… Thanks to all the scorers & umpires for helping and to Brett and his team for a match played in great spirits.

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Middlesex | Player of the day : Nik L

The team was depleted of players even before the game even started. We had three boys out through one reason or another. Some phoning around and we managed to get 2 players. The extra players where girls ... and they both played really well. Thank you Molly and Paris for helping us out. You both played really well in all areas of the game. Paris ended up with the second highest score (14). Those other teams who said that Ellerslie would be a piece of cake where wrong for today. Ellerslie must have eaten the cake as it spurred them on to doing some good bowling and fielding. Good partnerships form all the boys and a fine knock of 31 from James Davies brought about a good total. To win we needed some tight bowling. And that is what Middlesex did. The first two overs produced only 1 run. Good bowling from the whole team, Thomas, Levi, Nik, Vib, James, Molly and Paris restricted the opposition. Needing 18 of the last over was achievable. However we finished the way we started with a maiden. Great game all round and thanks to Ellerslie for a great game and great venue. Well done. As always thanks to the umpires and scorers from both sides.

Elerslie Rennell Jewellers | Player of the day:

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Kent | Player of the day : Henk Tomkins

As the score suggests nothing in this one folks. Oxfordshire won the toss and elected to field. Kent got off to a solid start with an opening partnership of 27 between Liam Thompson and Jack Rogers. Some consistent bowling and wicket taking from Oxfordshire becalmed our effort somewhat with our next 2 partnerships only yielding 18 between them. Some excellent batting and running from Josh Oliver (17 runs) in the last partnership then got us going again giving us the modest total of 60 to defend. Our bowling and fielding effort was pleasing however Oxfordhsire were doing just enough in the runs per over department with some excellent batting from a couple of their lads to make victory likely and things were looking a bit grim with 4 overs to go when Josh produced a stunning over picking up 3 wickets to turn the game back in our favour. Josh ended up with very impressive bowling figures of 3 overs, 5 wickets for -7 runs and has still not given up a run against his bowling after 4 games and is on -3 for the season. Liam and Henk were also strong contributors to our bowling effort with Liam taking 2 wickets for only 1 run and Henk also getting a double for only 2 runs...great effort boys. Some tight bowling and a wicket from Frank Anderson rounded out the 10 wickets we picked up when fielding and at the end of the day 1 wicket was more or less the difference in the score as we lost 9 when batting compared to the 10 when fielding. This game was a good lesson to the boys of the importance of fielding and as we remind them every week...every run saved in the field is as good as scoring one when batting...just not sure if they are paying any attention to me!! All in all a very enjoyable game and the parents now have a week off to allow their nails to grow back. Thanks to Oxfordshire for the game and good luck for the rest of the season. Thanks to Jo for scoring and to Stu for umpiring.

Oxfordshire | Player of the day: Oliver Burkhardt

There's something relaxing about wathing cricket on a sunny day under the canopy of a sheltering tree. Its a pity that that sense of calmn had overwhelmed our communication skills when batting as Oxfordshire learnt a valuable lesson against Kent. Making mistakes is always a compelling way of learning what to do, but we should need only make that mistake once or twice. Good bowling from a handy Kent team kept the Oxfordshire boys to 55 runs in opening the game. The loss of too many easy wickets meant however that 55 was going to be difficult to defend. Another not out inning from Lewis Williamson showed good discipline from someone so young as was the hitting of William Wild. With 55 on the borad the team took the field to est the Kent bating order. Some great bowling from Isaac Verhulst saw reward for his efforts at practice as did the performance of Willaim Laugton (Captain of the Day) and majic moment in the field. An all round performance and great support for the team from Oliver Burkardt saw him awarded POD. Well done to Kent for a competitive game and giving us a few things to focus on.

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Gloucester | Player of the day : Harry Marshall

We fielded first against Surrey, with Olivia kicking our bowling into gear with a good over. John had a superb early catch and Charlies over saw our first wicket in the Surrey early line-up. Our fielding was reasonably tight throughout the game. Some of Surrey's combinations however managed to slip some good hits through scoring a lot of threes and fours. Most of the team managed to pin a wicket, with Lakshita and John getting great wickets in the last of the Surrey lineup. Our batting pairs did their stuff, with Emily and Henry putting up some good pressure under some heavy fire from Surrey. John and Charlie managed to find some gaps and got some impressive hits away to the pine trees. Our last combo of Alec and Harry had a last ditch attack with runs at any sniff of a chance. Surrey's run rate, however, was just a bit too far out of reach. Top numbers from Harry on 24 runs and John at 23. Our game lifted again this week to 61 runs, but wasn't enough to topple the Surrey drive. Overall, a good game.

Surrey | Player of the day:

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Derbyshire | Player of the day : Saxon Gough

A great game of cricket today. We were a little flattered by the score. Devons best batters came up against our best bowlers. It was great tough cricket but it also limited the carnage their very good opening batsmen could wreak upon us. Losing the toss we were asked to bat. For our 1st pairing some unfortunate running options were taken and Andrew ( 2 ) suffered the most going out 3 times run-out. Dhruv ( 10 ) kept his score sheet unblemished, however. Josh ( 10 ) and Jamie ( 8 ) continued the score sheet solidly, as always. Great job boys with no outs. Sid ( 24 ) and Saxon ( 28 ) once again got the bulk of our score between them. Sid you're in magnifcent form for all 4 games and are just getting better and better. Shrey ( 14 ) had to share his innings with the rest of the team ( 17 ) today. That gave us a handy score to defend. Shrey was our star bowler today with 3 for -1. Really good job Shrey Everyone worked hard in the field. Devon had some seriously heavy hitters so the bowling had to be very good and the feilding even better. Sid took 2 good catches ( 1 of which got him magic moment ) and Dhruv was steadfast and took a viciously spinning highball and held on to it. Good job! Although Sid continued his improvement as a player, in the end it was decided to give Saxon man of the match. For all of our games he scores lot's of runs for us, aways get's at least 1 wicket a game and is always strong and encouraging voice in the feild. So good job Saxon for PoD. Thx Devon for a great game.

Devon | Player of the day: Harrish

The boys tried hard, but too many outs and too many dot balls took its toll. The boys won the toss and chose to bowl, after the first 5 overs we had kept them to 10 runs a good effort with Ollie and Kabir both achieving negative runs off their overs. the next partnership saw the total reach 28 fairly even at this stage. the third partnership took us apart with the boys getting stiff necks as they watched the ball get dispatched at will this took the team up to 77, and the last batter was supported well by his mates and after asking them to bat we were chasing 107... Our openers William and Filippo batted well against some great bowling to post 29, next in Lachlan and Jack struggled against tight bowling and only added a further 5 runs. Ollie and Harrish were next and to their credit their were no outs in their partnership, Harrish top scored with 20 runs and the total reached 59. So with 49 runs needed from the last pair, Kabir and William S came to the crease, sadly tight bowling and 5 outs saw our total limp back to 58 at the close, never mind there is always next week

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : John Powell

A pleasant morning for cricket and congratulations to the groundsman at Michaels Ave for a very well turned out pitch. Keeping up our losing toss tradition, we were put into bat and Adam (6) and Josh with (18) gave us a great start, losing only one wicket in the process, with some intelligent running and good stroke play. James (1) and Jack (11) were stifled a little by some good bowling but kept the score ticking along nicely. Danny (10) and Sam (11) got us to 57, taking advantage of some errant fielding, as well as a playing few nice attacking strokes. With only 7 players on the field John was paired every over with a new batsmen. Northampton's bowlers and fielders put a stranglehold on the scoring allowing only 4 for the last 5 overs. 61 isn't a bad score to defend and when the first 8 overs went for only 13 runs it looked like it might be our 3rd victory of season. However the big guns were kept till last and scored their runs with some good attacking shots from some very accurate bowling by the Leicestershire boys. To his credit, POD John bowled very well for a relative newbie and thoroughly deserved his POD. Magic moment was a great caught and bowled by newbie Samuel (which may have prompted the mini pitch invasion by his little sister) and Adam too snaffled one off his own bowling. All in all a good effort by the boys, but beaten by the better team on the day. Well done Northampton, thanks to Andrew for umpiring and Lalita for the scoring. Thanks also to the kids for playing the game in a great spirit and the parents and spectators for their encouragement and support.

Northampton | Player of the day: Callum Lowe

Over cast day but pleasant day for Cricket, as Northampton won the toss and Capt Jake Fawcett decided to Field 1st to take advantage of the over head conditions, as Samuel bowled the 1st over and giving runs, a plenty as Leicestershire got of to a good start. After the coach having words with the players Team Northampton focused and put in a good performance in the fielding, as Callum picked up 4 wkts and also received the POD. Krishan & Samuel both bowled well as they picked up 2 wkts each, which curtailed the run scoring from Leicestershire. As Northampton went into bat the sky cleared up and the sun was out, this warmed up the players and brought a smile to spectators as Noprthampton's batsmen started scoring runs with Samuel & Krishan scoring the highest runs for the team, then came in Callum & Jake for the 2nd highest partnership for team Northampton which also sealed the win for Northampton, Thanks for the umpires, scorers and parents for their support and encouragement to all the players, cheers.

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Essex | Player of the day : Ronan

After finally winning the toss and bowling first the boys kept the Yorkshire team to a respectable 80 runs. As with our previous games, our bowling and fielding was generally consistent and it was only a couple of bad overs that got the opposition to its formibable score. Our batting started well with a solid openning partnership but a few silly runouts and tight bowling left us too much to do. Ronan had an excellent all round game and magic moment went to Vidu for a great square drive. It was a fine game of cricket, played as the game should be. Thanks to Richard and the Yorkshire boys for an excellent, competitive game.

Yorkshire | Player of the day: Alvaro

Another great mornings cricket – weather was fine and kids were keen. Essex won the toss – our fourth straight loss in this aspect of the game – not quite sure what we need to do to improve. Anyway we were put in to bat first with all the partnerships contributing well. There was some good calling, running between the wickets and sensible strokes all amounting to a good defendable total. During the second innings Essex struggled to get on top of our bowling attack and once again there was some good work in the field with a number of run outs and a catch. Both teams played competitively and in good spirit contributing to a great game of cricket – thanks Essex.

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Bristol | Player of the day : Billy Steed

Dorset | Player of the day:

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Lancashire | Player of the day : Shariar Hassan

It was a cold and drizzly evening for our first Friday night game at Cornwall. Captain Hivin lost the toss and we were put into bat. Perhaps the cold was getting to them, but runs were hard to come by in the first 2 partnerships, with some accurate bowling by Notts. In fact, at the half-way stage the score had snuck back below zero. Batting third, John and Hivin took to their task well and amassed 39 runs (23 to John, 16 to Hivin) with a few fours thrown in for good measure. Zachary and Shariar maintained some of the momentum, with Shariar scoring his first 4 of the season in his total of 16 (plus 9 for Zachary). Fifty-nine was always going to be a tough total to defend as drizzly showers keep invading the pitch, but once again Lancashire made a good start to their fielding innings. Two wickets to John off the first over (including a sharp caught and bowled) plunged Notts into negative territory first up. Regular wickets were taken, the wide count slowly improved and Lancashire were happy to have Notts at only 18 runs at the half-way point. However, that's when Notts big hitters took to the crease. As happened last week, a failure to take wickets when it counted cost Lancashire and Notts definitely had their momentum going, achieving a very creditable 83 by a rather late and windy stumps time of almost 7.30pm. Thanks to the scorers, and to Anu for umpiring once again and keeping the both-ends bowling right on track.

Nottinghamshire | Player of the day:

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Dorset | Player of the day : Xavier

Zayden won the Toss and put Ellerslie in to Bat. The boys all tried particularly hard with their bowling today and were rewarded with a sprinkling of wickets. Notable of the plays in the field were a lovely wicket earned by some consistent straight arm bowling from Harsh; a wonderful catch under pressure by Xavier which inspired the team; and a sharp run-out opportunity taken by a cool headed and deadly accurate Grayson. The whole team appeared focussed on the job for our full innings in the field - a very noticeable lift in effort. Ellerslie cracked some great shots and there was some excellent running between the wickets really tightening the screws on our fielders. Alex and Levi lead us off with some entertaining batting, Alex in particular made good contact on several occasions. Xavier and Zayden had a great time in the middle, but will need to do their running on the sides of the pitch instead of the middle - a couple of near disastrous collisions almost cost us wickets! Harsh and Grayson made a useful partnership and Lachie and Max blazed away for a chart topping 50 partnership. Our 1st win of the season and a top team effort - well done Dorset. Thanks Marlon for an excellent umpiring first.

Ellerslie ASB | Player of the day:

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Rocky Parsons

84 - 84, a TIE!!! Well done to both sides in a match played in the very best of spirits. There were highs and lows throughout but in the end it all ended up equal on a lovely morning for cricket at Cornwall. For HAMPSHIRE'S part, we were sent into bat and put together our best performance of the season. Joe Southcott and Ronan Gogarty-Watson opened up with a well compiled 15 both showing good improvement against some quality bowling. Darian Brook and Ben Megson were up next and worked very well together in adding 27 further runs to the teams score through good striking, calling and running. Following them were Philip Heaven and Rocky Parsons. These two also showed significant improvement and listed a partnership of 14 on the score sheet. Our final partnership was that of Neil Pande and Kush Warule and they set about the bowling in fine style with 28 to bring us to a soon to be significant total of 84. OXFORDSHIRE got away to a flier through great ball striking and our fielding became rather chaotic at times as a reaction. Eventually the boys got some control back and did more of what was required to defend our total. Accurate overall, some bowled very well without luck. Bowled wickets today went to Neil, who picked up 2, and Kush and Joe with 1 apiece. Good work between Kush and Ben gained a needed wicket through a run out. The game came down to the final ball and a tie was a hard fought outcome. POD today went to Rocky who batted as never before this season. Thanks to coach Adam and his OXFORDSHIRE boys for a fine game. Thanks also to Bryan for umpiring and Susan for doing the scoring once again.

OXFORDSHIRE | Player of the day: William Wild

A great day promised great cricket and both teams contribed to exactly that. Well done everyone. Led by Capatin of the Day, Max Hithersay, to our first successful call of the toss Oxfordshire opened a bowling attack with a healthy hint of experimenatation about it. While wickets were taken the Hampshire batting stood up to the task and gave as good as they got. A revised bowling line up tested the team's strengths in a positive way and proved a balanced depth across all the boys. Short length bowling frustrated some of the necessary accuracy needed to contain the Hamshire batsmen and the 84 run target was steadily amassed. An opening not out performance of 21 from POD William Wild and sTwo-wicket bags from Akshay Parekh, Max Hithersay and Wiliam Wild ome stylish strokemaking from Aqeel Kamaldeen included a four, three and a cutch of twos. Good partnerships from all the batsmen saw only four wickets lost and a steady chase of a competitive Hampshire 84. The last ball draw was an absolutely fitting end to a game of great spirit and fun.

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Devon | Player of the day : Jack Peggs

The boys won the toss and chose to have a bowl, they had their work out for them as the two Bristol openers played some great shots and ran well between the wickets some great fielding helped and we restricted them to 21 for the first partnership. The next batters arrived and they played some great shots adding a further 33 runs and bringing their total to 54 at the halfway stage of their innings The next partnership saw the boys lift their game as the bowled and fielded even better, William starting with -1 off his 2nd over and taking to great Catches, followed by Lachlan with a -3 off his second over, William S bowled a maiden in this spell as he boys restricted the runs and Bristol added only 7, sitting on 61 going into the last partnership. there was no stopping the boys now and Jack started with a -3 off his next over while Lachlan bowled a maiden to keep the pressure on which was followed by another maiden from Harrish and at the close of Bristols innings the target was 67. the chase was on openers William L and Filippo entertained us with some great shots and a high score of 20 runs for William L as our chase reached 33 after the first partnership, next in was Kabir and Harrish some good batting but equally good fielding saw our total only 47 at the halfway stage, next in were William S and Ollie they battled hard against quality bowling and fielding bringing the total to 59. 8 runs needed as Lachlan and Jack strode confidently to the crease, some great shots were played and 19 gross runs were scored, however some poor calling led to 3 run outs and the score was officially set as a draw, a recount shows a win to Devon by two, but the stats will show a draw, hopefully this will be a great lesson for better calling......

Bristol | Player of the day: Lucas Dasent

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Gloucestershire | Player of the day : Olivia Bullock

We went to the Windmill crease first to open the batting against Somerset, strong of consecutive wins. Our first pair, Henry and Charlie, started well, followed by Alec and Lakshita who amped up their batting and running efforts. John and Olivia did some good calling and running, with some big smashes from John. Emily and Harry finished the order with good runs and hits. Somerset's fielding throttled our score, and we didn't squeeze out the runs as we would have liked, coupled with some unlucky outs. Our crack at fielding brought Harry out, firing on all cylinders, with a wicket on his first bowl. Later, however, our fielding lost rhythm and Somerset found good form in their batting, clocking the runs up. Mid-order saw our fielding tighten for a while, led by some excellent catches from Charlie and Lakshita, with Alec doing some tidy bowling, nailing a wicket. Henry grabbed the magic moment with a great catch, followed by Charlie smashing the stumps with a missile thrown from deep in the field. Olivia had a great all-round morning, getting her “player of the day”. Overall, we lifted our game from last week despite the loss.

Somerset | Player of the day: Kaarthik Dangwal

Good game. Some hard shitting by Adam who scored 27runs. 17 runs and 3 wickets from Kaarthik secured him the player of the day. Excellent catch by Saahil won him the magic moment voucher.

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Kent | Player of the day : Jack Rogers

After 2 good performances to get the season off to a winning start we learnt one of sports valuable lessons today...it is no good just turning up! We had what could best be described as a bad day at the batting office and came up against a Notts side who bowled and fielded superbly and then backed it up with some solid batting to thoroughly deserve their win. After a promosing opening partnership of 30 between Josh Oliver and Jacob Duffin the wheels fell off somewhat and we just threw too many wickets away to give us any chance of posting a total that could be defended. Credit however shouldnt be taken away from the very consistent Notts bowlers who between all of them only gave 2 runs away in the whole innings from wide deliveries and took 14 wickets in the process. Our player of the day was easy to pick this week with Jack Rogers scoring 21 runs in an excellent knock where he moved the ball around the park nicely and he then chipped in with 2 wickets in bowling that only conceded 2 runs. Our magic moment went to Jacob Duffin for a fantastic catch on what would have been the boundary had we been using them that is. Despite having to defend a low total the boys deserve credit for a solid effort in the field with some good backing up and for trying their best right up to the last ball. Plenty to work on at this weeks training...not least the forward defensive shot!! congratulations to Notts and good luck for the rest of the season. Thanks as always to the umpires and scorers.

Nottinghamshire | Player of the day:

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Derbyshire | Player of the day : Jamie Martin

Another good day at the office for team Derbyshire. This weeks training concentrated a lot on blocking. There wasn't a heck of lot of blocking during the game... But we did do a lot of talking about bowling and how anything leg side would be put away. The boys really did take that on board and they gave nothing away. Ellerslie had to work very hard for their runs. We lost the toss and were asked to bat. Openers Saxon (31) and Dhruv (14) got us off to great start. Josh (11) and Jamie (5) carried on our score steadily. Shrey (14) and Sid (26) were great to watch and Andrew (20) had to share his innings this week. Combined his partners got another 20. Our bowling figures were phenomenal! Dhruv 3 for -7, Jamie 1 for 3, Saxon 2 for -2, Josh 1 for 5, Andrew 0 for 8, Shrey 1 for 3 and Sid 2 for -4. So the boys are playing out of their skins well and really enjoying their cricket. Jamie got man of the match for really good wicket keeping, great bowling and good strong showing with the bat. For Magic Moment we had 3 great catches in the game. But it had to go for Saxons' effort of his running forward dive. Scooping it up and getting his fingers under the ball before it hit the ground.

Ellerslie Rennells | Player of the day:

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NORTHAMPTON | Player of the day : Norman Cardon

An over cast day with the clouds hanging around as team Northampton won the toss and Captain Samuel Beadle took full advantage of those conditions and put Lancashire to bat, Norman in his 1st over bowled well and just conceded 1 run, which gave confidence to Northampton. Our bowlers looked sharp and accurate which earned us a wicket in the 2nd over to draw first blood against Lancashire which put them on the back foot slightly. Northampton took 7 wkts in totall during the game by good fielding and supporting the bowlers at crucial times. Northampton's 1st pair Callum & Jake batted well and put of 27 runs which gave a solid foundation to build a good innings as the 2nd pair went into bat which lost their way a little by getting out and hence lossing runs, however 3rd pair for Northampton batted well to steady the ship thanks to Stanley and Ben. As Sam & Krishan the final pair for Northampton went into bat knowing that it was up to them to score the final runs and get a win, which they did by scoring 35 runs as the last pair which brought a smile and jubilation of the players faces as they beat their opponents, Thanks to all the scores, umpires and above all the parents for their support, cheers Batting by Northampton was slightly lack luster and runs not taken by lazy running and a bit of day dreaming by some players which cost them runs.

LANCASHIRE | Player of the day:

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : All

Another week of improvement for the Glamorgan boys who were forced to play themselves and somehow managed to win in a nail-biting finish. Surrey may have heard about our fearsome bowling attack, so on a hard and fast track probably wisely opted to sit this one out. Our new boys have fantastic attitudes, keen as mustard just to play cricket each week and more than happy to help out any opposition with numbers if it’s the difference between playing or not playing a game. Most important thing this season is to develop cricketing techniques, so the six Glamorgan boys were keen to face the pace of their own quickies. By the end of the innings the boys had smashed a Year 4 club record with a stunning total of 306. All Glamorgan players got 50’s with masterful batting displays from Dominic Shirreffs (51), William Gibson (51), Matthew Ellis (51), Jesse Black (51), Oliver Holmes (51) and Rupesh Laxman (51) - all stroking it to every corner of Windmill Wildlife Reserve. Much better work in the field - catching, backing-up all helped to contribute to a confidence-boosting win off the last ball. Many thanks to our umpires, scorer and huge appreciation to all the parents for getting their boys to practices despite having to come from all around Auckland.

Surrey | Player of the day:

match report

Lancashire | Player of the day : Hivin Diyagama

It was nice to have our first game at Cornwall for the season, although the wind was a bit chilly. Our first lost toss of the season saw Lancashire put into bat. Luke and Oliver showed a much improved performance in their third match of cricket, providing an opening partnership of 17 runs and conceding only 1 wicket. Next up John and Hivin ran well between the wickets for a partnership of 28, didn’t get out and made the Northhampton fielders run around a bit, including 9 for John off one over with a couple of well-struck fours. Runs weren’t so easy to come by for Shayane and Dhruv, and a few wickets fell thanks to some misunderstandings between the inexperienced batsmen. Shariar and Zachary were striking the ball well and added a creditable 17 for the final partnership, but the loss of 4 wickets during these last 5 overs had an impact on the final score. However, Lancashire’s total of 63 was a season-best for the team so far. Good bowling and fielding was required to keep Northhampton below 63 and Lancashire looked sharp in the field early on. However, the batsmen protected their stumps well. Runouts to John, Hivin, Shariar and Zachary helped to contain the score, but lack of ability to take wickets in the middle part of the innings (no outs in overs 9-18) allowed Northhampton to take the game with a total of 75 runs.

Northhampton | Player of the day: Norman Cardon

An over cast day with the clouds hanging around as team Northampton won the toss and Captain Samuel Beadle took full advantage of those conditions and put Lancashire to bat, Norman in his 1st over bowled well and just conceded 1 run, which gave confidence to Northampton. Our bowlers looked sharp and accurate which earned us a wicket in the 2nd over to draw first blood against Lancashire which put them on the back foot slightly. Northampton took 7 wkts in totall during the game by good fielding and supporting the bowlers at crucial times. Northampton's 1st pair Callum & Jake batted well and put of 27 runs which gave a solid foundation to build a good innings as the 2nd pair went into bat which lost their way a little by getting out and hence lossing runs, however 3rd pair for Northampton batted well to steady the ship thanks to Stanley and Ben. Batting by Northampton was slightly lack luster and runs not taken by lazy running and a bit of day dreaming by some players which cost them runs. As Sam & Krishan the final pair for Northampton went into bat knowing that it was up to them to score the final runs and get a win, which they did by scoring 35 runs as the last pair which brought a smile and jubilation of the players faces as they beat their opponents, Thanks to all the scores, umpires and above all the parents for their support.

match report

Warwickshire | Player of the day : Rhys Flynn

Game 3 of the season and our first of many trips to Windmill Reserve. Our captain today was Thomas who called the toss correctly & chose to bowl. Pick of the bowlers today were Rhys who bowled 3 overs for only 4 runs & Thomas who bowled 3 overs for 2 runs…6 overs between them only giving up 6 runs is a great effort and reward for straight bowling..Others who also went well with the ball were Oscar who took a good caught & bowled and Kamal who bowled quick as usual. A few too many wides today ( 23 ) was something we must work on at training. Too many freebies. So chasing 53, our openers Thomas & birthday boy Oscar did another great job of setting a platform of 25 runs. Rhys & taylen followed with a vast improvement on last weeks 7 outs and added 34 with only one run out. Jack & Lloyd kept us going forward with 9. A pull shot from Lloyd right out of the coaching manual earned him a Magic Moment. Kallis & Kamal closed the innings again with stylish hitting from both for 28 runs. So in the end a solid 96 runs with everybody contributing. Thanks to the Essex gentelman and Wilbur for umpiring . Also a big thanks to Andrew for scoring yet again.

Essex | Player of the day: Liam Grozev

Game 3 and 0 and 3 when it comes to winning the toss! And despite some fine cricket by some of the boys another loss. There was a big improvement in the number of batting outs conceded - 9 versus 16 the previious week. - so the practice during the week worked. We never quite got enough runs despite a good start by Ronan who topped scored with 17. Our bowling and fielding was generally tidy. Liam had a great game in the field with a brilliant runout and some great general fielding and an excellent spell of bowling so thoroughly deserved the player of the day award. Also well done to Rishab for a fine all round game that earned him the magic moment award for no outs at batting. We were never able to put pressure on the batting team nor able to stop the flow of runs, many scored by running even when the ball went straight to the wicketkeeper! Not my idea of cricket and if we we really want to teach the boys the game properly we should be stamping it out. Having boys half way up the wicket just after the ball is bowled is ridiculous.

match report

Leicestershire | Player of the day : Dan Shutt

It seems a little passe to mention the weather every time at the start of a match report, but it matters, and does have an effect on the game. So, the weather on this Friday - windy with occasional light showers. It was also nice to be at Cornwall, for the first time this season. Jack was the captain for the game and he and Thomas contested the toss, which we lost (3 from 3 now) and were put into bat. With only 6 players again, the boys set about their task with great gusto and the opening pair of Adam (11) and James (7) gave us a great start in the face of some accurate bowling and sharp fielding from the Middlesex side. Our second pair of Jack (15) and Josh (20) plundered runs from both sides of the wicket with Jack giving his best performance of the season so far and Josh using his feet to create room for some fabulous shots. Danny and Sam kept the score ticking along to 71 in the face of some great bowling from James and Saxon (filling in for absent player). The last 3 overs were shared between the opening two partnerships and reaped 21 runs for a total season high of 92. With the halftime oranges for sustenance the boys were given the hard word about wides, and with 6 fielders, the need to stay alert and back up. Well the first two bowlers Josh and Sam, delivered, and only gave up 4 apiece. Dan bowled superbly with a wicket maiden first up. Plain sailing from here then? Andrew kindly gave us a fielder to help out, and with only 2 recognised batsmen in the Middlesex side, we looked odds on to take the game. Well it certainly wasn't the case, the weather moved in, it got colder and a little wetter. The bowlers strayed and the fielders gave up unnecessary runs. This was further compounded by some excellent batting from the Middlesex side during the latter stages, running enthusiastically between the wickets and forcing errors from the Leicestershire side. The crowd were actively involved as the scores got closer and the tension heightened. Both coaches suffered palpitations and sprouted a few more grey hairs. In the end Middlesex fell 2 runs short but could have snatched it. A very good game played in superb spirits, in spite of the cold, by all the kids, ably supported by the parents, suitably rugged up. Thanks to Andrew for lending us a fielder during our stint in the field, Lalita and Chris for scoring, and the Middlesex umpire (apologies his name escapes me). Special thanks to the kids from both sides for some great theatre.

Middlesex | Player of the day: James Davies

So who was it suggested that Friday night games would be great .. nice calm weather for a festival of cricket, picnic and fun ..... yeah right!!! Our captain for the day Thomas won the toss and put Leicestershire into bat. Thomas thought the cold windy conditions we assist with his seam attack. However Leicestshire had different ideas and played splendily in theconditions. From Middlesex point of view to many easy wides where given away and punished accordingly. At the end we did do some fine fielding from Levi, James and Nik and Matthew, and also bowling from James taking 2 wickets and Harry, Levi, Nik, and Matthew each taking one. Harry took a BRILLIANT!!!! one hand over the head caught and bolwed. Did I say it was BRILLIANT!!!! It was!!!!! That was our magic moment. Time to bat. The conditions got colder. os our boys started to run to keep warm. Good partnerships and some fine scores, James (19), Harry (16) and Nik (16), batting as the last partnership almost won the game in the final couple of balls. But it was not to be. It certainly kept the parents warm from all the excitement of yelling and jumping at every run taken!!! Good game and wel done to Leicestershire for a great game. To the scores thankyou .. Chris braviing the cold elements and also to Viraja for umpiring. Thanks to the parents for your constant supoort. Only 3 games in, but the boys really enjoy you being there.

match report

Northampton | Player of the day : SAMUEL

Northampton Lost the toss so had to bat, our opening batsmen Ben & Nabeel started tantatively as Kents bowler looked sharp and accurate, hence Northampton were on the backfoot with only 2 runs in the 1st over, the following over again Kent drew 1st blood by taking a wicket and also not letting the opens to score any runs at all, Kents feilding was very good which also hampered run flow for Northampton as Kent took wickets consisently, Northamptons 2nd pair batsmen also seemed a little fazed with the speed of Kents bowlers and their accuracy and again Northampton lost wickets on a regular intervals, But Northamptons 4th pair came in with a can do attitude and managed to score reasonable amount of runs with a good partnership of 30 runs, however the Kent boys were focused and seemed to know exactly what they were doing on the field, over all a good game but a lot of practice needed for improvement Thank you to the scorers and umpires and all the parents support, cheers

Kent | Player of the day: Liam Thompson

A very enjoyable game against Northampton - the score probably flattered us a little as Northampton were unlucky not to pick up a few more wickets during the game especially some run outs that went begging - I am sure with a few more games under their belts and a bit more luck with the bounce of the ball that the game would have been much tighter. Having said that we were very pleased with another solid performance by Kent in both the batting and fielding departments. Our player of the day was Liam Thompson with an excellent all round performance 24 runs scored and bowling figures of 3 wickets for no runs. Josh Oliver also gave another solid performance with 19 runs scored and excellent bowling of 3 wickets for -1 run. Harrison Sommerville also had his bowling radar working well this week picking up 2 wickets and no runs conceded. Jacob Duffin picked up another 2 wickets this week to take his tally to 5 for the season - top equal with Josh and Liam. Jack Rogers batted well again scoring 18 with a strike rate better than a run a ball and picked up our magic moment for some excellent stroke play in his tally - it is good to see the ball being worked around as well as slogged!! Henk Tomkins was the other batsman to make double figures with a solid 15. The most pleasing part of the performance however was the fact that agin it was every team member who played their part and worked hard in the field to stop every run they could. Thanks to the umpires and scorers and good luck to Northampton for the rest of the season.

match report

Yorkshire | Player of the day : Ethan

Another spectacular morning weather wise – and of coarse we were all looking forward to playing at Cornwall. The toss was won by Dorset who elected to field first. We retained our batting partnerships of last week with all the boys contributing runs. Practicing the forward defensive shot midweek paid dividends as we only lost one wicket during the innings. Dorset also got off to a blistering start with the bat. After some early nervousness in the field our guys started to slow the run rate and soon gained the ascendancy. There were some particularly memorable moments in the field; notably a one handed catch by Liam off his own bowling and a marvellous direct hit by Ethan from 15 meters to create a run out. Many thanks to Mark and the Dorset team for a game played in the best spirit.

Dorset | Player of the day: Grayson Pronk

Thanks for a great game Yorkshire. Our boys had a much improved second outing with an entertaining fielding effort. Still blowing off the cobwebs with our bowling - a lot of wides - but our fielding was excellent, in particular the team work on display when backing up. Grayson won the toss and lead from the front putting in a solid all round effort that resulted in the POD award. Alex had a great day with the ball and played a couple of great looking hooks - a new stroke in his growing arsenal of shots from last season. Zayden featured strongly with the bat. A very well drilled Yorkshire side contained us well with some lovely medium pace bowling and were deserved winners. We look forward to giving them a closer run next time.

match report

Essex | Player of the day : Nicholas Wilson

A close game that was in the balance till the final 3 overs. Once again, too many outs (16 in all) meant we didn't get enough runs on the board. Some excellent bowling and generally good fielding get us in the game but in the end we didn't have enough runs to play with and the opposition made the most of too many byes and dropped catches at the end to win.

Surrey | Player of the day: Aiden Perkins

Agree a hard fought match and very exciting for the boys. Surreys opening bowlers got us off to a brilliant start - well done Hudson, Samuel, Aiden and Jonathan. then some super catching - nearly everyone having a hand in it, special mention though to Melvin for his lightening quick reflexes. A steady start in the batting by Harry and Hud was supporting by a great partnership by Caleb and Jonathan who seem to be finding their rhythm together, and oscar and melvin ensured we kept moving forward - no outs! It was topped off by a great partnership at the end. So well done team after a shaky start and a loss to Durham in our first week we have much improved and are all working hard together.

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Gloucestershire | Player of the day : John Campbell

A nice sunny morning at Windmill Park saw our second match against Oxfordshire. Captain Charlie Wrapson won the toss and we went to the field first. Lakshitha opened our bowling with some nice straight lines followed by Olivia with a good first over. Charlie had a stunner with two brilliant catches, claiming the magic moment for that effort. Henry fielded consistently well the whole game, with some particularly good tight fielding around the stumps, shutting down a lot of ball nudging. Alec kept the wickets locked down with some good solid keeping on receiving some absolute smokers bowled from Harry and John. Emily fielded well, with some great stops and fast accurate returns to the stumps. John and Harry in top bowling form delivered a steady stream of accurate missiles keeping a lid on the Oxies' run rate. Charlie, Emily and Olivia all did good quick throws back to the stumps which were supported by John, Harry and Charlie's quick reactions around the pitch ends. We were plagued by wides and the odd handgrenade-throwing in the bowling - mind you the lumpy windmill pitch didn't help. The backing up, however, was consistent right across the team. Our batting didn't go as well as our fielding. The Windmill grass seemed to have grown a few millimetres more by the time we went to bat, slowing the ball on the outer field. We were unlucky with a lot of run outs and the Oxies racked up an unhealthy number of catches. To their credit they kept the pressure flowing, causing our score line to crawl particularly through the mid order. John tallied up a healthy 21 runs with Charlie next at 11. Lots to learn from this game - lots to practice at training - still plenty of fun.

Oxfordshire | Player of the day: Akshay Parekh

A valiant team effort to both restrict a tight Gloucestershire and to bat well through the whole Oxfordshire team. This was our first full team apearance and it was good to see the team working together to maintain the good start to the season. Captain of the Day Aqeel Kamaldeen led from the front in hs frs game of the year and opened the battig in a partnership with Willaim Laughton. The opening moomentum was careid on by Max Hithersay an Oliver Burkhart. Lewis Wiliamson continued his good early season form in a solid stand with Isaac Verhulst and the batting innings was rounded off with POD Akshay Parekh and William Wild putting on 23. As with our opening game it was our team effort in the field that proved telling and we were able to put consistent pressure through good bowlinig and fileding to hold back the vigourous running of Gloucestershire. A sensational catch behind the stumps off William Wild saw Akshay claim the majic moment and an overall POD performance. With things to work on at practice the team should feel pleased with its work to date and its spotring spirit.

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Middlesex | Player of the day : Thomas McGann

Second week in a row where lost the toss. Our captain for the day Zac gave encouraging words to the batters. There where good partnerships and running between the wickets, which resulted in good scores from all the team members. Good shot selection and calling also helped. The opposition with their master bowlers in the way of John Ryan, Zac and Dhruv where in fine form. The big improvement in our game was our fielding and bowling. Concentratiing on what was going on and being aware. Being able to take more wickets and reduce the amount of scoring wides also helped. Player of the Day went to Thomas McGann for excellent bowling and getting 3 wickets, Our Magic Momnet went to Nik for his great catch in the out field. Well done to this young team. Also thanks to the Lancashire team for the game, the scorers, the umpires, and Annie and other parents for putting pressure on the council in getting the grounds mowed. Mark Mc ..... you dont need t bring the mover anymore!!!!

Lancashire | Player of the day: John Ryan

Lancashire faced a tough contest against Middlesex, who were definitely the better team on paper – 2 players from last season’s rep squad plus a ring-in for the day who’d also been in the rep squad. It was a good start by captain Luke, who won the toss and put Middlesex into bat first. The good start continued through the first couple of overs, with early wickets to John and Shariar resulting in 3 overs passing before the Middlesex total made it into positive territory. The batsman set about their task well though, and continued to accumulate runs, aided by some not-so-accurate bowling from the Lancashire players, with many still gaining experience in their first season of cricket. Overall, wides contributed at least 20 runs to Middlesex’s total – definitely something to work on at practice, along with match awareness, throwing at the stumps and backing up! A total of 83 was always going to be challenging, and so it was. It was great to see new players Luke and Oliver getting bat on ball, but unfortunately the fielders always seemed to be in the way of their shots! John was the only batsman not to lose his wicket during the Lancashire innings and scored 12 runs (against a final team total of 14). This, along with throwing the stumps down on multiple occasions and conceding a net zero runs off his 3 overs bowled, earned him the Lancashire POD trophy. Postive score contributions from the bat also came from Zachary and Shariar (5 each) and Hivin (3).

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Devon | Player of the day : William Lowndes

Captain of the day Kabir won the toss and elected to bat. Our two openers William L & Kabir strode confidently to the wicket with a look of determination and our innings got underway. The partnership displayed some fantastic shots while they had to contend with some quality bowling and fielding, with only 1 out the partnership managed 28 runs. The next two batsmen were Lachlan and Jack keen to add to the openers great start, this partnership improved greatly from last week some great shots and clear calling saw the team total reach 50 at the conclusion of their partnership. Next up was Filippo and Harrish, these two tested Ellerslies fielding not missing an opportunity of an extra run while punishing any bad balls, Filippo entertained with his sliding in for each single almost like he was batting on rollerskates. the partnership produced 32 with only 1 out and the team score reached 82. Last up to bat was Ollie and William S, these two also improved greatly from last week and i'm sure we will see even better results as the season continues a solid 15 run partnership saw our team total reach 97 at the close of our innings. The boys were keen to bowl and field well to protect their solid total, the first 5 bowlers achieved just that restricting Ellerslies first partnership to 7 runs, Including a Maiden from Ollie, the next 5 overs saw the running total drop to 5 runs as pressure bowling continued to restrict, highlights here were run outs from William & a great throw from the boundary from Lachlan which produced both a run and our magic moment of the day and William S bowled a great over resulting in -6. The next two partnerships batted strongly and the boys had to continue working hard with some great backing up and a fantastic catch by William L, Lachlan produced a -2 over and William L a -3 to help keep the pressure on the batters and at the close of their innings they had reached 27 runs. a win to Devon by 70 runs. William L was our player of the day he achieved 20 runs with the bat, his 3 overs produced no nett runs he took a great catch and was also responsible for a run out, well done William.

Ellerslie ASB | Player of the day:

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Warwickshire | Player of the day : Kamal

A warmer morning for our second game & win. The coach seems to finally understand the rotation for bowling from both ends!! We bowled first with Kallis our Captain opening up with a wicket first ball, thanks to a direct hit run out by Thomas. Ricky Ponting, sorry...Ross Taylor would have been proud of that effort. Our bowling & fielding were very sharp this week. Taylen, Kallis, Oscar & Thomas all contributing negative run overs. Some terrific catching ( I knew we practiced that for a reason at training ) also today. Oscar's effort looking directly into the sun gets a special mention and earns a Magic Moment award. Chasing 46, our openers Thomas & Oscar gave a great start of 26. Ethan & Jack held firm against some accurate bowling & got 8 runs. Rhys & Taylen realised that getting out is now worth -3 runs and hurts your partnership score but still remained positive 12. Kallis & Kamal again closed brilliantly the game today. Both showing a range of classic cricket shots. Kamal top scored with a massive 36 and earned Player of Day trophy. Thanks to Durham for providing the umpires. Many thanks to Andrew for scoring. Well done boys...

Durham | Player of the day:

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HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Darian Brook

This morning found the Michaels Ave ground in lovely condition as HAMPSHIRE met Nottinghamshire. The HAMPSHIRE boys made a vast improvement over last weeks game which was very pleasing. Asked to bat first, all the boys contributed to the final score of 72 against some good bowling at times. Defending our total in the field was where a real difference from last week stood out. The boys were much more focused and remembered the skills require to gain wickets and restrict runs. Run outs went to Ben Megson, Darian Brook and Yash Verma with Ben also taking a catch. All the boys bowled well Darian picking up 3 wickets for -9 all clean bowled which earned him POD. As we were to go into this match with only 6 players, special mention must be made of Kaarthik Dangwell and Yash Veram who agreed to stand in for us. They both batted beautifully with Kaarthik also cleaning out 3 batsmen and we are most grateful to them for helping out. Many thanks to Nottinghamshire for a match played in fine spirit. And many thanks too to Anton for scoring and to Biju for umpiring.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE | Player of the day:

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : Samuel Davison

Michaels Ave was a very picturesque venue this morning with a boisterous zephyr lessening the effects of the heat from the warm morning sun. Renell Jewellers (for the best choice of jewellery for all occasions) was made up mainly of novice players. Seth was their captain and he won the toss and elected to bowl. Although the pitch was a little bumpy in places the outfield was superb, and with the scorers (Lalita and Benji) ready, the first ball was bowled to Josh who was paired with Adam. No wickets fell during the first partnership and a healthy 28; 10 from Josh and 18 from Adam, was a good start. First time player Connor took a full blooded square leg pull, from Adam in the cheek, OUCH! Fair play though he was back on next over, well done lad! It looked like Leicestershire might run away with it but the second partnership of James with 7 and Samuel with 3 were kept well in check by some sparkling bowling and diamond fielding from the Renell Jewellers who managed to pick up a trio of wickets and restrict the score to just 38. Next up were Danny and Jack who kept the score ticking along but only clocked up a further 12. Leicestershire only had 6 players so Samuel and Jack came back out and we were allowed the luxury of rotating the players through the remaining 5 overs (thanks Craig). Final total was 73 with some excellent bowling from the newbies on the Renell Jewellers side, coupled with some very enthusiastic fielding. Half time oranges, a slip, slop, slap and a quick team talk before the second innings began. Josh and Danny bowled the first pair of overs and the opening duo of Seth and Michael warmed to their task and were 12 up in quick time and a further 4 up from Adam's first 6. Jack stemmed the tide a little taking 2 good wickets with a superb caught and bowled and another clean bowled effort. James, not to be out done took a double wicket maiden, celebrating (Faustino Asprilla like - youtube him) in gymnastic fashion. POD, Samuel, a new comer this year bowled a great first over, going for 6 but, taking a wicket, with no nonsense line and length deliveries, great effort. With not enough fire power this early in the season Renell Jewellers finished with only 18, but the score did not reflect the energy and enthusiasm they played with throughout. With more practice during the season I'm sure they'll rattle a few cages before the season ends. A really great day's cricket played in fabulous spirit by all the kids, the parents and good coaching giving to both teams from both umpires during the game. Thanks to Craig, from team Renell Jewellers, Benji their scorer, Lalita our scorer and all the kids for making it a very enjoyable start to the weekend. Magic moment James Philpott for a superb run out with a chase and throw from point (one stump) from about 25 metres on the full! [Well done Black Caps (Pakis must have cleaned up at the TAB), go the All Blacks and England and let's see a good clean fight in the league!]

Ellerslie Renell Jewellers | Player of the day:

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Derbyshire | Player of the day : Sid Girish

Our 1st Friday game of the year! It started sunny got a bit drizzily and fininshed sunny again. Normal Auckland weather... Bristol won the toss and promptly sent us into bat. Our openers Josh and Dhruv walked out confidently ( after last weeks performance giving them a great boost... ). As suspected it was hard work for the boys to post thier 11 runs. A good effort though. Andrew and Sid were our next batters and did a fantastic job getting 25 runs. Shrey and Saxon went out and walloped 48 runs. Jamie with his batting partner missing shared his innings with the rest of the team but only managed to add a further 2 runs to the total. That gave us a pretty good target to defend. Bristol came out firing and quickly looked like 86 was not going to be enough! But the boys kept bowling and feilding hard to try and keep Bristol boy's at bay. Their final partnership came on with about 25 runs to get but we got a lot of wickets and the end they couldn't bridge the gap. Sid was clearly man of the match with 21 runs and 5 for -2. Great game Sid!! Shrey got MM for a great catch. Was a good game and we have a great team spirit with the boys really enthusiastic and celebrating good bowling and catching. Well done Rahul for getting the best out of the boys and thanks parents for the nibbles and umbrella while were scoring : ).

Bristol | Player of the day: Yannick Wikramanayake

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Glamorgan | Player of the day : William Gibson

Really improved effort from the Glamorgan boys in this Friday night match. With half the team having just their 2nd ever bat, everyone contributed a positive score this week. Of the new boys Oliver Holmes (with his new bat!) and Rupesh Laxman (related to VJ?) both batted superbly for 10 runs each, Jesse Black got 5 and Dominic Shirreffs got a Magic Moment for a memorable pull shot through square leg that went for 4. William Gibson got a solid 13 and to finish the innings off an ill Matthew Ellis scored 15 as did Charlie Wrapson (our ring-in this week for Archie Taylor) in a last wicket partnership highlighted by some excellent running between the wickets. Lots of fielding highlights too – lovely caught and bowled by William Gibson to help secure the Player of the Day, reflex wicketkeeping catch by Matty Ellis sprawling to his right behind the stumps, great bowling and a run-out from Rupesh Laxman, Yash Culpepper working hard in the outfield, Matty and Charlie both bowled tightly to get wickets. Our boys are learning a couple of things the hard way – go out you lose 3 runs; bowl outside leg stump you will be chasing leather. So game experience over 2 games fantastic for the boys, the only expectation we have is to improve every week. Many thanks to Charlie Wrapson for helping us out and playing so well, umpires and scorers. Also well done to the Somerset boys for a match played in good cricketing spirit and without over-the-top team dance celebrations each time a wicket was taken.

Somerset | Player of the day: Adam Curtis

Great game. some hard hitting in the last overs ensured a victory to the team. Terrific contributions from everyone. Excellent partnership between Yash and Adam. All round conribution from Kaarthik. Good bowling spell from Olwyn, Nicolas and Saahil made it difficult for the opposite team to score. 2 excellent runouts by William earned him the Magic moment voucher. Impressed by the team performance of Glamorgan. Thanks to the umpires and scorers.

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Durham | Player of the day :

Surrey | Player of the day:

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Leicestershire | Player of the day : Josh Jeffries

A fine sunny, if windy day for the first game of the season at Windmill Reserve. Disappointing having to pick up several bottles and cans and also to see 10 cm of unmown outfield, pretty pathetic given the amount of subs paid by all, that someone couldn't manage half an hour on a ride on mower. Leicestershire won the toss and elected to bowl and despite a reasonably good start they bled runs through extras, eventually coughing up 55. Lancashire had a very inexperienced side and batted well taking advantage of the bowling where they could. Pick of the bowlers was Josh who (if we'd had the trophy or certificates) got player of the day. Batting second chasing a small total always looked hard as 3 of the Lancs bowlers were brand new and struggled to get the ball to the wicket, free hits through a jungle at ground level never reap much. Despite that the first 2 pairings Adam and John followed by Josh and James made a respectable 34, but with only 16 off the last 10 overs it was Lancashire's day. As always played in good spirit, with the kids enjoying the fresh air and sun. Thanks to the scorers and all the parents who encouraged the kids.

Lancashire | Player of the day: Luke Rabjohns

A good result for a team of varying experience who came through on the day. Luke earned the POD trophy for a big effort in his first ever game of cricket. Well done boys.

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Gloucestershire | Player of the day : Charlie Wrapson

Ahhhhh Summer! An absolutely beautiful day to start the new season with CCC looking in pristine condition...don't you just love the cricket season. After losing the toss, Gloucester were sent in with Notts hoping to make use of the early dew. Alec (7) and Captain Emily (12) had the honour of opening the season and weathered an early storm to post a solid 19 runs. Lakshitha (7) and Olivia (6) then compiled a tidy 13, before a chanceless POD 21 from Charlie and 11 from Harry doubled the score with well judged running and the first 4 of the season through square leg. Some "ambitious" singles from John (3) and Henry (9) restricted their partnership to 12 and the total to 76. Coach Paul then threw a curve-ball by rotating his field in the opposite direction to Notts and early confusion ensued! The Notts openers capitalised to put on 40 and make the target look a little light but as Gloucester picked up the system it was fantastic to see them encourage each other to a tremendous fielding display that trumped the early Notts confidence. Alec was on a hat-trick in his first over after Harry's "Magic Moment" diving catch in the covers and Charlie's comfortable pouch at mid-wicket eventually left him with 2 for 8. Other fielding highlights were Harry's 2 overs, 3 for -3, John's sharp catch and 2 for 5 plus Olivia and Henry giving up less than 7 runs each. The Gloucs teamwork eventually shaded the day. Thanks to Notts for the close game and Tina for scoring. It's great to be back!

Nottinghamshire | Player of the day: Cameron

Good close game. The Nottingham team bowled well with Manav and Harry having excellent figures (Harry with one net run after his two overs, and Manav with 2 net runs after his 3 overs, with 2 wickets), but Gloucester batters benefitted from some lackluster wicket keeping, with the fast bowlers , Cameron and George losing more than 14 runs as byes. Batting- After a blistering start by Cameron and George, with a partnership of 40 runs then the effort petered out with some exceptional bowling and fielding by Gloucester such that they got 10 wickets to our 8. Michael and Ethan did well to score 23 with their partnership. Well done to Callum for completing his first ever game of cricket with a positive score on the bat! Magic moment goes to Manav for a fabulous run out.

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Bristol | Player of the day : Boyd Curry

Ellerslie Rennells Jewellers | Player of the day:

match report

Middlesex | Player of the day : Zac Chan

First game of a new season started in nice sunny conditions. Middlesex lost the toss, which was ok, because it allowed me to watch the master .. William Thompson .. implement the new fielding requirements :-). Having 4 NEW BOYS TO CRICKET .. in the team, I ws very well pleased with their efforts. Harry (Game Captain), Thomas, Nik and Vib, did very well for their first game. Nice shot selection and rigid defense against two of the better Y4 bowlers in Liam and Josh. Good partnerships by all the boys and some good scores from James Davies(14), Nik L (16), Matthey Casy (8), Harry Stanbridge (14) and Zac Chan (17). Good bowler performances from the senior members of the team, James and Zac, with a grudge match going on against the Kent boys, Liam and Josh .... great to see competitiveness like that .. brings out the best of both bowler and batsman. Majic Moment went to Thomas McGann for getting a wicket maiden. The shear delight on his face was priceless. POD ent to Zac Chan for general good all round play with both bat, ball and fielding and teaching the younger squad members some skill set. Also great effort in the field by Mat, Nik and James almost pulling off some spectular catches ...... need to grow their arms longer!!! Huge thanks to John and Jude for scoring and Raj for umpiring, and Newton for on field photos and assitant coaching. Well done to Kent ... thanks William.

Kent | Player of the day: Josh Oliver

OK I am not going to start by saying how nice the weather was as everyone else has beaten me to it...hate it when someone else steals your opening line!! It was however great to get the season underway what with the steady build up of nerves throughout the week, cleaning the cricket shoes, ironing the uniform...and if that is how I felt imagine what the boys must have been like. We had a really good game vs Middlesex played in a good spirit with some good early season skills on display from both sides - there wasnt much between the sides, a few less outs for Kent and maybe a little more experience running between the wickets and that was about it. Well done to Zac Chan from Middlesex for a great all round performance. Kent gave a good team performance with all 8 players playing their part in the win and I was especially pleased with our backing up behind the wickets...why dont they do it when you practice it at training is what I want to know! Our player of the day was Josh Oliver with an oustanding 27 runs & 2 wickets in bowling that yielded -1 run...well done Josh and well done also to his batting partner, Jack Rogers, for a solid 10 runs and great running throughout the partnership. Our magic moment went to Dallas Anderson scoring 12 runs in his first ever game of cricket...keep it up Dallas. Other stand out performances were Liam Thompson with 3 wickets a catch and 18 runs and Jacob Duffin with bowling figures of 3 overs, 3 wickets for 2 runs...great stuff...right...I'm off to iron my uniform again. Thanks to Middlesex for a great first game and good luck for the rest of the season.

match report

HAMPSHIRE | Player of the day : Joseph Southcott

Lovely morning for cricket and great to be back on Cornwall Park again. The HAMPSHIRE team tried hard at times but were well beaten by NORTHAMPTON who were trying just as hard in a game played in fine spirit. While our batting needs much work, the fielding performance was good at times with bowled wickets falling to Darian Brook, Joe Southcott and Neil Pande. Ben Megson picked up a catch and a superb run out of his own bowling which won him Magic Moment. Joe was awarded POD for a really good effort in his first ever game of cricket. Many thanks to Bryan for umpiring and to Susan for scoring.

NORTHAMPTON | Player of the day: Nabeel Azafer

A fantastic morning to start the season's 1st game at Cornwall Park. Team Northampton won the toss and decided to field by their captain Ben Carrington and he also started to bowl first to get the innings underway with the new rotation and bowling from both ends which was a little unusual but the boys got into their stride pretty quickly and with confidence, as Ben ripped through the 1st over quick smart just giving 4 runs, as Nabeel followed Ben he managed to break through our 1st wicket of the season which boosted the team confidence few bowls later in the same over Nabeel took his 2nd wicket that set Team Northampton on a focused and can do attitude of winning the 1st game Team Northhampton over all Bowled well and Fielded very well and as for the batting their 3rd pair Callum and Krishan batted well with running between the wickets was excellent and put on the score of 45 runs which brought the Team's total to 84 runs which the boys were happy and hence the WIN against Hampshire, POD went to Nabeel, Thank you to our match scorers and umpires and all the parents who helped out many thanks from the Coach

match report

Derbyshire | Player of the day : Shrey Varma

A spectacular day to start the season. Wind was a little chilly but I guess that's spring for ya. A spectacular start for us too. Breaking 150! We fielded 1st and despite bowling an enormous amount of wides ( 42 balls ) we managed to keep the score to a meagre 31 runs. Sean and Saxon having negative runs to thier names. Come batting Sean and Sid opened with a nice 28. Dhruv and Joshua added a great 37 with Jamie and Andrew chiming in with thier 27. Saxon and Shrey really walloped the ball for 62. Shrey high scoring with 32 and a 200% strike rate! That was enough for player of the day. Saxon got the magic moment for 1 particularly impressive shot that netted the only 4. Quite hard to do now as the boys are so much bigger and faster in the feilding. So the boys are feeling nice and confident! Next game will probably be a dose of cold reality...

Ellerslie ASB | Player of the day:

match report

Yorkshire | Player of the day : Michael Woodard

Our team arrived at Windmill Road full of enthusiasm for the first game of the season against Devon. The pitch appeared to be new albeit rather uneven - and the outfield was always going to test the batsmens ability to score runs. However, the toss was had – and won by Devon who elected to put us into bat. Nathan and Raghav opened the batting for Yorkshire against a committed attack. Some early wickets including several runouts encouraged the fielding team. However our boys settled down and fought back with an intelligent display of communication and running between the wickets. This was a feature of all the partnerships with each contributing about evenly to the overall score of 50 runs. After a short break and some re-hydration the boys took to the field. Liam opened the bowling with a beautiful delivery – straight and well pitched up - bang - 3 runs. At that moment 50 didn’t look like it was going to be enough. However our guys came back with some excellent bowling and fielding and managed to severely restrict the runs. As the innings progressed our team grew in confidence and all the boys shared in taking wickets. Michael Woodard put up a great show g