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© Shepley CC 2008
Updated
07 July, 2008
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THE SHEPLEY U13s BLOG
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Turn It On, Turn It On Again
Just like the Genesis
classic record, the lads did turn on a fantastic performance whilst
away at Lepton on Sunday. The ground was bathed in beautiful
sunshine, which we have not seen for the last couple of weeks and the
lads were supported by many of their families, which is always very
much appreciated.
On losing the toss,
Lepton took the brave decision to put Shepley into bat. Openers
POLLARD and MANSFIELD took purposeful pose in the middle, and the game
commenced. A slow first over was followed by four consecutive
wides in the next. This frustrated MANSFIELD who took an
uncharacteristic swing clipping the ball with an unlucky top edge and
gave an easy catch to an eager Lepton fielder.
This brought WALKER
(senior) to the crease with five of the older age group away for the
weekend, the pressure was on the entire team to keep the excellent
season on track. The dominance of the two batters took the
Lepton bowlers apart with great stoke play and taking every single at
great speed, with POLLARD making sixteen runs before beaten by a very
peculiar ball. EDMONDS was summonsed to the wicket and the chat
between the two batters was longer than EDMONDS stay, However EDMONDS
was to have fine revenge on his duck!
The arrival to the
crease of STAITE brought stability to the innings and both WALKER and
STAITE reached their compulsory retiring runs of twenty six and twenty
five respectively. A great basis for the innings and Shepley was now
taking the upper hand. The new batsmen of DICKINSON and CATCHPOOL went
to take the run rate further on. With overs diminishing, the lads went
for broke, but were soon out done. In came their replacements
LANCASTER and GLEDHILL.
LANCASTER who was on
his debut is one to watch in the coming weeks and was very unlucky to
have the bail slowly fall from the wickets. In came the
energetic HILL with only eight balls left, played one of the finest
shots of the day, a peach of a four, which screamed over the long
boundary. The celebration was as ever impressive, and the rush of
energy was just too much and a close run out followed on the next
ball. In came in the last man WALKER (junior) and quickly got off the
mark with an unbeaten three runs, facing as many balls. The
dressing room was buoyant but the lads kept cool heads and went out
onto the field knowing what was expected.
STAITE and MANSFIELD
opened the bowling account with both lads taking very deserved wickets
as they kept the runs down to a trickle. This was followed by WALKER
(senior) and EDMONDS both bowling very tight. EDMONDS took two very
valuable wickets and returning the best figures for the day with three
overs, two wickets, for six runs. (Sweet revenge)
The bowling pair of
LANCASTER and DICKINSON kept the pressure on the Lepton batters and
DICKINSON took solace with a plum LBW. WALKER (junior) and
GLEDHILL took their first overs and both coped very well under
pressure. All the hours in the nets practising had paid off and
both adorned a big smile as the runs required were now more than ten
an over.
The last pair of HILL
and CATCHPOOL brought the wickets tumbling for HILL and the
ever-impressive CATCHPOOL with a maiden closing the game off. A
round of applause from the parents as the final score was Shepley 103
and Lepton 67.
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IT’S THE TOP OF THE TABLE CLASH
After heavy
rain on Saturday and further overnight rain, an inspection of the
wicket at 8 am was required. The Shepley ground was being
battered with very strong winds but this assisted in drying out the
wicket, and the pitch was deemed payable, the game was on.
Shepley won the toss and placed Clayton West into bat.
The bowling by
the opening pair PEASE and STAITE gave SHEPLEY their usual very good
start but this should have been better if several catches had been
held. The bowling of WALKER and BARNES was most noticeable with
both taking two wickets each, but a mention must be made of CATCHPOOL,
who held the impressive CLAYTON WEST batters SENIOR and RENNER at bay.
CLAYTON WEST concluded their innings with 109.
Shepley knew
the task that was set and the opening pair of KNIGHT and WALKER took
to the field in all expectation. This was short lived with KNIGHT not
defending his stumps and WALKER needing a bigger bowl of cereal next
week (caught right on the boundary). The in form BARNES was next
along with POLLARD. The runs started to flow with exceptional running
between the wickets before one ‘Botham’ video too many for POLLARD as
he danced down the wicket to hit the CLAYTON WEST spin bowler only to
miss the ball and be stumped some five feet out of the wicket, (self
analysis required !!)
This brought
PEASE into the game and he continued taking the game to CLAYTON WEST
scoring a rapid 16 only to fall to LBW! THOMSON was next in and
was not feeling to well. What is the cure, answer - hit 4’s and you
don’t have to run. An excellent 25 in only 5 overs before compulsory
retirement. BARNES continued his fine form again and compulsory
retired on 26 shortly before THOMPSON.
The winning
line was in sight with new batters STAITE and DICKINSON but CLAYTON
WEST brought back into play their opening bowlers, which had an
electrifying last over, resulting in a draw with both teams on 109.
Well done to
both teams, especially in the demanding wind throughout the match.
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THANKS TO RAY
We were all set
to travel to Holmfirth for this one but due to the large number of
entrants in the Holmfirth Pub Cricket Festival, they brought the start
time forward making no time to play the junior fixture. This was
not advised to the junior representatives until Wednesday of the week
and then passed onto ourselves.
“Can we play at
your ground” was the cry. This was Ray’s WEEKEND OFF as both 1st
and 2nd teams had been drawn away in the cup. However, as always
with any cricket club the backbone is its groundsman. Ray without
question took the task in hand and prepared the junior wicket to its
normal exceptional high standard and the game commenced.
This was a very
good game of cricket to watch and both sides must take equal credit with
great bowling from both sides and batting to match. Holmfirth chose to
bat first having won the toss and scored a very good 117.
Not to be out
done, Shepley took up the challenge with a very mature approach to
their batting. THOMSON and BARNES both scored 25 for compulsory
retirement and SUTCLIFFE scored 19, KNIGHT made 16 to keep the runs
going and SHEPLEY finally crossed over the runs required with CATCHPOOL
and EDMONDS at the crease. SHEPLEY closed out on 126.
Very well done
lads and big thank you to Ray.
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IT'S A TEAM GAME
What
a glorious morning this was, sunny from the start and very warm. What a
contrast from the previous week.
Emley won the
toss and elected Shepley to bat. The Emley captain must have
looked into our dressing room and seen that many had been on a “Night
Out” or that was the only excuse been offered. A poor start with
the loss of 6 wickets for a meagre 25 runs, the cream of Shepley’s
batting now all sunning themselves on the banking drinking pop.
In strode in
Messr’s POLLARD and DICKINSON. They both took the game by the scruff of
its neck and worked the ball and the field with fantastic running
between the wickets. This started to put the pressure back onto Emley. A
fine 25 brought the compulsory retirement of POLLARD and DICKINSON made
a very comfortable 22 to bring a target score to bowl at. The
Shepley innings was capped off with some fine technical batting from one
of our youngest members STAITE who was 9 NOT OUT. This brought the
Shepley total to 94.
The dressing
room was slightly down during the break with many egos still going
through that ‘bad shot’ but this is a TEAM game and one with TWO halves
it was time to rally round, pick ourselves up and take the game to
Emley. A buoyant team now walked out onto the field. Let the game
commence!
PEASE opened the
bowling and turned the pressure up from the first ball. This was
maintained by STAITE who again was bowling far beyond his years and with
5 over’s gone, Emley were on 10. BARNES took over the reins and what an
impact he made. 2 over’s, 3 runs for 3 wickets now how good is that!!
Whilst at the other end was SUTCLIFFE taking care of things with 2
over’s, 7 runs and a wicket maiden. There was excellent fielding by all,
claiming two further run outs.
Emley were now
backs against the wall, with fifteen over’s gone and 7 wickets down they
were struggling on 30 runs. Emley realised that the total was too
far out of reach and made changes with their batters to give the other
lads down the order the chance to “have a go”. This was great to
see and their young lads did well putting a few more runs on the board
before end of play with Emley closing out with 40.
A good start to
the day and many thanks to a very hospitable Emley team who served all
the players with cold drinks during and after play.
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RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!
Oh, how the weathermen
got this wrong. The lads all turned up at 9 am and were out on the field
warming up to welcome the visitors Upper Hopton. The cloud was low but
the energy of all the players to get started would no doubt blow these
clouds away.
Upper Hopton won the
toss and elected to place Shepley into bat. The opening pair of the two
Olivers, Messrs SUTCLIFFE and KNIGHT got out into the middle to see that
the weather was changing. As we lost sight of the Emley Mast the drizzle
began to fall.
Both batters took to
getting quickly off the mark with good shaped shots and taking the bad
balls that were bowled. The damp grass slowed the ball enough to fox
KNIGHT and he was bowled with 6 runs to his credit. In came Rowan
BARNES as the rain fell and made life a little too difficult as the
Upper Hopton bowler laid a peach of ball onto the wickets. Again the
speed beat the batter and gave BARNES a quick exit back into the dry
comfort of the pavilion.
In marched Ian WALKER
the helmet now not a guard but more like rainwear a quick single and he
was off the mark The Upper Hopton bowlers coped well in the rain and
scoring was becoming more difficult for us. This brought SUTCLIFFE into
a rash shot which had him caught close in.
Ben THOMSON was next in
and took the challenge of the weather with several well-timed shots and
placing one round the corner to make the only four of the match.
Unfortunately the weather had now closed in and the rain made it too
dangerous for the match to continue. Both umpires agreed to abandon the
match, much to the disappointment of all players, still there is always
next time!
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OUT OF THE ROMIDA EXAMINER SALVER, BUT NOT DOWN!
The first round
of the Romida Examiner Salver was a home match against an Area A side
Thongsbridge. Unfortunately due to the Shepley Spring Festival
being held at the club the home advantage was lost with Thongsbridge
offering the match to be played at their ground. This same weekend
saw that six of our older members of the team were away on a school
trip. This however gave the young guns the chance to step onto the
field, some for their first time.
Shepley won the
toss and elected to bat.
In came Harry
DICKINSON and Oliver KNIGHT. A steady start was made with runs been
forced through good running between the wicket. This was in the face of
some very tidy bowling from Thongsbridge, but fortunately Lady Luck was
with us this morning and six catching opportunities dropped.
Oliver KNIGHT
made a very solid 25 before compulsory retirement. This brought in Ian
WALKER to the crease. Harry DICKINSON was finding his shots but
was finally caught having made a very good 16 runs. In walked the in
form batsmen Johnny “Manners” Mansfield and the run rate picked up with
some excellent shots and demanding running between the two batsmen.
Shepley played out their full quota of over’s with a score of 73
The Thongsbridge
ground was looking very neat in the lovely surroundings and most players
took the break in play to catch up on some early breakfast provided by
the Thongsbridge mums (a big thank you).
As Shepley took
to the field the bowling of Oliver KNIGHT and Tom STRIATE got us off to
a good start with their usual up to the wicket bowling. This was
complimented with excellent fielding by debutants Leighton WRIGHT and
Leo HILL. On came Ian WALKER and combining his off spin and leg
spin with the loss of only three runs. Leo HILL followed to make
his first appearance bowling and did a fine job. This settled any nerves
and he was eager for more!
The experienced
trio of Rowan BARNES, Harry DICKINSON and Jack DYSON kept the
Thongsbridge batters down to just scoring singles but the two opening
batsmen where quality and both reached their compulsory retirement of 25
runs each.
On came one of
the impressive “young guns” Freddy CATCHPOOL with a very tidy over
keeping the new batsmen on their back foot. This was then followed
by another of our first timers Leighton WRIGHT, bowling down the slope
he was very unlucky not to take his first wicket with the ball checking
the varnish on the wickets as it went past but alas no fall of the
bails. As Thongsbridge came up to the mark, it was left to Jacob
EDMONDS to take what was anticipated to be the final over but as usual,
the grit and determination of this cricketer ensured that Thongsbridge
required another over to crawl over the runs required.
Therefore, it
was left to congratulate Thongsbridge and wish them well in the Romida
Salver, but a big well done to the Shepley lads for playing well in what
for the spectators was a very enjoyable match to watch.
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GREAT WIN OVER SHELLEY!
Well done to all who
played in Sunday's game at Shelley, and thanks to all who came to
support. What a great way to start the season with a very good win
over Shelley
Shepley won the toss
and took the initiative with batting first. A very good all
round batting performance, was capped with opening bat Oliver
Sutcliffe making 26 before compulsory retirement. The closing
partnership between Oliver Knight and Jonathan Mansfield made 25 runs,
and this was due to excellent work running for every opportunity that
was offered. The innings was concluded with Shepley scoring 100 runs
with the loss of only 5 wickets.
As the sun was
rapidly drying the morning dew from the pitch, the opening bowlers of
Jaime Pease and Tom Staite made a fantastic start with pinning down
the Shelley openers to just 8 runs from 5 overs. This was backed
up with good bowling from Oliver Sutcliffe and Ben Thomson to maintain
the pressure on Shelley. The Shepley fielding was great, with
all players walking in and backing up each other and some energetic
run saving stops from Sam Pollard, Rowan Barnes and Jacob Edmonds.
Sam Pollard came into
bowl and broke up a batting partnership, which Shelley was now
forming, with a crucial wicket. In the last few overs, bowlers
Harry Dickinson and Ian Walker took two excellent wickets each,
securing the win for Shepley as Shelley scored 67 runs with the loss
of 8 wickets.
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