A Hatrick...

This was an in impressive win by Richmond. Long Ditton opted to bat and their openers looked dangerous – they got off to a flyer and were on 25 after 4 overs. Rhys Williams playing his first game then proceeded to take a wicket in each of his overs – bowling one and catching the other to dismiss both openers. The subsequent batsman were unable to score at anything like the same rate and both Joe’s overs were maidens. It took until the 11th over for LD to double the total. And it was then that Ralph accounted for the middle order with 2 wickets in 2 balls. The hatrick ball brought in a player who could bat beautifully – a wonderful range of powerful shots. There was no hatrick! Cricket can be a cruel game and it must have seemed so to James B who had to bowl virtually all his balls to this player. But cricket can be a beautiful game as well when their star batsman was skillfully caught in the deep by Thomas Simm off of James’s last ball. Once again RCC's catching was superb – 2 chances both taken...unlike the opposition who dropped 5 or 6 (and RCC pinched a run each time...these boys are very quick learners!!). Rhys bowled the final over to finish in style with a wicket maiden!! LD finished on 101 for 7.

RCC U11B are comfortable chasing a total and, from scoring 11 off the first over, it always looked like RCC would get the runs. Some strong hitting from Ollie and a well constructed innings from Jon got us home for the loss of 4 wickets by the 15th over.

The RCC U11Bs have now won all 3 of our Surrey league games – future opponents will know this and offer some sterner tests in the weeks ahead.

Caps were awarded to James B, Josh W-H and Joe. Rhys playing his first game was man of the match with figures of 3 overs and 3 wickets for a miserly 7 runs.

Words from the Neil "the bard" Wharton