JK skippered this one and it was arranged that SACC bat first as they only had 7 players with 3 still on the road.

Charlie S back in an U12 shirt opened the bowling and found some early swing and movement. Ellis took 2nd over from the rec end and with a re-modelled action soon got into his work picking up a hat-trick with balls 4,5 & 6! Another good over from Charlie and another wicket had SA openers in all sorts at 8-4, Ellis picked up another scalp and a James K run out finished the first pair with 8 runs at a cost of 6 wickets (in pairs money -22, ouch).
St Albans never really recovered from this opening spell and although they picked up a few runs and 42 in extras they were never really in a position to post a big total. Good bowling from Charlie G, Lewis, Jude and Jamie all slowed the scoring but went wicket-less. Jack B bowled with some fire and found some late out-swing which resulted in his last ball being an unplayable yorker. His accuracy is not always great but when he gets it right he's a real handful. Noah picked up a bowled wicket and SA closed on 230-10. Outfield catches for Charlie G, Ellis & Charlie S.

The chase should have been a little easier than we made it and the loss of wickets once again hurt us. Noah summed it up very wisely with "the balls on the stumps you have to stop and the ones that miss you can hit" wise words young padawan. To be fair SA did have a couple of decent bowlers and showed some real enthusiasm for fielding.
It was pleasing to see many of our batsman score boundaries as often at this age the boys can struggle for power shots.Charlie G and James K hit a couple of leg side blows and once again Jude looked destructive all around the wicket and stroked a couple of lovely cover drives. We also have started to pick up our fair share of extras (leg byes / byes), something which last year was quite poor.

Our last pair of Charlie S and Lewis entered the crease with NCC leading by 5 runs and if they could survive without losing any wickets we would win the game comfortably. First ball Charlie was caught at mid on and scores were level. This proved just a blip and boundaries from both ensured victory for NCC. We closed on 248-8, considerable improvement from our last outing v Watford but still lots to work on.

Next week (Tuesday) we travel to local rivals Berkhamsted, bragging rights up for grabs so please feel free to get down to the nets (Re-furnished Thursday) for some extra practice!

Please add your child's availability to the website or email myself by Saturday evening. I will send out team confirmation Sunday.
Note next Tuesday has U11, U12 & U13 games.

For the complete scorecard of NCC v SACC please visit http://northchurch.play-cricket.com/website/results/2835237