Missing some of the strong regulars, and with three young newcomers to the team, the Under 11As went off to Burghill this morning for the last "A" team match of the season. Max won the toss and chose to bat. Burghill's top bowlers were superbly fast and accurate, clean bowling Aidan twice and Max once in the first 2 overs, though both also hit boundaries. Toby and James B were also bowled a couple of times each, and Charlie lost his wicket twice. After 12 overs we were still in negative territory.

Young Rhys playing sensibly and defended well, then James F and Nish took advantage of some weaker bowling to smash 4 boundaries and steady the ship. Adrian too defended bravely against fast bowling, and with extras the score crept up to 246 / 9 after our 20 overs.

The Burghill top order took a liking to some looser-than-usual bowling, as Max, Toby, James B and Nish put everything into trying to take some wickets. James Foggo kept wicket superbly, with two stumpings, before swopping with Max and bowling two deceptive tidy overs. Alex was accurate and Aidan didn't concede any runs off the bat and took two wickets, while Charlie and young Adrian bowled their best but were punished by strong batting. The best bowling of the day though was from James Burdsall, who came back for the last over, where three wickets fell, pulling back the Burghill total to 284.

The absolute highlights of the day however came in the field, where some fast reactions, strong throws and excellent keeping gave us five run outs and stumpings and two catches. The memory of Toby's fast accurate throw from 20 yards to break the wicket, and James Foggo's aerobatic backwards leap to take a high catch will stay seared in the memory!

So a mixed day - work needs to be done on defensive batting and also on punishing poor balls wide of the stumps. Bowling accuracy could have been better. A big positive was the attitude of our three newcomers, who slotted in to the team confidently. Despite the defeat, it was an enjoyable match and played in good spirit, with heads staying up to the end.