On Thursday our U13’s headed Glossop for their match against Dinting. As the away side we padded up to bat first. A steady and secure beginning by our opening pair let everyone settle in with some nice single runs. Our second batting pair took every opportunity that they could get away with to score a run, and a few where they were very lucky with Dinting fielding. Unfortunately they tried one run too many which lost us our first wicket. A clear off Drive strike by Sam Shepherd on his first ball of the match got him a 4, only falling short of a 6 and the boundary by a few feet.
Despite the loss of our second wicket during the third pairing, we were still on form for a good showing. Our second to last batting pair saw another good round of batting and running, with most of Glossop likely to hear the calls for 1 or stay by Tom Barber. Our final pairing came onto the field and we closed out our innings in style, with George Hardie getting another 2 boundaries. In the end we finished on a score of 256 with the loss of only 4 wickets.
As Dinting came out to bat, our lads were confident that they had done all that they could. During the opening pairing, Dinting showed that they were after a win, finishing 2 runs ahead of High Lane at the same point. Their second pairing came out swinging, getting a boundary for 4 on the second ball. However, Sam Shepherd didn’t let that get him down and immediately bowled the same batter out. High Lane’s fielding was much improved again, only marginally missing out on 3 occasions where the batter only just made his ground in time.
On the final ball of the 14th over, everyone clearly hears Tom Barber shout “that’s rubbish” as the ball leaves his hand, and then promptly smashes the stumps off the wicket. We’d all like it if he continued to bowl “rubbish” like that in future. Throughout the whole match the scores and performance of both teams has been very close, with excellent fielding from Alex Cameron in the outfield helped to keep the Dinting score lower than it could have.
As players and spectators alike were being eaten alive by what felt like carnivorous swarms of midges, we came to the final over of the match. At this point Dinting only needed 2 runs to win, so everyone was on the edge of their seats. Despite good bowling Dinting picked up 3 runs by the 4th ball. High Lane now needed a wicket to win, as the 5th ball was struck it went high up and behind the wicket. Unfortunately our keeper had lost sight of the ball and the 2 closest fielders had left it for him to catch, as we all watched it landed on the floor between all 3 players.
Dinting won the match by 2 runs with a score of 258 (also with the loss of only 4 wickets). This was a very even match on overall skill levels, against a nice group of Dinting Girls & Boys. Our next home match will be on Wed 30th against New Mills, and then we will have an away match against Hazel Grove on Thur 1st July.
