After the previous Friday’s chastening defeat to Yapham, a relatively young U15 side travelled to play Stamford Bridge U15’s in the league, where we received our usual friendly welcome from our hosts.

Stand-in Skipper Will Foley won the toss and having previously consulted his senior players elected to bat on what was a not unsurprisingly a greenish wicket following the recent heavy rain. Opening bowlers Lewis Chaplin and Will Foley exploited the helpful conditions with some excellent seam bowling and soon had Stamford in trouble at 4-4 inside the opening 4 overs. At this stage our usual bowling order was tweaked as Pocklington strode the knife edge of ensuring everyone got to contribute verses not letting the game run away from us verses potentially bowling out the opposition for a very low score.

As it turned out, some excellent middle order batting from Stamford’s Captain Jake McDonough batting at No.4 and No.7 Dan Norris saw Stamford rally to a respectable 92-8 off their 20 overs. Highlights in the field included Evie Nightingale and Tom Pearson both fighting off their teammates for caught and bowled wickets!

With the wicket offering some variable bounce, Stamford’s opening bowlers did an excellent job of strangling Pocklington’s opening batters, both perishing whilst trying to up the run rate and leaving us wobbling at 18-2 after 6 overs. Wicketkeeper batsman George Moorhouse (32, at nearly a run a ball) and Josh Tanikal (12) calmed the nerves and upped the run-rate considerably as the first change bowlers came on.

However, there was a further twist in the tail as both departed in quick succession with 25 runs still needed. Some lusty hitting from Tom Pearson and excellent shot placement and running between the wickets from Oscar Cowling eventually saw Pocklington home with 8 balls to spare in what everyone agreed had been an exciting game of cricket.