A glorious day of sunshine brought 8 visiting cricket club’s to our home ground for the annual U9’s festival. The visiting clubs were Marlborough; Potterne; Collingbourne & Avon Valley; Burbage & Easton Royal; Purton; Royal Wootton Bassett; Avebury and Devizes.
Wilcot was able to field two teams, the Wilcot ‘Tigers’ and ‘Lions’:
The Wilcot Tigers played three games at our festival and despite three losses the team all had their moments of brilliance. The squad consisted of Freddie Sutcliffe, Freddie Tregoning, Fred Freemantle, ‘Boo’ Hooker, Izzy Hayman, ‘Bear’ Scott-Donaldson, Magnus Scott-Donaldson, Dougal Gorvin & Jonathan McDavid.
Tigers Vs Collingbourne
Collingbourne batted first and started with a huge 6 and scored consistently well for the first 4 overs thanks to the help of some older boys drafted in at the last minute. The 5th and 6th overs bowled by Freddie T and Dougal respectively were both maidens (a huge achievement). The 7th bowled by Fred included a wicket but the visitors total stood at an imposing 270 with the damage being done in the first 4 overs.
The Tigers batted excellently and made steady progress throughout their innings and did not lose one wicket due to some sensible batting and running but ended up with a score of 237.
Colingbourne 270 for 1
Tigers 237 for 0
Tigers Vs Devizes
Wilcot batted first and started with the loss of a wicket but runs started to flow only to be brought back with 3 wickets throughout the innings which also included some cracking boundaries from all the batting pairs. Wilcot finished with a score of 230 with the 3 wickets proving costly.
The Devizes innings began steadily but a wicket in the second over bowled by Izzy pegged them back. Followed by further great bowling including a maiden from Freddie S (what was a rare thing is rapidly becoming a trend!!) and a wicket from Dougal in the following over Devizes finished with a score of 248.
Tigers 230 for 3
Devizes 248 for 2
Tigers Vs Marlborough
Wilcot again batted first having lost the toss and the opening pair made a good start without losing a wicket which also included a big six by Freddie T. The next overs pegged Wilcot back and included one of those ‘rare’ maidens but still no wickets were lost. In the final 4 overs runs flowed again and Wilcot finished with a score of 244 and again lost no wickets (again a supposedly rare thing…) having batted incredibly well and containing some excellent calling between the wickets.
Marlborough lost a wicket in the first over, bowled by Dougal, and another in the third bowled by Joanthan but runs flowed again until the 7th and 8th overs when both Fred and Magnus both took a wicket which meant the match ended in a draw but due to a few wides in the final over also meant a few extra balls had to bowled and Marlborough secured the win with a 4 and a 6.
Tigers 244 for 0
Marlborough 255 for 4
Courtesy of Guy Tregoning
The Wilcot Lions team did themselves, the club and their parents proud yesterday. Though we were convincingly beaten in the opening match we came back stronger and we kept improving during the course of the morning. These are all very positive signs for their future development both on and off the field of play and I felt privileged to be in charge of them on the day.
The squad consisted of Jonty Shanagher; Charlie Smith; Noah Konynenburg; Isaac Holmes; Bertie Perrins; Ed Silcocks; Will Silcocks; Max Poole & Harry Murrell.
Burbage & ER 303 for 3 defeated
Wilcot Lions 207 for 6
WL won the toss and elected to field. B&ER were a strong side despatched our bowlers to all parts.. Harry, Isaac and Ned each took a wicket whilst the economical Jonty restricted the free flowing batsmen to a paltry 6 runs from his over.
In reply 4 wickets fell in the first 4 overs and we were never in the chase due to some accurate, fast bowling and tremendous fielding by B&ER.
Royal Wootton Bassett 264 for 0 defeated
Wilcot Lions 260 for `1
This was an epic encounter. Once again WL won the toss and elected to field. Ed and Jonty tied the batsmen up in knots conceding a miserly 10 runs from their 2 overs. Generally speaking, had we been able to bowl with a little more accuracy, we might have restricted RWB to fewer runs. Sadly too many wides or no balls were delivered but we can work on our bowling technique in training and I am convinced we will get stronger. In response I thought we were dead and buried with 2 overs to go requiring 32 runs for an unlikely win but the Silcocks brothers very nearly pulled it off with 15 runs coming in the 7th over and 12 in the final over.
Wilcot 279 for 2 defeated
Avebury 258 for 1
Wilcot lost the toss and Avebury elected to bat first so for the 3rd time we knew we would be involved in a run chase to determine the outcome and the boys did not disappoint. Jonty took a super wicket clipping the top of middle stump in the 5th over. Ed bowled a maiden over in the 6th – a very rare feat in this format of the game. Our fielding was outstanding given the short boundary on the red pitch and with Bertie and Charlie also bowling tidy overs we restricted Avebury to 258. In reply WL reached 249 after 6 overs and with Charlie & Will in the final pair I was confident of victory. Between them the boys scored three 6s and a pair of 4s hitting a massive 30 runs for the loss of only 1 wicket.