Two wins in two days sees the Under 15s into the Final

In our last report, the Under 15s had qualification for the semi-finals in their own hands. Well, Adam Cooke has good news…

The last 48 hours have been very impressive, from being second in the league with a game in hand over first position to marching on to Weybridge Vandals next Sunday morning for the FINAL.

SDCC v Maori Oxshott – Last League game of the season
Maori Oxshott 105-All out, SDCC 106-1

Oxshott won the toss and elected to bat first. They started solidly and quickly smashing 27 off of the first three overs, getting them off to what looked like a very big score. However Mr Matthew H-S thought this wasn’t part of the plan and promptly removed their no.1 and no.3 in the same over! They continued to score at seven an over until the eighth over when Dan had their no.2 stumped thanks to some fine bowling and quick hands by Michael. It wasn’t long before the next victim fell, Dan getting his second wicket of the match due to a catch by Ed. From here on the opposition didn’t look comfortable and the scoring rate plummeted from seven an over to just over five after the twenty overs. Some very tight bowling from George and Matt meant that from their combined seven over spell seventeen runs were scored and three wickets fell, two for George and one for Matt. The final wicket is attributed to Jamie with Ed taking the catch. Oxshott finished on 105-All out.

Stoke opened with the formidable partnership of Michael D and James C, both batsmen smacked 4s and stole quick singles, Michael managed to record his first offside 4 of the season! A feat only topped by the raising of the bat as he reached 52* through his tenth four of his innings and consequently the hundred partnership was breached. James T hit 4* and James C hit a very supportive and intelligent, heaven help his ego, 34*. The innings finished after just 13.3 overs, a superb victory over the local rivals giving us the bragging rights as well as the necessary four points to see us to the semi’s.

Man of the Match – Michael D for hitting an offside boundary and getting his maiden Stoke 50 but mainly for the offside four. Special mention does go to George, Matt and Dan who all got two wickets each though!

There was no time to rest. E-mails had to be sent, phone calls had to be made especially first thing this morning. Stoke were confirmed as the semi-finalists to play Grayswood which meant a team had to be cobbled together very quickly, a big thank you to Sarah for managing to sort it out so efficiently as always.

Grayswood CC vs SDCC – WSYCL semi-final

Grayswood 116-6, Stoke CC 120-3

SDCC won the toss and James very wisely wanted to bowl first on a soft, wet pitch. The usual suspects opened the attack with Jamie and Dom causing all kinds of mischief with the ball. The first wicket was Dom’s, a fine catch by James D at mid-wicket removed their no.2. Stoke were well aware of the danger of the other opener as both he and some of our players attend Cranleigh, and for someone who has apparently scored 50 every match this season did play shots which suggested a quality player, however he quickly fell to Jamie for only 8, Michael D taking the catch. 21-2 a dream start.

Dom wanted to bowl his full quota of overs in one burst and was rewarded with the third wicket after a reflex catch by James D. Grayswood must have been glad to see the back of Jamie and Dom after both had picked up wickets and left their mark on the oppositions shoulders and ribs. Unluckily for them things only got better for Stoke, Matt H-S came on and straight away caused problems for Baynes and for their players, a full pitched ball bouncing up such that Ryan had to take it over his shoulder. Matt was rewarded for bowling accurately with a wicket, Matt N wasn’t so lucky. He cleaned up the middle order with the help of James T and Michael D but deserved at least five wickets but somehow the ball missed the bats edge or the stumps by a hair’s width. Grayswood stumbled to 116-6, a reachable target.

After seeing the variable bounce of the pitch nobody wanted to chase these runs but thankfully after having the sun on it, the pitch calmed down to only mildly unpredictable. Following yesterday’s roaring success in chasing, Michael D and James C opened us up with some familiar shots and unexpected ones as Michael D managed to double his offside boundary tally. James C fell to a ball that stuck in the pitch whilst on 4. Michael D and James T then put on a bit of a partnership which included a glorious 6 only for Michael D to cut one to point in the same over which left us on 32-2.

Ed joined the captain at the crease and the runs flowed, and my blood pressure rose considerably during this stressful period. James T skied one back to the bowler only for him to spill the first chance and the second and juggle frantically only for it to pop out his hands, by the grace of some divine being James stayed and got a run out of it. Afterwards the boundaries flowed as did the music from Tom Taylor who came to support the boys!

James T then fell to a good catch off of his school friend’s bowling. Ryan came to the crease and picked the runs off bit by bit, both batsmen decided to live dangerously and sweep, or try to, a very good spin bowler. Luck was with the boys though as the missed shots somehow managed to avoid the stumps. This allowed us to coast comfortably towards the final, an expensive penultimate over definitely helped. Ryan decided to play the most unorthodox shot to book our place at Weybridge, a backhand is the only way I can describe it, past the keeper for the last couple of runs.

Man of the Match – The whole team receive it after playing the best game of the season so far, fantastic fielding and brilliant batting and bowling, very well done boys! Just to add in as well, the coach of Grayswood said at the end that they had fielded their strongest possible side but we were the better team and deserved to go through.

Thank you to the dedicated supporters and especially to James C’d Dad who once again kept score for usat short notice.

We now await the news of who the other finalist will be, either Valley End or Esher. The final is held at Weybridge Vandals’ ground and will start at 9.30am. It would be great to see as much support as possible for the boys either in body or spirit. Details will be sent out over the next few days.

The job is not done yet, one game left, but with the squad we have I believe that if we give our all on Sunday then we could just do it.

Very best regards

Adam Cooke