This year has seen a big shift in strategy for our Under 10 and 11 programme. For the first time in the Club's history, our Under 11 programme features FOUR different teams competing across SEVEN different competitions. Whilst this brings with it many more opportunities for players to put the skills they are practicing into competitive situations it also provides just as many headaches for those doing selection to try and balance playing time alongside the needs of young players who are developing their skills often at different rates. So after the highs of a big win for the Under 11Bs against Bexleyheath on Monday, and the Under 10s getting their season off to a successful start on Sunday and Tuesday with two wins on the bounce, Coach Rob gave a number of players a rest while bringing in some other players who would otherwise have not played for over two weeks since their last game.

After winning the toss and electing to bowl first, Sidcup got off to a shaky start with the usually reliable Murphy struggling to control the swing. Conceding 3 wides and a four in an opening over that went for 12 runs, after the other two balls slipped past Dom to go for a bye each, Murphy got stuck into supporting his team mates offering encouragement, taking a catch and throwing himself around in an effort to prevent a boundary. Will Dennis, who was making his debut in Under 11 cricket after moving up from Under 9s a year early, was the pick of Sidcup’s bowlers having bowled a fantastic spell in which he took 4 wickets for 12 runs including a hat trick and narrowly missing out on a 5fer after dropping a catch off his own bowling. Kavya Saxena and Finn Foster also bowled well in spells where they managed to restrict the opposition to 12 runs and 6 runs respectively off their two overs. Unfortunately, despite a couple of bright spells the opening over set the tone for much of the remaining bowling and Sidcup’s flaws could be seen all too clearly just by reading Chislehurst and West Kent’s extras column in the scorecard. At a total of 64 the extras column represented more than half our oppositions total score and read as 7 byes, 4 no balls and 53 wides more than half of the total runs Sidcup would go on to score themselves.

After our bowling gave us a massive uphill battle, so too would we shoot ourselves in the foot s with our batting. With the exception of Dom Westwood (15 not out off 16 balls including some very smart running between the wickets to gain singles from a wicketkeeper stood more than pitch length back from the stumps), our batters froze under pressure either failing to get their shots away or giving up wickets from poor decision making when running between the wickets. Not getting shots away invited the Chislehurst's fielders to squeeze in closer and gave them the opportunity to put a stranglehold on Sidcup’s batters by preventing those quick singles we were desperately looking to take advantage of. Whilst a couple of the opposition’s bowlers looked threatening at times, ultimately wickets were lost only through either poor shot execution or through poor decision making leading to what were needless run outs. So despite the heroic late effort from Dom to salvage a result and which kept everyone (including the opposition supporters) on the edges of their seats, the match ended with Sidcup 11 short of the net score achieved by Chislehurst and West Kent.

Loses like this offer a valuable opportunity to learn what we can do better next time. Some might say the losses are even more important than the victories. Whilst there were many take aways from the on field performances including how to handle pressure and how to execute ones game, putting the result to one side, the coaching team were extremely proud of the way the players supported each other, especially in the field when things were not going the way of our bowlers. It was good to hear Will, Tommy and Joel vocally getting behind their team mates in the field offering encouragement when bowlers hit their length and line. Well done too to Murphy who despite personally having probably his worst day at the office from a personal performance point of view, managed to keep the teams spirits up by supporting his team mates throughout both our bowling and batting innings. Kudos to Murphy as well who, after Will taken ill with 7 balls to go, demonstrated the bravery to stick his hand up to come back out to bat with Dom and to try to get Sidcup back into contention by trying to smash a six to get Sidcup back into contention when needing 12 runs to draw with just 4 balls remaining. That team spirit and leadership will stand all the players in good stead for the season ahead.