Poynings u12s 95-3 beat Burgess Hill u12s 94-8. 

The trip to Poynings is a lovely one, with their beautiful Downs setting and bleating sheep as a backdrop – and the weather was kind too. Sadly though, Poynings enjoyed it more as they produced by far their best performance of the season to comfortably beat a slightly under-strength Burgess Hill.

We lost the toss and were inserted, and were hit by cruel luck early on; Conor Ward, having hit a nice flicked four to kick off his innings; was given out to a poor lbw decision for 4. Not what we needed when missing a couple of our key batters. Billy Fuller though, exuded control and calmness at the crease and pushed on, as busy as ever; hitting a couple of well executed boundaries. Henry Cobham joined him, and also played well, in his usual attacking way as we rattled along to 36-1 after 6 overs. We were however about to come unstuck, when they brought a spinner on. Billy danced down the pitch and was stumped for 14, and then Henry returned a catch to the bowler for 10. Radley Larder came in at 6, and also danced down the pitch, passed the ball on the way and became our second stumping dismissal. George Kaye was unlucky, hitting a couple of strokes to the fielders, before creaming one to their cover fielder who took an excellent catch. 36-1, became 40-6.

Louis Harcourt and Benji Turner spent some time at the crease and started to build a good partnership. Louis busy and quick between the wickets, Benji secure and steady as we stemmed the flow of wickets. Their bowlers started to gift some extras which were helpful, but our rate was slowing. Benji left his crease and was stumped for 3, and Louis’s excellent contribution of 10 ended when he was bowled trying to up the rate, to their best bowler. This left Jack MacDonald and Jake MacMahon to grab an excellent boundary each and some quick runs in the last couple of overs to take us to 94. Under par, but absolutely something to bowl at.

The reply started really well for Poynings. Their openers batted superbly, not with a raft of boundaries, but with aggressive running and nice placement of runs. They ran our fielders ragged and in truth we probably should have run them out in any one of the 7 or 8 chances they gave us. Unlike last week, it wasn’t the week for our faster bowlers, as their openers compiled 58 runs together before Benji Turner struck in his excellent first over, luring the batsman into an edge that flew high but Henry caught superbly behind the stumps. That was one opener out, for 23; but the other was soon to retire on 27 after an excellent innings. Glen MacDougall then struck in his over, after being hit for a couple of fours, he bowled their no3 for 9, and then when Conor brought himself on, he struck – bowling their no5 for a second ball duck.

The remaining batsmen saw the hosts home comfortably though, and inside 17 overs – to record their first win of the season.

It wasn’t our finest day, but we performed with great spirit. It was a good fun game that Poynings thoroughly deserved to win. We lacked a little depth in the batting, and lacked a little discipline at times against the spinner too; however the lads know where to improve for the next game as we look forward to the visit of Preston Nomads next Monday.

Scorecard: https://burgesshill.play-cricket.com/website/results/3616122