Chenies & Latimer Lions (U7s) beat Beaconsfield U7s in 3 consecutive games

Following on from the boys victory in the final of the Marlow Big Bash tournament over Beaconsfield, some friendly games at the BCC ground on a Friday evening represented a rematch opportunity for BCC.

The weather was lovely and it seemed a perfect way to head into the weekend as a few beverages were consumed by the parents and a lot of energy was expended by the boys :)

Game 1 - C&L Lions (22 runs) beat BCC (21 runs)

BCC picked their A team for the first game and were obviously keen to avenge their loss. Our team of Jeevan Brar, Frank Harrop, William Herring, Spencer Guthrie, Zachary Saul and Ben Mills made a brilliant start with Spencer opening the bowling and taking a wicket with his very first ball! In the second over, the BCC boys went into overdrive with a six and two boundaries in an over that yielded 20 runs. The next couple of overs from Zach and William pulled things back a bit as they yielded 8 runs and 6 runs respectively, and we picked up a run out so the -5 runs per wicket was helping. However, we still needed a strong finish with the ball. Frank kept it tight by picking up a wicket and also only conceding 6 runs before Jeevan finished off the innings with a wicket maiden to peg back the BCC score to 21.

Our innings started cautiously with Spencer and William before William got a couple of boundaries away to give the innings impetus, before unfortunately losing his wicket meaning that we were on a total of 5 after 2 overs. Ben and Zach then came to the crease and were frustrated by a number of 'grass cutter' deliveries that were very difficult to get away. We went into the last 2 overs with 13 on the board; needing a further 9 runs to win. Jeevan and Frank approached the task with maturity and rotated the strike such that they picked up 9 runs off 10 balls so that we were ahead with 2 balls left. At this stage, aware that we could only lose if we lost a wicket, Jeevan did his best Boycott impression to block out the last 2 balls and secure victory for the Lions.

Game 2 - C&L Lions (43 runs) beat BCC (23 runs)

BCC changed all 6 players for the second game and we also rotated the squad. The team for the second game was Spencer Guthrie, Ben Mills, Zachary Saul, Alex Maycock, Leo Hickman and Eddie Ayres.

Leo and Eddie opened the batting and Eddie was in big hitting mood as he smashed a 6 and followed it up with a boundary as we raced to 21 off the first 2 overs. Zach and Alex kept the momentum going with 13 off the next 2 overs before Ben and Spencer finished it off with 9 runs off the closing two overs to post an impressive 43 runs.

Spencer then opened the bowling with characteristic accuracy to record 5 dot balls, Leo did the same and then Ben followed up with 4 dot balls in his over, so at the half way mark we had only conceded 7 runs. Although BCC managed to take 8 runs apiece off the next 2 overs, Eddie finished it off with a wicket in our final over to restrict BCC to 23 runs and maintain the winning streak.

Game 3 - C&L Lions (47 runs) beat BCC (25 runs)

The BCC boys from the final of the Marlow tournament and from the first game of evening were desperate for a rematch to try and gain a victory over our boys so we agreed to a rematch and selected the same team as for the first game.

BCC opened with their big hitter from the first game that had done some damage with his boundary hitting so Jeevan was pushed up to open the bowling. Jeevan responded by claiming 2 wickets in 2 balls to negate the big hitting batsman, leaving BCC on a net score of zero after the first over. Over the next 4 overs BCC were able to add 25 runs through a few wide deliveries and the odd hit, before Spencer picked up a wicket in a tight last over to restrict BCC to 24. At this point there was some dispute between the two scorers and it was agreed to split the difference giving BCC a total of 25 runs and leaving us with 26 to chase.

Zach and Ben opened the batting for the C&L Lions and some good rotation of strike saw us score 7 runs off the first 2 overs. William and Spencer then came in and were frustrated by some wide bowling before William got a boundary away to carry us to a score of 21 after 4 overs. Jeevan and Frank came to the crease with only 5 runs needed from the last 2 overs, albeit that BCC had kept their best bowlers back for these overs. The boys decided that they would not just ease to a win this time and would continue to go for the runs. There was some excellent running between the wickets and a good boundary blow from Frank before Jeevan smashed three consecutive boundaries to put the finishing touch to the win.

The boys were all (very rightly) very happy with their performances, as were the parents :)

Stats from the night

Bowling

Batting