Amber Carts Breaks Stoke Bish Hearts

Some new faces came into the fold for the Under 11's, Oliver Hosier and Alfie Porter making their Bedminster debut's. George Martin's success with the toss continued, changing it up for this game electing to take the field. The tried and tested formula of Charlie Carter and Joseph Armitage opened the attack, the Stoke Bishop batsmen starting confidently, demonstrating good understanding with quick running between the wickets. The first scalp went to Charlie, a grubber that didn’t get much above ankle height careering into middle stump . Joseph's first wicket saw a wrong 'un skied to mid-on, the ball taking an age to come down into the safe hands of Harry Bryan. From that point on Bedminster increased the pressure, that same over a fine piece of fielding and quick throw from cover from Amber Carter saw Stoke Bishop lose one of their openers, 23-3 after 6 overs. A fine maiden from Amber in her opening over was the start of a whirlwind passage of play, between the 8th and 13th overs 6 wickets falling, all of them clean bowled: Joseph and Jamie Hickman picking up a brace, (Jamie taking a wicket with his first ball) Amber, Orla and Harry coming to the party as well, 37-9 from 13. As a sign of how Harry Bryan is rapidly developing as a quality all-rounder the Bedminster coaches decided to remove him from the attack after just one over as he was clearly too quick for the remaining batsman: we'll be saving him for sterner tests later in the season against Bristol and YMCA. A fantastic final wicket partnership saw Stoke Bishop reach what at one stage had looked like an improbable 74 all out from their 20 overs, the batsmen playing in composed fashion, frustrating Callum, Orla and Jamie, the final wicket falling in the final over, Joseph taking an easy run out as part of a tight maiden over from Charlie.

Looking to mix things up in the batting department, captain George Martin was accompanied to the crease by Amber Carter, who although a little nervous to be opening the batting looked like a seasoned performer after just a few balls, the pair clearly on the same wavelength running beautifully between the wickets, both batting sensibly against some quality opening bowling (particularly from Stoke Bishop's captain and under 11 county player) but both dispatching the poorer deliveries in emphatic style, Amber firing a run-a-ball 26 no. including five boundaries before being forced to retire, George retiring on 19 from 22 balls. Next to the crease were Max Perry and Oli Hosier, both striking impressive boundaries, Alfie Porter joining Oli at the crease when Max fell to a smart catch at square leg. Alfie was looking good until being run-out by a fine run out, Jonty Rhodes style, the fielder only having a single stump to aim at. All that was left was for Harry Bryan to smack a boundary through long on, Bedminster reaching their target from 12 overs.

Good displays throughout the team but it was Amber who stole the headlines with her fine all-round performance.