Under 11s too strong

Another fine early Summer's evening greeted the fans for what, due to a BYCL administration glitch transformed from a cup tie to a friendly. Both teams however were very keen to win: Knowle were fresh from a moral boosting win the prior evening at home against Whitchurch and Bedminster were always going to be confident having only lost twice all season. Although Bedminster won the toss and elected to field, Knowle had managed to turn up without their team kit bag, so Bedminster offered to bat first to get things going. George and David opened the batting. Bedminster made a somewhat ponderous start, the lads were struggling to punish the large number of balls passing just past the leg stump. The Knowle bowling could be characterised as slow and loopy, which in combination with the added bounce of the new ball and astro wicket actually made batting quite difficult to begin with: I'm sure the boys would have preferred a little more pace on the ball to play their shots. Bedminster starting going through the gears in the second half of the innings however, which was possible thanks to Dan anchoring the innings with 18no. In the time it had taken to go and fetch another pint of Thatchers from the bar the lads had piled on another 50 runs in quick time, Billy scoring an impressive 24no and Olly bullying the Knowle bowling, the highlight of his innings being three consecutive pull shots for four in his 22 not out at better than a run a ball. Bedminster finished with a score of 122/3, which was likely to pose a stiff challenge to the visitors given the strength of the Bedminster bowling attack.

An innovative start from Bedminster, worthy of an IPL game, electing to start with the Little and Large spin duo of Joseph and Ali. Joseph struck with the first ball of the innings which set the scene, both opening bowlers finding their line and length straight away. Ali claimed the next wicket, the batsman playing onto his stumps, Joseph then took another three wickets, courtesy of fine catches, George low-down at cover, Billy at point and David at mid-wicket. At 7 runs from 8 overs with 5 wickets down Knowle were looking down the barrel, but fair play to them they dug in and managed to bat through their 20 overs, finishing up with 40-8, 82 runs short of the Bedminster total. A further three wickets came from Harry, David and Brody, all clean-bowling the batsman and all bowling with good economy. Charle didn't claim a wicket but bowled well, giving little away, going for just 9 runs in his 4 overs. Another good performance from Bedminster who look forward to avenging their loss against Stoke Bishop in the Bristol league next Thursday.