Gold Star For 11s Against Golden Hill Girls

Two new signings made their debut this evening, Greer Barnes bringing a wealth of experience from both club and county and Jamie Hickman, only a year 4 but already a veteran, starting his third season at Under 11's. Having made an impressive performance during Sunday's nail-bitter against Wrington Orla Knapp was added to the side, Amber Carter alongside making up the all-girl triumvirate. At the toss captain George Martin elected to bat, opening with Joseph Armitage, James Carter making his umpiring debut for the 11s. The first thing that was apparent was the lack of bounce in the pitch, the lads having to practice their hockey shots to get the balls off the wicket. George went about things in typical swashbuckling style, only trading in boundaries, scoring 20 from 12 balls before being bowled by an ankle-biter. Henry came to the crease next, looking good before falling to a fantastic catch at mid-wicket. It was Harry Bryan's turn next, 58 runs being added to the scoreboard before being caught by another fine catch by the fielder, this time at square leg. After Joseph retired on 25 Callum and Fergus came to the crease, both playing sensibly, scoring in singles, Bedminster finishing up on 116/3 off their 20 overs, not a bad score considering the surface being played on, although we were 10-15 runs short of where we would have been had there been had we ran all the easy singles that were on offer. After the interval in which a superb chocolate cake worthy of TMS (none of which I hasten to add was offered to the poor coaches :)) Charlie Carter opened the bowling, a typical economical display, taking a wicket in his second over. Orla opened the bowling from the other end, in only her second match showing she has real wheels, on a more bouncy wicket she's going to have some batsmen in all sorts of problems this season. Greer bowled well on debut, taking a wicket in her first over with her trade mark nip-backer delivery. Jamie Hickman again on debut came in next, uncharacteristically struggling a little for length in the first over (compounded by the lack of bounce, so bowlers needed to pitch up more fully than usual) but came back well in his second over, again he'll be more of a handful on pitches with a little more bounce. Joseph Armitage was in next, taking a wicket with his first ball, somehow failing to take a second with a wrong 'un that pitched on off and just managed to miss leg stump. Amber and Henry were the next pair into the attack, both bowling with impressive accuracy and economy. Harry Bryan was next in, his run up almost starting at the long-off boundary, every match seeming to add a little more pace to his bowling. After bowling the batswoman with a full bunger the Bedminster umpire was considering taking him out of the attack as was a little too quick for some, but fair play to the girls, they dug in, resolute, one of them cutting him majestically through backward point for four. Callum and Fergus bowled the final four overs, Callum taking his second wicket of his brief Bedminster career, Fergus having his first bowl for Bedminster impressed. Bedminster will face a far sterner test when they return to YMCA to face the all-conquering YMCA under 11's who haven't lost a single game in over a year, but it was a good performance, and great to see all the new faces getting more game time. Big thanks to the YMCA team for a game that was played in a great spirit, hopefully before long we can field an all-girl team for a return fixture.