Under 11s Steal Victory From Jaws of Defeat Against Backwell Flax Bourton

Yet another glorious early Summer's day at The Clanage, disappointingly though there was no cider flowing at 10am amongst the home fans unlike some previous morning fixtures :) Four of the stalwarts of this squad were unavailable for this fixture, which gave an opportunity to new faces: Lydia Sheldrake made her debut alongside Jake Sheppard who was available for his first fixture of the season. On winning the toss Harry Bryan had no hesitation in electing to bat, the morning dew the main factor . Harry and Orla took to the crease, Harry taking one ball as a sighter before trying to launch the bowler over deep square leg, only to be bowled middle stump by a slow loopy delivery! Luckily in this format there was no need to take an early shower, and from that moment on Harry played beautifully, scoring five boundaries, ably accompanied by Orla, the pair like lightening between the wickets. Unfortunately Orla was also bowled in her final over, the -6 runs for each lost wicket curtailing the run rate. Backwell's slow but accurate bowling continued to impress and frustrate the home batters, the lack of pace on the ball made beating the in-field difficult .Wickets continued to fall throughout the innings, eight falling in total, and with a-6 run penalty for lost wickets only 3 batsmen managed to finish up with positive scores, Bedminster finally limping home with 38-8 after taking into account these penalties. Advantage was certainly with Backwell at this stage, it seemed more a question of when rather than if they would surpass our modest total. Notwithstanding, Bedminster took to the field with a look of steely determination: Backwell were going to have to fight tooth-and-nail for every one of their runs. Harry Bryan and Henry Winstone took the new ball, Harry winding back the pace, focusing on accuracy. The pair bowled superbly, going for just seven runs in the opening four overs, with a wicket apiece. After a great start were Bedminster going to be able to keep this up? minimising extras as well as taking wickets was vital if they were to have any chance. Harry Bennett and Orla Knapp carried on in the same vain, frustrating the batsmen, their anemic run rate for the first time starting to be a real concern for the away team. Jake Sheppard kept superbly behind the stumps, a misunderstanding in communication before the match had erroneously left the coach thinking he had kept in a number of games previously only to discover after the match this was his first effort! The balance of power ebbed and flowed over the next few overs, every time Backwell looked to be in the ascendency Bedminster pulled them back with another wicket, a great spell from Max Perry and Sebastian Clift , taking a wicket apiece meant for the first time in the match the home fans began to entertain the idea of an unlikely victory. A tidy spell from Will Fortt, an economical maiden over from Lydia Sheldrake and a solid over from Callum Groves set up a tense finale, Backwell needing 13 runs from the final two overs. A superb over from Orla, too quick, generating to much bounce for the batsmen saw the momentum finally swing in Bedminster's favour, 11 runs required from the final over. A couple of fine boundaries and a wide looked likely to swing it for the opposition, but the ice man Henry Winstone kept his cool and took the all important wicket, seeing Bedminster home by 7 runs. 9 wins on the spin from this team, another close fought victory providing great experience for the kids and providing full value entertainment for the fans.