Mention the name ‘Gardiner Recreation Ground’ before this match and it would have sent a shiver down the spine of those of us involved in last season’s U11 mauling when, chasing 150 to win, we were all out for 21. Those unhappy memories were well and truly banished with a performance against Goring which, even with a rusty first-game-of-the-season component, was impressively consistent.

Most importantly, it was built on solid contributions from the entire team. After losing the toss and being asked to bat (a decision Goring might later have rued, given their relatively slow over rate meant they had to bat in increasingly failing light), debutant Matthew Bollinghaus was smartly caught low at short cover from a cover drive that didn’t really have much wrong with it, except being a little ‘on the up’. With tight bowling from their county level bowlers on a pitch with variable bounce, the score after the first two overs was an ominous 0/1.
But patience and resilience are good qualities, both displayed by Henry Manwaring and Jethro Kock, who played sensibly and deserved some luck with some lifting deliveries taking edges off the shoulder of the bat, to get the runs flowing, in amongst sensible shots to rotate the strike and see off the opening bowlers.

They were then able to cash in when Goring turned to their less experienced bowlers, with Jethro pulling a particularly tempting long hop for six, resulting in a short delay as the ball bounced down the road opposite the ground, seemingly destined for the Thames at the end of it. Jethro eventually carried his bat, retiring not out (as dictated by the playing conditions of the competition) on 31 off 21 balls.
With Henry continuing to bat fluently, other batters were able to come in and score with good strike rates, but without just “teeing off” – sensible shots to good balls, combined with good running to rotate the strike, kept the scoreboard ticking along. When Henry was eventually caught for a well-made 29 off 30 balls, Jaxson Mackinnon took over the role of anchor, finishing 17 not out from 26 balls. This enabled his team mates to play with freedom and incoming batters played unselfishly to continue to keep the scoring rate up, with the most productive cameos coming from Harry Monahan, Alexander Jewell and Rosie Mills, the latter hitting the shot of the day with a superbly timed back foot extra cover drive.

A total of 146 off our 20 overs looked like a good one, but we knew that Goring had some quality batters and would put pressure on us. They got off to a flier, scoring a quick 33 runs in the first four overs, but this came at the cost of two wickets from the accurate Avi Kohli. And when Henry Manwaring pinned one of their better batters lbw with his first delivery, things were looking up. This however, brought two county level batters to the crease and perhaps exposed a development area for the team in being more judicious with field placings and positioning, with fielders caught in the middle of saving one or saving boundaries and achieving neither, and bowlers needing to understand the benefit of drying up runs, rather than setting very attacking fields to take wickets.

For a nine over period, batters kept up with the rate and no wickets fell, though two miserly overs conceding just five runs was a valuable contribution from Fynn Ellison to stem the flow. I mentioned that this team has resilience and this was no better typified by Albie Morant and Matthew Bollinghaus who, after disappointments with the bat, came back to dry up the runs and take crucial wickets.

This put us in the driving seat in the fading light. Energy in the field was good, with Alastair Taylor his usual lively self, throwing himself around and saving runs. Bowling was tight. Despite noises about avoiding taking wickets to avoid the two retired not out batters coming back in (which I was having none of!), we turned the screw and eventually took the final two wickets, the penultimate of which saw a very well-judged catch in the gloom by Harry Monahan.

Wicket celebrations had been necessarily curtailed throughout the innings to keep the game flowing and finish before it got too dark, but joy was unbridled when captain Jethro took the bowled their last batter to seal a famous victory. A great game to start the season, with kudos also due to Goring, who played their part and were gracious in defeat.