Bamford-Fieldhouse Junior Cricket - Match Reports

Bamford-Fieldhouse Junior Cricket

Bamford-Fieldhouse U13s 140-2 - Heyside 126-1 (Away)
On a cold and windy day, Bamford won the toss and elected to bat and this proved to be a great decision as the top of the order started up where they had left off in the previous week's match. Joe Smith-Butler retired on 30 after only 12 balls and Alex Willis followed his lead retiring on 32. Adam Ahmed scored his second successive 20 and Danny Matthews made 18 not out and was ably supported by Ben Garside (11) and Charlie Lloyd-Jones (11). Bamford ended their 20 overss on a very respectable 140.

Any thought of an easy win were soon forgotten as Heyside's openers Price and Robinson both retired with 30's after ten overs and at 70 for 0 it was very much "game on". Darlington and Graham carried on the good work but the match was finally decided on the fourth ball of the 20th over when it became mathematically impossible for the home side to win.

Smith-Butler was the pick of Bamford's bowlers with 1-9 off his four overs.
Although it was a good batting performance, the visitors need to sharpen up their bowling and fielding a little but they still have a 100% record!

Friamere 55-6 - Bamford-Fieldhouse U15s 56-3 (Away)
On a wintry night at Friarmere, the home side won the toss and decided to bat. Bamford made early inroads into the batting when Ahmed Nawaz bowled Taylor and then in his second over removed his fellow opener Rigby with a good catch from Abbu Alam. Accurate bowling from Nawaz, Joe Smith-Butler and Ibbi Alam kept the pressure on the middle order and Smith-Butler was rewarded with a wicket thanks to a great running catch by Alex Willis.

Slow bowler Joe Mitchell then took three wickets for 6 runs including two in two balls, the first of which was a sharp stumping by Callum Openshaw. Rothwell was the only batter to reach double figures with 18 n.o. and Friamere ended up with 55 for 6.

With only a small target Bamford looked favourites but a great opening spell of hostile and accurate fast bowling from Mahmood and Rigby saw the visitors struggling on 10 for 1 after 6 overs. Smith-Butler and Openshaw defended their wickets well but with only five overs left Bamford were still 27 short of the target.
Smith-Butler then unleashed a strong attack on the bowling and when the pacy Mahmood returned he went for 9 runs off his final over after going for only 2 off his first three. This acceleration left Bamford needing only three runs from Rigby's last over and Smith-Butler duly scored these with a straight drive from the first ball.

This was a major improvement on last week's performance with Smith-Butler's mature innings being the highlight of the evening.