YOUNG HEYFORD

The junior Hammers seemed revitalised this week and determined to turn around the recent 3 game loosing run! After a pre-match brief from coach Livermore, which mainly consisted of reliving his 148 batting heroics of the preceding day, Heyford U11s were requested to bat by the home team captain.

The opening pair of Josh and Josh, Bastin and Lindon respectively, strode confidently to the crease to face a steady opening attack from Horton, the boys were steady and resolute in defence and coped admirable with the straight bowling seeing off their four overs undefeated and slowly developing the team score. The second pairing of Harry Curtis and Keenan Murphy continued the resolute batting, Harry showed real progress in his season's batting form with a flurry of shots including a text book on-drive to the boundary. Keenan complimented his batting partner with confident calling, positive running between the wicket and sound defensive play. Once again progress all round, no wickets to fall and the scoreboard ticking over positively.

The familiar pairing of Luca Delfino-Rice and Lauren Murphy were batting partnership three. With seemingly the pre-match advise still ring in their ears, Luca and Lauren stepped up the batting charge, Luca quickly challenged the Horton fielding strategy scoring confidently on both sides of the wicket. Laruen wasn't to be out done by her partner though, hitting boundaries at ease, displaying an exuberance and confidence at the wicket which was a joy to watch...... another pairing of undefeated batting!

Final pairing of Oakley Young and Brad Holmes came to the wicket with Heyford "young hammers" in a really strong position, Oakley took responsibility for the batting as a nervous Brad played a watchful role. The pair continued to progress the score as Horton bought back their strongest bowlers and boundaries were becoming harder to find, but Oakley steered some fine shots into the gaps taking well run two's and accurate singles to manage the strike, unfortunately one too many allowed Horton's first wicket, a run-out followed swiftly by Horton's second wicket strike. Oakley recovered this temporary setback with two late boundaries to finish the innings on a high.

Great display of batting from the Heyford juniors - net score of 275 for 2wkts.

The second half of the game saw Heyford continue to dominate, all seven of the young hammers took wickets. Horton found the attack difficult to master and never really got up with the required run-rate. The fielding was of a high standard, great movement, positioning and backing-up squeezed Horton's progress more and the pressure culminated in a fantastic run-out from an accurate direct hit from Oakley. Horton had been restricted to a net score of 226 for 10wkts

Heyford highlights of the match;

Batting:- Lauren Murphy 18 not out {4 x fours}, Harry Curtis 11 not out, Oakley Young 14

Bowling:- everyone

Heyford win by 49 runs

This was a great game to watch, a joy to see the progress and determination showed by all of the Heyford juniors. Again an impressive turnout of parents and club members to support the team, a real confidence boost and show of appreciation for all the hard work done on those sometimes crazy Thursday evenings.

Thank you everyone, but especially our young players