At a windswept Binsted ground our first 11-a-side match of the season with strong availability saw the Scorchers turn out a full squad with deep batting and bowling. Rowledge won the toss and chose to bowl, and our openers Elliot and Stanley headed out to a strip that was launching balls into near orbit from a length. One of those managed to take out Eliot just under the ribs on then fourth ball launching him into an early retirement hurt. Captain Alfie was ready to enter the fray, and his height seemed the appropriate antidote to a bounching pitch. There was not much on offer for pace bowling on the this pitch, the bowl would just not stay low - and it meant Rowledge started to get frustrated by the end of the 4th and Stan started to hit the only things that were anywhere near the bat - extras proving to race the total head.

The pointless 6-over retirement rule was enforced and Stan (8) swapped out for a returning Elliot, and then Freddie replaced Alfie at the seventh and immediately opened the taps against the slower pace. In their first over together Freddie and Elliot put on 20, and Freddie accelerated to retirement for his second successive innings with 35 off 15 (233.33sr). Callum (0) swapped in and unfortunately the ball slipped under on his first ball sending him straight back to the pavillion (115-1). Elliot retired again at the end of the 12th and Walter and Arthur steadied slowly to the 17th over before Arthur succumbed to mid-on (146-2). Walter retired as well, and in came Evan and Arlo with instructions to hit big. A mix-up saw Evan (0) swiftly run out without scoring further (146-3). With wickets in hand Archie came out to strike hard. Arlo (0) was beaten to his off stump (146-4) and Rowledge were smelling blood in the water. Archie (0) was also beaten, and a spell of 4 wickets in 5 balls had the momentum definitely with the home side. Magnus came in and Stan (20) returned from retirement - adding another 12 in the dying overs before being rattled with 3 balls remaining. Elliot (14) came back again for his third arrival at the crease in one game, and pushed one more to the total, before Magnus (2) gave a 4th wicket to a jubilant Rowledge medium pacer. Alfies return for 1 ball, and in a spectacular final shot he launched the last ball into the field next door for a mahooooosive six. 168 set for Rowledge - who gave up 61 in extras. Keeping the field tight would likely win the match.

Our opening bowling pace pair of Freddie (16-0) and Callum (12-0) struggled on the bouncy surface as well, the ball was not able to go anywhere near the stumps. But their tight lines gave away no extras to their names, but the height gave the a chance to bat out against the good bowling. Alfie was the first to strike at the close of the 5th over, taking out their strongest opener and ensuring he could not return. Their second opener pushed forward to the 6th and was retired but would return later in the match. Alfie (10-2) struck again in the 7th thanks to a great strong catch at cover by Freddie. Archie (12-0) kept the score low, and Stan (3-2) came on to take his first with a superb catch by Magnus at fly-slip with his first in the 10th - and four balls later he knocked back the middle with a lovely turning ball. And now it was the Scorchers sensing the pendulum of cricket favour returning to their direction, and Alfie brought the fielders up to surround the bat. Two balls later saw Freddie throw down the bowlers stumps from a nearly silly point position, leaving Rowledge at 68 for 5. Evan (3-2) came into the attack with some medium paced swing into the wind, for which he was rewarded in the 14th with a double, a plum back-pad lbw, and then straight through middle and off to leave Rowledge reeling at 88-7. Magnus (8-1) joined in the wicket takers at the start of the 16th - bringing in the retiring Rowledge back to the crease with a mountain to climb. The team shifted the field well to each of the batters, putting pressure on when needed and strangling the boundary opportunities for the opener. Arthur (6-2) took the two final wickets of the match, including the critical wicket of the opener and what can only be described as one of the best junior slips catches ever seen thanks to Alfie diving to a single hander on his left. And the team celebrated appropriately.

There were nervous moments in this match while batting - four goldens really should have seen a different result and that is testament to some patient middle order bowling from Rowledge. We took our opportunities though, and hats off to Stan, Freddie and Elliot putting on the runs to mount a defendable target.

As discussed at the break, the win would come from tight bowling and disciplined fielding and this is what we saw. I was very pleased to see very few mistakes in the field - no-one using their feet to field the ball and everyone putting their body on the line to defend the boundary. This is very disciplined team work at this age, and is one of the key reasons we are now at the top of Tier 2.

Thanks to David for umpiring and Eunice for scoring so that a nervous coach could walk the rope pretending to tweak a game that his charges were already in full control of. Well done team!