U12 NSW Youth Championship Foster Shield, Lake Park Narrabeen, 15th October 2023.
Our MWJC Under 12/2’s took on the Newcastle Blasters on Sunday 15th @ Lake Park. Whilst it was Round 2, it was our 1st Home Game.
This was the 1st occasion this season due to injuries and other unavailability that we had our selected XII available and able to play.
Day started well when our Captain Jack Maris won the toss and we elected to bat on a lovely day for cricket.
Despite losing an early wicket, Reuben Reed & Oscar Clubbe steadied the ship with a partnership off 46 before Oscar departed. Unfortunately, after that 2nd wicket with our opposition bowling very tightly and fielding exceptionally well , we continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and found ourselves struggling at 7-99. Thankfully, due to impressive innings from both Dylan Brabent and Jack Maris, who ended up with 30no, we managed to get to a respective total of 145 and importantly giving us something to bowl at and defend.
During the break, we hosted the Newcastle Blasters & Umpires with a light lunch, which was extremely well received and appreciated. We as a team have opted to do this for our 4 Home Games this season and bring back that cricket tradition of the home team proving tea / etc etc.
40 Mins later and now back in the field, we had given ourselves a decent total and something to defend. Due to some tight bowling again, and a couple of good catches we had the opposition 1/15, 2/25 , 3/37 and heading in the right direction.
Whilst we put ourselves in the game, we found ourselves up against a pair that simply batted extremely well. The Blasters boys put on a 100-run partnership and took their team to within a handful of runs of winning the game.
Their partnership was perfect for the situation with both of their boys facing the same number of balls, but one holding up an end (26 off 72 ) and the other being the aggressor who batted beautifully (86 off 79).
While the partnership was good from their perspective our boys did miss a couple of opportunities, and we really had no luck in the field whatsoever. We will learn from this and how we have to move around our fielders on a ball by ball basis where we are faced with a LH / RH combination who are batting well in a long partnership. Their batsman had a day out, had lots of luck, and took his opportunity and ultimately got them over the line.
Despite a late direct hit run out that one partnership did the damage and the Blasters passed us 4 down with 4 overs to spare.
Our boys are learning and growing week to week and making better decision each time they are out on the field and will be better for it this coming week.
We have come together as a team and wider support group extremely well in just a matter of weeks.
Importantly, and for 2 consecutive weeks now, we had a glowing report from the umpires about how our boys conducted themselves out on the field despite the result going against them.
Finally, a thank you to all the parents who supported us the team on the day and enabled us to get on the filed / play cricket and host our opposition.
A special thanks to the Clubbe / Jacobs families for the Lunch food / catering that was provided for both teams / umpires.
Gary Gabriel – Manager