Our U9s make it 7 out of 7 against Bedale!

Richmondshire U9s 335 for 4 (315 net) vs Bedale U9s 285 for 6 (255 net)

Richmondshire win by 60 runs

The heat beat down at Richmond School on Monday evening for the U9s seventh game of the season.  With 6 wins out of 6 and only 4 games to go, Richmondshire were keen to make it 7.  Our rivals – North Stainley Girls U11s – have an identical record and we still have to play each other twice.  (Girls teams are allowed to be up to 2 years older, according to Hambleton League rules)

Bedale won the toss and decided to bat – a usual position for the home side to be in and one that they enjoy.  Excellent bowling early doors made inroads into the Bedale batting.  James Cox helped himself to a ‘caught and bowled’ in his first over.  Jack Platt then took 2 wickets in successive deliveries, helped in no small part by Issac Bottomley, who made a superb full length diving catch after a 10 yard sprint from the wicketkeeper’s position – potentially catch of the season.  The following ball yielded another victim via the same combination, this time Bottomley taking an excellent catch down the leg side.  Bedale were 3 wickets down after 4 overs.

It got worse for the southerners.  Joseph White then clean bowled a bemused batter with a well-positioned yorker.  With Bottomley also taking a wicket in his first over (deputant Elsa Wright’s hands being as safe and secure as the Bank of England helped!) the U9s had taken 5 wickets in 8 overs, and had limited Bedale to a insignificant net score of 215.

However, with the crowd shouting for more, the Richmondshire bowlers’ radars seemed to go out of kilter and only 1 more wicket was added to our total – Max Percival clean bowling one off his second over.  Bedale finished their innings at a vaguely respectable 255.

Richmondshire were in no mood for messing about, it was too hot for that.  A slightly re-jigged batting line-up saw Bottomley and Raj open.  4 balls into the innings Issac had scored 9 runs from one of the Bedale star bowlers – and the mood continued in this spirit.  The score had rocketed to 241 by the time Bottomley (23) and Raj (9) had finished.  Emmy Raggett and Elsa Wright then continued and batted well adding 15 runs between them.

More flashing blades were seen from the third batting pair.  Percival hitting 3 fours on the way to his unbeaten 22 runs, well supported by Cox, and moving the score past the target onto 281.  The final batting pair then put the cherry on the top of the performance.  Joseph White hitting a comfortable 20 runs alongside his partner Platt (8) who took our final score to 315.

Next match: North Stainley at Richmond School on Friday night, 6.30pm start.  It’s going to be a cracker!  Come down and show your support.