We had a very busy weekend! On Saturday we played our first competitive match at home against Abington. Abington were keen, to say the least - arriving 40 minutes early and proceeded to perform intimidatory and complicated warm up excercises! At five to ten it looked like Coton would be represented by Patrick Butterfield against 14, but the Coton sleepyheads eventually arrived and the game kicked off. The teams were pretty much evenly matched but Abington's experience of playing matches showed and they turned out eventual winners by about 50 runs.On to Sunday and the Kwik cricket festival. Coton fielded only one team so we realise that many kids might have missed out - we'll do our best to rectify that in the next few weeks. Anyway, 12 teams competed in this NCI festival held on Parker's Piece. Chris and I took a Coton team down, ably supported by Mums & Dads. There were three groups in the group stage and the winners of each group went onto the semi finals with the best performer from all groups making up the 4th semi final place. Coton started by playing Cokenach. after posting a criditable score Coton took to the field and in our first over took 4 wickets! (well done Adam). It looked like plain sailing. However Cokenach responded well and ran in eventual winners by just 4 runs. Hard luck Coton, and more about Cokenach later!
Next to play, as the sun came out, was St Giles. Improving bowling displays and some fine strokeplay, particularly from Hugh Bishop, allowed Coton to romp home by a margin of about 30 runs. OUR FIRST EVER VICTORY!!!
From here on the performances just got better, with everyone contributing as we despatched the T&W team by a considerable margin, thanks to an all round performance from all players including 2 excellent catches. As the matches progressed so the amount of banter on the field increased, with some hilarious advice offered from all quarters; all positive and team focused, of course.
Then, a long wait while the fate of Coton and their 2 out of 3 victories position was deliberated. In the end we didn't quite do enough to gain a semi final place but we surged on to contest the "Plate" - the runners up trophy.
We had our first semi-final against Cokenach (the team that we had lost to by a small margin earlier). Team selection was a challenge and after deft use of a 2p coin, the team took the field. Cokenach batted first and through a great display of bowling and fielding from the Coton team, were restricted to only adding 17 runs to the 200 that they started with. It was a very different situation when Coton batted, the runs flowed freely and we ended the innings having scored 74 runs in our 8 overs, which turned out to be the highest score of the day. On to the final…
We arrived at the pitch for the final to find the Hardwick team already on the pitch. They had a convincing win in their semi-final and were looking forward to putting the “new boys” in their place. Paolo Mastroeni strode out to the pitch as captain ready to toss the coin, team selection having been made more simple by Hollie Cooke agreeing to stand-down for the final. Having taken the advice of his team, when he won the toss he elected to field. It was clear form the start that this Hardwick team were a step up from any other team we had played so far – their opening batsmen quickly got into their stride and the runs started to flow. It was a great credit to the Coton team that they did not panic and after a couple of good catches the Hardwick team were pegged back a little. However, Hardwick had saved their best batsmen for last and the final two overs saw a flurry of runs to take Hardwick up to a very respectable score – this was going to be a tough target!
Despite some very tight bowling from Hardwick, the Coton innings moved along just behind the required run rate. Having learned from previous matches, the team were very keen not to give away their wickets and moved the score along nicely. However, the bowler of the penultimate over produced some very tight spin bowling which tied the scoring down and left an improbable target off the last over (sorry, I didn’t count exactly what we needed - the umpire was busy trying to signal how many runs were needed and seemed to be holding up a lot of fingers – lots of times!). The final pair began to score freely and a four and a six were thrashed to the boundary to leave seven required off the last two balls (the umpire could finally manage to adequately signal the required runs using his two hands and without having to resort to semaphore). The pressure suddenly seemed to hit the Hardwick bowler: The second last ball sailed wide down the leg-side and was signalled “wide” (in this form of cricket, 2 runs and no extra ball). So we were left needing 5 runs from the last ball, with Adam Bradbury facing. No longer able to shout “Line and length!” or “Don’t get out!” to his team mates, Adam was left with the team’s fortunes on his shoulders. The parents and supporters went quiet and awaited the final ball…
The bowler ran in and bowled a “juicy” full-toss which Adam summarily dispatched over the mid-wicket boundary for 6. To their immense credit, the team managed to hold their most exuberant celebrations until after a sporting “Three Cheers” for Hardwick and having shaken hands with their opposition. There then followed much celebration, air-punching and for some obscure reason, the boys diving into what can only be described as a “big pile” (a suspicion that this has been learnt from Neil Sparnon's 'how to celebrate a goal' sessions held regularly on Coton Rec). The presentation followed with T-Shirts and medals for all and a short photo-session for their admiring public (parents). The final celebrations over, and having stretched the finish time by at least an hour, we headed off home – satisfied with a fantastic effort from the players, wonderful support from the parents, the two coaches finally able to breathe again and in the knowledge that Coton Crusaders have most definitely “arrived”.
Thanks to all the kids and parents that took part and all of the other Coton Crusaders who have contributed to a great start to Coton's competitive career.
Then, a long wait while the fate of Coton and their 2 out of 3 victories position was deliberated. In the end we didn't quite do enough to gain a semi final place but we surged on to contest the "Plate" - the runners up trophy.
We had our first semi-final against Cokenach (the team that we had lost to by a small margin earlier). Team selection was a challenge and after deft use of a 2p coin, the team took the field. Cokenach batted first and through a great display of bowling and fielding from the Coton team, were restricted to only adding 17 runs to the 200 that they started with. It was a very different situation when Coton batted, the runs flowed freely and we ended the innings having scored 74 runs in our 8 overs, which turned out to be the highest score of the day. On to the final…
We arrived at the pitch for the final to find the Hardwick team already on the pitch. They had a convincing win in their semi-final and were looking forward to putting the “new boys” in their place. Paolo Mastroeni strode out to the pitch as captain ready to toss the coin, team selection having been made more simple by Hollie Cooke agreeing to stand-down for the final. Having taken the advice of his team, when he won the toss he elected to field. It was clear form the start that this Hardwick team were a step up from any other team we had played so far – their opening batsmen quickly got into their stride and the runs started to flow. It was a great credit to the Coton team that they did not panic and after a couple of good catches the Hardwick team were pegged back a little. However, Hardwick had saved their best batsmen for last and the final two overs saw a flurry of runs to take Hardwick up to a very respectable score – this was going to be a tough target!
Despite some very tight bowling from Hardwick, the Coton innings moved along just behind the required run rate. Having learned from previous matches, the team were very keen not to give away their wickets and moved the score along nicely. However, the bowler of the penultimate over produced some very tight spin bowling which tied the scoring down and left an improbable target off the last over (sorry, I didn’t count exactly what we needed - the umpire was busy trying to signal how many runs were needed and seemed to be holding up a lot of fingers – lots of times!). The final pair began to score freely and a four and a six were thrashed to the boundary to leave seven required off the last two balls (the umpire could finally manage to adequately signal the required runs using his two hands and without having to resort to semaphore). The pressure suddenly seemed to hit the Hardwick bowler: The second last ball sailed wide down the leg-side and was signalled “wide” (in this form of cricket, 2 runs and no extra ball). So we were left needing 5 runs from the last ball, with Adam Bradbury facing. No longer able to shout “Line and length!” or “Don’t get out!” to his team mates, Adam was left with the team’s fortunes on his shoulders. The parents and supporters went quiet and awaited the final ball…
The bowler ran in and bowled a “juicy” full-toss which Adam summarily dispatched over the mid-wicket boundary for 6. To their immense credit, the team managed to hold their most exuberant celebrations until after a sporting “Three Cheers” for Hardwick and having shaken hands with their opposition. There then followed much celebration, air-punching and for some obscure reason, the boys diving into what can only be described as a “big pile” (a suspicion that this has been learnt from Neil Sparnon's 'how to celebrate a goal' sessions held regularly on Coton Rec). The presentation followed with T-Shirts and medals for all and a short photo-session for their admiring public (parents). The final celebrations over, and having stretched the finish time by at least an hour, we headed off home – satisfied with a fantastic effort from the players, wonderful support from the parents, the two coaches finally able to breathe again and in the knowledge that Coton Crusaders have most definitely “arrived”.Thanks to all the kids and parents that took part and all of the other Coton Crusaders who have contributed to a great start to Coton's competitive career.
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