Reigate Priory 321-2 vs. Newdigate 288-3

 

On a beautiful morning Newdigate visited the picturesque Reigate Priory ground for this under 9 encounter. The Newdigate skipper, George Wood, won the toss and elected to field. The Priory batsmen were well drilled and were careful to preserve their wickets which is one of the key elements in this type of cricket. Their running between wickets was good but Felix Tiley, Joe Scaglione and Tom Allen really accelerated the scoring rate and after 20 overs Priory reached the excellent total of 321 for the loss of just two wickets. This was  a good total as the Newdigate bowling was accurate throughout as can be seen from the fact that they only bowled six wides.

In reply, once again Samuel Clark showed what a good player he is becoming - just 7 years of age he hit a chanceless 10 runs and in partnership with Oliver Quigley (9) got the visitors off to a promising start. Newdigate too had learnt from Priory's batsmen and only lost three wickets, but runs were hard to come by against some accurate bowling and in spite of some good hitting from Morgan Hamilton, Jack Duncan and George Wood the total was always beyond reach. Tom Allen then rounded things off with some fine pace bowling which included the only maiden of the match.

This Newdigate group have only had three training sessions and once they have learnt the skills of backing up, staying in correct fielding positions and sensible throwing could find themselves saving as many as thirty runs in the field. This was a match enjoyed by not only all the players but also by the many parents and spectators who enjoyed watching cricket in the sunshine.