Academy in Beaming Defeat to Nettleham

I will nail my colours to the mast straight away and say in the three years that I have been involved with the Academy side, this is the best all-round performance I have witnessed. So many positives to come out of this match.

The Academy side, with its usual mixture of young players and those at the more ahem… senior end, bowled first and couldn’t get off to a better start with Sam Nuttall accounting for their opener first ball, a beautiful in swinger on a full length. Sam also accounted for Nettleham’s number three with a well taken catch by Dave Knowles with the score on 22. The next batting partnership dug in, taking the score to 57 before a flurry of wickets saw Nettleham reduced to 69-6 and Martin Carrick claiming 5-1-11-3 in that period. The next batsmen fell at 88 at which point young Hayden Bromfield came in and played a very mature innings with his remaining partners to take the final score to 131 all out with Hayden scoring 43 well crafted runs. Gautam claimed the last two wickets to finish with 9.3-0-37-3. A good all round performance in the field bowling the opposition out for a very gettable total.

In reply Lindum got off to a fast start with Dave Knowles and Hugo putting on 26 in 15 minutes before Hugo fell top edging a pull shot. Harry Lewis then came to the wicket playing very watchful cricket allowing Dave Knowles to play some flowing cricket, scoring both leg and offside with aplomb before being caught behind for 27. Martin and Mr Alan came and went quickly and Owen Sherriff came to the crease and put on a nice partnership of 29 before Harry’s innings came to an end. Owen continued to play great cricket, running some very good singles as well as some more expansive shots to the boundary. He put a nice partnership together with Sam Nuttall who once again showed great potential in his approach to the game. The run rate was starting to get away from us and even when Owen finally fell with a total of 33, the opportunity was still there if Kempo was able to see things through. Unfortunately, possibly being shook up after being felled by a head high no ball (leave it Wes, leave it!) he was unable to see Lindum over the line, falling five short on 126.

Despite the loss Kempo and I were extremely proud of all the players who took us so close to the line and on another day, with a couple of different decisions going our way, ( “I said LEAVE IT WES!!! He’s not worth it”) a win could have been ours.

Well Done lads. Onwards and Upwards.

Report by Wes Shelbourne