Lindum Gladiators v Nettleham Barracudas

As the English heatwave continues to break records and shows no signs of abating, so too does the winning ways of Lindum U9s Gladiators. Recording their 7th consecutive league win against Nettleham, and in doing so sealing the league with a game left to play, making the prospect of going the whole season unbeaten a real possibility.

Continuing to shuffle the pack, Lindum made three changes from the game against Bracebridge Heath, and handed the captaincy this time to Archie Cook.

After Lindum losing the toss, the visitors decided to bat first and take advantage of what looked like an excellent batting surface, with a fast outfield and probably the shortest boundaries in the league. Clearly, looking to post a challenging target for Lindum to chase.

However, the opening bowling attack for Lindum was boosted by the inclusion of Connor Dillon whose lovely straight arm action and fluid run up bowled quick and accurately, hampering the visitor’s ambitions from the off. In fact, he was unfortunate only to take one wicket in his two over spell which saw him beat the bat on several occasions. The accuracy of the bowling continued throughout the innings by all the bowling pairs, giving little width or room to the Nettleham batsmen. Some sharp fielding in pairs on the boundaries and some outstanding wicket keeping by Jack, was simply top notch. However, the fielding unit were not helped by a clear run out decision not being given by the Lindum umpire. That aside the Gladiators managed to restrict Nettleham Barracudas to 269, a tremendous effort on such a good wicket.

Given the batting conditions the target of 270 to win looked a little under par and so it would turn out be. The opening pair of Archie and Connor wasted no time in finding the boundary with 20 runs coming off the first over. The Lindum batsmen were in the mood and there was no let up on the Nettleham bowlers, the next pair of William H and Morgan sent the ball to all corners of ground, with an outstanding knock by William H hitting consecutive sixes and top scoring on 36, to take the match ball. Freddie and Hector maintained the pressure, both reaching double figures before losing a wicket each from some decent bowling. The last two Lindum batsmen Jack and Noah didn’t take their foot off the gas either and dominated the bowling, finding the gaps in the field allowing them to rotate the strike skilfully and score freely to cap off what was clearly the Gladiator's best batting performance of the season.

Lindum Gladiators finished on 379 for 2 the highest batting total this season. A huge well done to the U9 squad.