The new crop of Overstone Park U10's made their debut this season on monday night, with many not having played a game before and they did themselves, and the club proud!

The team travelled to Nether Hayford for their game on a cold, windy night - making conditions difficult, but acquitted themselves well.

Overstone bowled first with Luca and Jesse opening the attack and keeping things tight. Coach Carl made sure everyone got some experience in match conditions and every bowler bowled their 2 overs. The pick of the attack were Aryan (2 overs, 2 maidens, 2 wickets) and Harry (2 overs and 4 wickets). He even took a wicket with his first ball!! The other wicket takers were Phoenix and Harvey as Overstone kept Hayford to 321 runs (after all the extra runs were added for wickets taken)

Phoenix and Jack opened the batting and strode to the middle with an air of confidence to face their 4 overs. With the aim of knocking the ball around and not losing wickets, they left the rest of the team in good shape. Toby and Harvey followed the openers. The left hand / right hand pair set about building on the base set, and saw off some difficult bowlers to keep things ticking along for their 24 balls.

The engine room of the team followed and Harry took a liking to the bowling, flaying 22 runs in a great partnership with Jesse. Bringing up the rear of the batting line up were Aryan and Luca, the two class acts in the team. Ian Bell and David Gower couldn't have played more elegant shots to get the score up to and past Hayfords' total in their last over.

With 1 ball left, Overstone had a lead of 6 runs, meaning barring a disaster they were going to win. With some fine bowling by the opposition, Hayford took a wicket with the last ball of the game, adding 5 runs to their score. This meant Overstone won by 1 run, 322 runs to 321.

What a fantastic first match for the boys and a game that all watching parents will remember!

Both teams played really well particularly taking onto account it was their first competitive game for many.

Can we have a defib on site please as the scorer can't handle many more close games like this!