Under 13's Continue Fine Form

With 9 regular players missing, the Under 13's fielded a very inexperienced side on Sunday morning as they welcomed Melton Mowbray to the Badger Set.

The side included Joe Higgins and Tom Davinson making the step up from KWIKs to play their first 'Hard Ball' game, the return of former KWIK James Sharp and also Will Thomas making an appearance from Gotham.

Ben Gill skippered the side in Matthew North's absence in a game that was reduced to 16 overs per side with the forecast of rain showers later in the morning.

After losing the toss as being asked to bowl first the Badgers began well with Harry James picking up a wicket in his first over and Ben Gill keeping it very tight at the other end.

Pressure built as Finn Manners also picked up a run out as Melton Mowbray were 6 for 2.

A steady partnership however then started to build as overs were shared around although the scoring rate was still kept fairly tight by some good bowling from Will Thomas, Joe Bailey, Max Baker as well as debutants Joe Higgins and Tom Davinson.

With the score on 33 though it was Finn Manners who got the wicket with a catch by Max Baker at cover.

Again another partnership built but with the score on 55, James Sharp picked up a wicket with that man Max Baker taking a catch stood about 10 yards behind the wicketkeeper.

In the next over a run out from Ben Gill made it 59 for 5 but then some tired bowling saw a few extras creep in and Melton Mowbray finished their innings on 71 for 5 from their 16 overs.

After a quick turnaround, with the skies above Thrumpton getting darker by the minute, Joe Bailey and Harry James started the Badgers response.

After clipping a ball to the boundary for 4 though Joe played across the line once again and was clean bowled for 4.

Stand in Skipper Ben Gill was in at 3 and both he and Harry started to pick off plenty of singles.

In fact these two would go on to finish the job as they both batted with an air of calmness as we chased down the total. Both players never really gave a chance and the Badger reached their total in 13.5 overs with a wide ending the match.

A victory by 9 wickets with a wonderful batting performance from Harry and Ben.

Next week sees us travel to Quorn as we look to continue our run of 6 wins in a row. We do have a few players returning from holiday but with the way the new players have stepped up I'm sure they will be fine.

Sammo