1st Team Vs Beechwood Park
In the staff room some of the sports department approached me asking how I was feeling about this being my last school match as coach and which matches would make my top three of all time. I was not sure how to answer this…. But I can definitely say that today’s match was the perfect way to bow out and would be probably the most memorable of my time at Westbrook Hay.
Having won the toss, we had a nightmare start when Lutero was bowled by a beautiful ball off the first ball of the match. We then had a brilliant stand of 49 between Charlie and Drew. The quality of many of the shots was exceptional. Unfortunately, Charlie mis-timed a ball when we were on top of the bowling. Barney came in and left quickly leaving Jake on a hat-trick ball. He smashed it but straight at mid-on…. They had a hat-trick and we were 49-4 which quickly became 51-5.
Drew played a fabulous innings and was well support by Thomas. Drew ended 58 not out, a quality innings, which gave us a respectable score of 107.
Their innings started worse than ours with Drew taking 3 early wickets and they were 8-3. This turned to 21-4 and we looked well on top of the game. They then had a fabulous partnership, hitting some high-quality shots, and Beechwood were cruising to victory needing 17 runs from 42 balls with 6 wickets left.
Drew, Solomon and Charlie bowled three miserly overs for 6 runs leaving Beechwood needing 11 from 3 overs. A run out from Lutero turned the match on its head and quality bowling from Barney and Solomon left Beechwood needing 8 from the last over with 3 wickets left.
The first ball went for four…. 4 needed, 5 balls, 3 wickets. Cometh the hour cometh the man. Barney’s next ball WICKET, and then his next ball, WICKET AGAIN! They now need 4 runs with 3 balls and only one wicket. Hat-trick ball….. The batsman plays and misses. Dot ball…. But then there is a cry of HOWZAT….. the batsman has hit his stumps! Neither umpire saw it as they were scoring but a parent was videoing the over…… time for the third umpire! Mr Brain takes charge but has to look through the whole over…. Have we won? Is it a hat-trick? NOT OUT… the stumps were broken after the batsman had completed his shot. From the euphoria of winning we now faced the reality that we were one shot away from losing.
2 balls …4 needed….
Barney come in to bowl……. BOWLED!!!!
What an amazing end with Barney taking 3 wickets in his last over.
The team spirit throughout was outstanding, many teams would have given in but we never allowed our heads to drop…. It was a very special victory and a memorable way to bow out as 1st team coach.
A big thank you to everyone who played this season and made it so memorable. In particular I must mention Charlie whose captaincy and support has been fabulous throughout.
Colts As vs Beechwood Park
This was always going to titanic battle between two heavyweights of the Colts A circuit! I was able to predict this as I have the pleasure of coaching half of the Beechwood team at Redbourn cricket club. Westbrook batted first and scored a mammoth 161 in their 20 overs. This was mainly thanks to a brilliant 50 not out from Zac S. There were also contributions from James C (20) and Nikhil (22). Beechwood in response got off to a very fast start. The game however turned on a superb over from Nikhil D who took a hat-trick in an over and ended up taking five wickets in total. Beechwood ended their innings 13 runs short of Westbrook's total.
It has been a pleasure coaching the Colts A cricket side this summer. They have consistently played at an extremely high level throughout the season and have thoroughly deserved to end the season unbeaten during their Wednesday fixtures.