Belhaven vs. Merchiston U-11b Cricket.
Merchiston win by eight wickets.
In our third match in six days Belhaven U-11b produced a much-improved performance against a Merchiston team well-matched to us. Archie Douglas Miller opened the batting in blistering fashion, hitting several excellent strokes including three fours from the first two overs. Archie unfortunately had a brief lapse of concentration and that was enough as he missed a good ball which removed the bails in the tenth over. By this time, William Dirkin had also departed in the eighth after a good shot for four. A middle-order collapse was briefly threatened as Rupert Warre lasted till the eleventh order and Freddie Woodd was removed c&b after an ambitious lofted drive down the wicket.
A welcome ship-steadyer in the shape of Alistair Prenter came to the rescue, however, and in good Boycott fashion stuck in and held off the Merchiston attack for half an hour and made 6, while his partner at the other end, Sam Pooley hit some truly remarkable shots, sweeping across the field and picking his holes on his way to a classy 10. With these two very capable batsmen at the crease, the coach Mr. Curry decided to save Merchy any embarrassment in their attempts to remove them, by retiring the pair of them after an excellent stand together.
In came Jamie Willoughby who was well caught after a loose shot, and shortly afterwards, Tom Brooke hit his own wicket stepping back to deal with a bouncing delivery. this left just enough time for another good, timely stand between Theo Weir and Constantin de Rosen, but the Belhaven innings ended effectively when Weir was bowled in the 22nd over and this left out wickie Angus Robison to come in as last man. Only one shot did Angus manage to make, but what a shot, using the full breadth of the bat to palm it beyond slip into space for four. Exemplary.
Constantin de Rosen brought an end to the Belhaven innings in the last ball of the scheduled 25 overs. This left Merchiston with 156 to chase and top-scorer Douglas Miller set about this in the right way, causing many problems spinning the ball out of the back of his hand and always in the vicinity of the stumps. No wicket was forthcoming unfortunately, and this was regrettably the tale of Merchiston’s innings, as they held off the Belhaven attack for the most part. A couple of good overs from Freddie Woodd and Sam Pooley sandwiched a wicket from Tom Brooke who took a wicket as the Merchiston batsman was caught expertly by de Rosen.
De Rosen himself bowled two fine, accurate overs as he took a wicket when he himself ran out a Merchiston batsman and took figures of 1 for 4 from two overs, excellent figures for a first attempt at bowling. The inevitable end came with four overs and eight wickets to spare, however, as Merchiston hit the runs they needed to surpass Belhaven’s total after two-and-a-half hours of scintillating cricket. Well done boys, you have made good progress this week as a team.
Belhaven Innings:
|
Batsman
|
|
Out
|
Runs
|
|
|
Archie Douglas Miller (c.)
|
Bowled.
|
18
|
|
2
|
William Dirkin
|
Bowled.
|
4
|
|
3
|
Rupert Warre
|
Bowled.
|
1
|
|
4
|
Alistair Prenter
|
Retired.
|
6
|
|
5
|
Freddie Woodd
|
C&b.
|
5
|
|
6
|
Sam Pooley
|
Retired.
|
10
|
|
7
|
Jamie Willoughby
|
Caught.
|
0
|
|
8
|
Theo Weir
|
Bowled.
|
2
|
|
9
|
Tom Brooke
|
Hit wicket.
|
0
|
|
10
|
Constantin de Rosen
|
Run out.
|
5
|
|
11
|
Angus Robison (wk.)
|
Not out.
|
1*
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wides / No balls
|
|
|
105
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total (25 overs)
|
All out
|
156
|
Merchiston Innings:
|
Bowler
|
Overs
|
Maidens
|
Runs
|
Wickets
|
|
Constantin de Rosen
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
1
|
|
Tom Brooke
|
4
|
0
|
33
|
1
|
|
Archie Douglas Miller
|
4
|
0
|
26
|
0
|
|
Freddie Woodd
|
4
|
0
|
37
|
0
|
|
Sam Pooley
|
3
|
0
|
19
|
0
|
|
Alistair Prenter
|
2
|
0
|
11
|
0
|
|
William Dirkin
|
2
|
0
|
21
|
0
|
|
Rupert Warre
|
0.4
|
0
|
6
|
0
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
21.2
|
0
|
159
|
0
|
| 
