A fantastic season for the U10s – 2 league wins and a cup final, but more importantly, a group of boys who enjoyed themselves, played the game in the right spirit and who really developed their skills and their learning of the game.
Griffins, Unicorns, Phoenix
We played in three tier 1 leagues and ended the season top in two and runners up in one. We also had a great cup run, only ended in the final by a very strong East Molesey team. A great performance all round after the disruption of the previous two seasons. Some of the highlights as follows:
– A 3 run win in a high scoring game against eventual league winners Woking & Horsell in front of a packed ground at New Road on 10 July (an absolute scorcher of a day). Fletcher McHarg and Alexander Coetzee starred with the bat, whilst Ario did the damage in the field with wickets and catches. This was a super result having been soundly beaten by W&H at their place.
– A tied match at Tilford, where we recovered from 12-5 to equal Tilford’s total of 73. An excellent effort with the ball restricted Tilford to less than 4 an over, which then looked like being more than enough as our top order crumbled, with 3 wickets falling before a run was scored. Our U9 stand-in Jack Hooke then stepped up and played a wonderfully controlled and mature innings to bring us back into the game. Then came a final twist as we fell from 70-5 to 73 all out in the final two overs!
– A convincing win in the cup semi final against an unbeaten Leatherhead team. A tough start with the bat against a good bowling attack, but another fine innings from Fletcher and counter attacking from Anton and Henry Kingsnorth got us to 124 from our 20 overs. We then bowled and fielded superbly to restrict Leatherhead to 88, with George Garrett and Freddie Carswell the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets a piece.
Dragons
Having played a number of very strong sides, all the practice sessions and hard work definitely started to pay off towards the end of the season. Confidence with both bat and ball increased significantly with a number of nail biting finishes against very solid opposition. The enthusiasm of the boys never waivered and it was a joy to see how much they grew as team, supporting each other in both good and more challenging times. The game against Valley End at the end of the season stood out to me, where we were very unlucky to finish with just a draw – were it not for a couple of talented bowlers on the opposition team, the win would have been ours! It was an absolute pleasure helping this group of fantastic boys but a big thank you also has to go to the parents who supported on the boundary, with the scoring and in the middle. There are lots of positives going into the 2023 season.
Overall lots to look forward to for 2023 and a few things to work on for winter nets. Bring on the next season!
There were lots of great individual performances in the U10s, with a few stand out contributions across the season:
Top All rounder: Kailan Sivakumaran
Best Bowler: George Garrett
Best Batsman: Fletcher McHarg
Best Fielder: Ario Emamy
Most improved player: Luke Scrini
Clubman: Ben Goodsman