Another Thursday and another home game for the U14’s vs Southern Rail, Kenley & Selsdon (from now on to be known as Kenley). It was not as hot as it had been lately, which offered some much-welcomed relief to the players. SNCC U14’s won the toss and elected to field first with a view to limiting the score and chasing it down.

Buoyed by last weeks tied game the SNCC players assembled on the outfield and got off to a great start with two wickets falling in the first two overs, 1 bowled by William and the other by Joseph. Kenley staged a bit of a come-back in the next 7 overs and held off some tidy SNCC bowling from Liam and Archie. The next wicket fell in the 9th over, their captain bowled by Kyle with the score on 55/3 after 9 overs (just over 6 runs an over).

SNCC where hoping to maintain the pressure and restrict Kenley to less than 130, which they were quite confident they could chase down on our very quick outfield. This was not to be, as the opening batsman retired in the 12th over and the runs started to flow. No more wickets were taken in the innings and from the 10th to the 16th over Kenley increased the run rate to just over 10 an over amassing a further 73 runs, taking the score to 128/3 at the end of the 16th, with bowlers Shaun, Robin and Kieron toiling hard to try and get a break-through.

Kyle and Wills took the responsibility to try and stem the flow in the last 4 overs, but it wasn’t to be as Kenley retired another batsman in the 19th and managed to put on a further 30 runs in the last 4 overs (7.5 an over), taking singles where there shouldn’t have been, to end their innings on 158/3. SNCC were still reasonably confident as they managed to score exactly that last week but knew that they had to bat sensibly to pull it off.

Another fabulous tea provided by the SNCC ladies saw the SNCC U14 opening pair Kyle (Batman) and Robin step out into the middle to face off against Kenley (all clad in their pyjamas, err…. Sorry, limited overs kit – to be fair it looks quite good and SNCC should look at introducing it next year).

The run chase started and after 4 balls SNCC only had a bye and a single to show for their efforts, there also seemed to be a lot of players on the field which prompted the umpire to do a quick count…. 1,2,3,4…11,12 – hang on, Kenley were fielding with 12 players. After a brief pause in play a rather disconsolate fielder was selected and ejected from the field of play, with the Kenley coach claiming he ‘didn’t know how that happened’.

In the 3rd over the SNCC umpire requested one of the Kenley players to move back from his fielding position (which was in a pick-pocketing position just behind the batsman) as at U14 level they may not field within 8 yards of the batsman. The fielder argued, disagreed, chatted back continuously and totally ignored the umpire’s request (in fact he continued to be disrespectful and cheeky throughout the innings even when he was not being addressed) which prompted another reprobate to join him as close but on the opposite side of the batsman to wind the umpire up even more. The captain was then called in, informed and asked to sort his players out which he basically ignored as he had no real influence over most of his team-mates. It was at this point that the ‘chatter’, ‘insults’ and ‘banter’ started flying and continued for the rest of the game. Even the wicket-keeper got in on the act and started making noises to put off the batsman, but unfortunately this was only brought to the SNCC umpires attention with about three balls to go (we could have won on penalty runs alone!!!!!) - the Kenley umpire was informed repeatedly by the batsmen but alas did nothing about it.

Anyway, back to the cricket, Kyle and Robin batted well together and got SNCC off to a good start and ahead of Kenley after 9 overs with the score on 63/0. Robin (23 off 28 balls) was unfortunately run out after a bit of a mix up in the 10th and was closely followed by Kyle (43 off 32 Balls) retiring. So, two new batsmen at the crease in Wills and Jack who set about maintaining the run rate. William (13 off 13 balls) was bowled in the 13th over and Jack was joined in the middle by Archie (6 off 8 balls) who was clean bowled in the 14th over, score 102/3 with 57 to get off 36 balls – Kenley being 109/3 at the same stage in their innings. ‘Who was going to get SNCC over the line’, was the question, with depth in batting there was no cause for concern yet. The next two overs saw SNCC claw there way to 115/3 (44 to get in 24 balls – 11 an over), still do-able with a few lusty blows and making use of the fast out-field……

It was at this point that the Kenley captain left the field for a quick consultation with the coach/manager/scorer/father who was obviously tired of coaching the side from the scorer’s chair and shouting out the bowling order, fielding positions etc. so thought it would be better to have a quick ‘face to face’. This is totally frowned upon at U14 level as the on-field captain is supposed to make all the decisions and the coaches/managers are not allowed to have any input at all. We waited for his return and he promptly set about implementing the ‘Nutley Hall’ drill – a drill fast catching on in the world of cricket - where all the fielders are placed on the boundary to totally kill the game, not very sporting indeed……

The next two overs saw only two byes being scored and ended in Toby (1 off 9 balls) being bowled – the score on 117/4 and 42 to get off 12 balls. Jack (14 off 27 balls) departed mid-way through the 19th over after being bowled, but not before the SNCC umpire had another stand-off with about 4-5 disgruntled Kenley players when he turned down an LBW appeal that the chirpy player from the 3rd over (still standing square of the batsman) and the ‘wide mid-off’ claimed was plumb. The fact that the bowler was bowling from wide of the crease and angling it across the batsman meant that it was never going to go on to hit the stumps and would always be angled past the leg stump - but apparently the only criteria you must satisfy these days to get an LBW appeal is to hit the batsman’s pad when he is in front of the stumps from anywhere…… Oh dear, I’ve been doing it wrong for years…..

With 9 balls to go, Liam and Joseph at the crease and the ‘Nutley Hall’ formation in place it looked as though SNCC’s run chase was over. We did manage to score 20 runs in the last 9 balls though with Joseph (2 off 2 balls), Liam (15 off 10 balls) and extras with 3 to end on 137/5, a valiant effort in the face of such hostility.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be and the SNCC U14’s manages to notch up another valuable learning event…. One more match to go, can the lads end on a high and put a complete performance together… we will see next week when we host Caterham – hopefully they don’t feed their players bird-seed too.