At 6pm, on yet another shoddy wicket prepared by the 1st XI captain, who knew that what was about to unfold was going to be an Under 11s classic.

Wallington won the toss and elected to bowl. With the variable bounce, most staying very low, it seemed like a wise choice. Joseph Mills and Rebekah Bongers started out well. They only scored 4 runs in their 4 overs but crucially there were no wickets against a very good pair of opening bowlers. And so at the end of pair 1, SNCC were 204-0 from 4 overs. Solid.

The next 3 pairs saw 12 runs in the 12 overs for the loss of 6 wickets against some decent bowling. With the loss of 5 runs per wicket, that took the SNCC score to 186-6 from 12 overs.

In came Captain Haydn Gillmore and Ben Gibson to the rescue. In their 4 overs, they hit 21 runs without losing a single wicket. That heroic effort, plus some extras, took the SNCC score to 234-6 from their 20 overs. Hardly what you would have thought was a winning score and possibly the lowest ever defended by any of our junior sides. So with a below par batting performance on the whole and a very good bowling performance from Wallington, it was over to SNCC bowlers to try and defend an almost impossible position.

Things started rather well. 3 runs came from a good opening Sam Bongers over. Then Finley Wilkinson and Joseph Mills took a wicket each in the next 2 overs. A tight over from Max Worsley, then Ben Gibson took another wicket for SNCC in the 5th over, followed by a wicket for Charlie Wainscoat in the 6th over and one for Haydn Gillmore in the 7th over. Another wicket for Finley in the 9th over and at the half way point the miracle looked on.

The second half was a different story. There were no more wickets for SNCC and it became about limiting runs as Wallington had clearly held back their best batsmen. And so with a few runs coming from everyone's second over, it came down to the final over, which, on the basis of having the best figures so far in the game, was left to Charlie Wainscoat.

To set the scene, Charlie is 8 years old. If you have correctly applied your basic maths, you will have worked out that he is therefore 3 years younger than the vast majority of others on the playing field!!! That's a big difference at that age and yet he is more than holding his place. Wallington needed 5 runs to win the final over and 4 to tie. It couldn't have been any more exciting, genuinely.

Charlie's 1st ball was a beauty. No run. His second ball was smashed to long off where Joseph gathered and threw in quickly, 1 run. His 3rd ball was a dot, no run. His 4th ball was a single. His 5th ball was a dot. And so we found ourselves at the final ball with Wallington needing 3 runs to win and 2 to tie.

In came Charlie who bowled yet another excellent line and length delivery. The Wallington batsman charged it and turned it into half volley who then smashed it aerially to long off. Joseph, having had one of these already in the over from the same bat, was alert, fielded excellently and rolled the ball in as they were completing the first run. Charlie gathered the ball, realised he'd just won the game for SNCC and went nuts! Quite rightly too!!! A 1 run win. An amazing game and one that warrants a rare match report for the U11s.

A special mention must go to Wallington whose adults and kids were extremely sporting all the way through and who could just have easily won or tied this match. We look forward to playing you guys again. Thank you!