Pep Talk Inspires Greens 
   We were up against the competition leaders, who have just one loss on their card for the season, and the result should have been a formality. However, coach Josh sat our team down before the game and explained the challenge ahead. He said we could either be “defeated” before we stepped onto the field or we could play for each other and play as well as we can … and see what happens.
The signs looked good as we warmed up. There was a buzz in the team. We won the toss and opted to bat. ‘Mr. Consistency’, Ollie Clarke, 16 runs, and Nick Moore, 4 runs, were first up and they weathered a fiery opening spell. While their run rate was modest, the pair got us off to a solid start. Our next four batters went cheaply but then Bradley Pascoe, eight runs, and James Dow, 18 runs, picked up the pace and we felt were back getting back into the game.
Things then got better still when ‘Batman’, Raymond Su, brought his A-game onto the field. From the get-go he played with authority and maturity. Raymond is not a player of many words, but when his bat ‘talks’ people listen. There were ‘oohs’ and ‘wows’ from the opposition all the way through his powerhouse undefeated 73 run stand. This helped very significantly in building our total to 154 by the end of our innings. Watching how Raymond controlled and directed the play as he built his total was almost as impressive as seeing the scorebook sizzle.
We had a good enough total to defend and there was a belief that we could contain Lindfield despite their intimidating record. James Dow and Daniel Hall opened with the ball and surrendered only six runs between them in six overs and they collected a couple of wickets as well. Nick Moore was under instruction to bowl tightly and he did just that with an excellent spell. Bradley Pascoe, Hugh Woods and Ollie Clarke all put in good middle-innings spells. Aston Brown and Raymond Su each collected a wicket. Tim Stubbs-Race, Kendell Austine and Max Oloughlin bowled a couple of good overs each to round out the innings. Max also had his first go at wicket keeping for the season and was a stand-out. Liam Hunt fielded well until was struck on the shins (yes, both at once) and retired hurt.
At the drinks break we knew we were still very much in the match and just like a good Big Bash encounter, the ‘officials’ on the sidelines were constantly crunching the numbers and speculating on how the match would end. Unfortunately, the Lindfield tail was just a bit too long and their last pair made a 30 run stand that snuffed out our challenge in 30th over.
Not the result that we deserved but an effort to be proud of effort none the less.
A special tribute this week to Angus Levy who was slated to miss batting this week and then, due to some confusion over batter retirements, he never even got to bowl. While upset initially, he bounced back and had a ‘smile on his dial’ by the end of the match – well done, Angus.
Brian Hall
U12 Green – Manager
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