Caps off to Cameron as U14s get the better of Teddington in the Cup

Full scorecard here

The U14s welcomed local rivals, Teddington, to the Green for a first round cup match. Though Teddington are in the Division below our U14s contests between these two have been even over the years so the players knew they would have to put in a decent performance to make progress in this year's cup.

On a bright sunny and warm evening Captain Ali won the toss and put his plan into action of batting first. Frankie and Ali started well with Ali dispatching any lose balls and hitting hard down the ground. Frankie (3) looped up a high catch into the mid wicket region when the score was on 19 to bring the resolute Ewan to the middle. Though not scoring that many, Ewan's occupation of the crease allowed others to score and the total to tick over with some great running between the wickets. Ali's (45) blistering innings came to and end when he chipped a decent ball to mid-off. Hamish (4) (hampered by a thigh injury) hit a great four through cover before knicking off to the spinner. He was quite quickly followed back to the hutch by Ewan (1), Samuel (2) and Jathya (0) leaving the score on 101 with 6.1 overs left. With Cameron and Sammy now together things were bound to be interesting but on this occasion it all came together. Cameron simply took the bowling apart smashing four after four with a series of crunching pull shots interspersed with the occasional deft dabbed cut shot. Sammy started his innings with a hook pull shot for four and didn't look back, finding the gaps for singles and adding a 3 more fours - including a powerful hit straight down the ground, all along the floor, after stepping out to the spin bowler. By the time Sammy (20) was bowled out in the final over the pair had put on 72 in just under 6 overs. Sean (1) and Cameron saw out the remaining few balls and the Ts finished on a commanding 175-7. Cameron's 81 of 46 balls was a classic T20 innings full of attacking intent combined with brilliant timing.

The Ts took to the field confidently but knowing that they had to keep things tight on the notoriously fast outfield of the green. Ali and Frankie started the bowling off, bowling straight and with decent pace. Teddington's opening pair were patient and watchful but also dispatched the odd four and after 10 overs were not far behind the required run rate. In a fine spell of leg spin bowling by Hamish the Ts finally made the breakthrough taking the wicket of the dangerous Eddie as he holed out and was caught by Frankie. The Ts fielding was superb with important stops, determined chasing and fine field settings from Ali. After the first wicket had been taken others began to fall steadily as Teddington tried to push for the runs they needed. The Ts kept the pressure up in the field, wickets for Cameron, Frankie and for Max as well as four runs outs (two thanks to some great work by Asa) kept Teddington at bay and meant the Ts closed out the match with Teddington still 29 runs short of their target.

A brilliant performance by the U14s. Some sparkling individual performances combined with a great team work - Teddington didn't stand a xhance. A second memorable performance of the season after the heroics at Sheen Park.

Many thanks to all the parents for supporting the boys and packing up after the match. Thanks again to Craig for scoring.