3rd XI Match Report - 23/4/22

3rd XI Captain, Justin Gray, offers his views on Saturday's friendly at Harborne.

Availability was severely limited across the club this week and I was very grateful for the help and support of a number of people in getting a team out at all against a stronger Harborne XI than we usually face in league games. In that context, I was delighted by the performances of the players, especially our bowling and fielding. 

With only 8 available (none of whom had ever kept wicket) to begin the game at 1 o'clock, we were indebted to Cameron Harvey who came straight from Devon and to Will More-King who drove from Milton Keynes and brought his partner, Azura, to play her first ever game of cricket. Thanks to them, by 2pm, we had an XI. 

We chose to bat first rather than field with 8. Liam Hadfield and Pete Dickenson opened and survived the first few overs. Liam, having not played since his school days, gradually grew in confidence against some good bowling on a pitch with variable bounce at one end. He played some excellent strokes before being bowled by a ball that shot along the ground. Aaron Ranasinghe rolled back the years to play a couple of lovely drives. Simon Fletcher and Harry Lewis defended very well. The highlights of the innings came towards the end with Cameron Harvey hitting 37 ably supported by Tom Flowers and Will More-King as we were all out on the penultimate ball of the innings for 177. 

Finlay Horton and Cameron Harvey opened the bowling with two good spells with Finlay removing one of the openers. The accuracy of their bowling set the tone for the innings with only one wide conceded. Tom Flowers, Harry Lewis and Simon Flowers made the Harborne fight for every run. Cameron changed ends and cleaned bowled a batsman who was well set and was then very unlucky with an lbw appeal that looked plumb. The bowlers were backed up by some tight fielding and Finlay held a difficult skier. Will More-King kept tidily on the difficult pitch for the first part of the innings and then, once he finished his bowling, Cameron took over and looked at home in the role. 

Although we lost, it was an excellent pre-season workout. If we bowl with that accuracy and length in the league, we can look forwards to a successful campaign. 

Belbroughton CC - 175 All Out (39 overs)

Harborne CC - 177/4 (34.5 overs)

Further to his 'Few Words' in the Newsletter, Justin provided us with a more detailed view of his hopes for the 2022 season.

"This year,  the 3rd XI aims to continue developing players from Belbroughton’s impressive youth section to the point where they’re ready for 2nd XI cricket. We are very proud of the success of the many young players who have gone on to the 2s and 1s over the last few years and we are in awe of the coaching that goes on in the youth section that sets players up to succeed in adult cricket. To maintain this success, we hope the team will continue to be a balance of 4 or 5 youngsters supported by 6 or 7 adults. Every youngster will bat and bowl in almost every game they play in order to hone their skills through experience in the middle. For that to happen, the adults will continue to take a back seat, when necessary, whilst themselves performing at as a high a level as they can in order that young players enjoy their cricket and are not under pressure to win matches by themselves. 

Whilst developing youth players, we also seek to improve the skills of all the players, old and young, by providing a supportive environment. The old players provide experience, the young adults are role models and the youngsters provide the energy. We need players to experience success (because losing frequently is no fun for anyone) but we’d rather a youth player batted and bowled than they had no opportunities in a game that we won. 

We have a large squad of 30 players so selection will be competitive. Youth players to look out for: Tom Flowers, Mitch Harrison, Harry Lewis and Noah Ward. 

We are very grateful to Tony Boardman and Rob Hawk for all the work that goes on behind the scenes to secure us grounds to play on. This year, thanks to their efforts, home games will be a mixture of Sundays at Belbroughton and Saturdays at Stone. Our opponents in Division Ten North include Stourbridge, Himley, Lye, Old Hill and Halesowen. We hope that the standards and level of competition enable players to be ready for the 2nd XI when they get called up. "