From Dan Thomson : Following the previous week’s exciting finish caused in large part by Holmfirth giving away a lot of runs to Thurstonland through slightly dodgy fielding, the onus at Friday training was on improving this vital skill. And given the performance at Armitage Bridge it looks as though a fairly brief 1-hour session focused on fielding with Oliver and Elliott on Friday has reaped immediate rewards!
Big improvements were to be seen from all the u11 players in the field and with the ball in this match and plenty of runs were saved which last week would have been boundaries – which was great to see.
Batting first Holmfirth were fairly steady with some good striking from the whole team and again a great determination from some of the newer and younger players like Tabby, Will and Harry not to lose their wickets without a fight!
A strong score of 268 for 5 was achieved and with the light fading the team felt this was going to be hard to beat going into the Armitage Bridge innings.
And that was the case with a very tight bowling and fielding performance from the whole team bringing home a fairly comprehensive victory by a comfortable margin.
Mixing up the bowling slightly so that the bowlers were changed at different times to the batters proved to be an effective formula as it didn’t allow the opposition to settle into any of the bowlers and get used to their methods (thanks JB)!
Good performances from the whole team were on show, but special mentions must go to Tabby, Hughie and Harry for all putting in good spells with plenty of dot balls and a few wickets between them, but the MoM performance from Callum included an outstanding couple of overs, both of which were wicket-maidens; which is precisely what any team needs from their attack in the middle of the innings!
So, case proved overall – listen to your coaches in training, practice what they show you and the rewards can sometimes be immediate. Let’s hope the full hard-ball net session from Friday has a similar effect in this week’s cup match.