Over the weekend of 12/13th June the Optimists U-14’s hosted Thoiry Juniors. For many of our juniors it was their first experience of competitive cricket.
The opening game took place at Evrange, this being the first junior “international” match staged at this ground.
Although no batsman made a major contribution the visitors accumulated a score of 90 in their 25 overs. Highlights for the Optimists were an accurate spell of bowling by Jack Stock, who took 2 for 8 in his four overs, an acrobatic catch by Oscar Whiteman and three sharp run–outs.
Thoughts of a comfortable victory soon disappeared as our young batsmen found the bowling too accurate. Wickets tumbled regularly and even four sixes from Timothy Barker, batting down the order, could not rescue the innings. He was last out for 36 leaving Thoiry winners by 19 runs.
In order to allow everyone to participate, the Sunday game at Walferdange was played with 15 on each side! Thoiry again batted first and runs came more easily than the day before. However, good ground fielding and excellent catching gave the bowlers fine support. Zack Foley and Andrew Fry both took three wickets and a total of nine catches were held. Thoiry batted through 29 of their allotted 30 overs, reaching a total of 107 all out.
In reply we started steadily until Alex Martin, with a couple of handsome boundaries, moved the score along. After his departure the run rate dropped before skipper Mark Radley improved the run rate with two more boundaries. The senior juniors again came to the rescue later in the innings as Timothy, followed by brother James Barker, calmed the nerves, bringing victory in the 28th over by four wickets.
With one victory each both teams could take satisfaction from two hard-fought and enjoyable matches and look forward to the return fixtures in September.