Match Report by Matt Harding

The Methodist Church is known for it’s evangelism, its commitment to sobriety and, most importantly, charity.

There was plenty of evangelising from Crossbank Methodist’s Under 13s. They never shut up.

And I’m fairly confident none of them grabbed a cheeky pint from the clubhouse bar.

When it comes to charity however, it was in pretty short supply in what ended up a very, very one-sided Heavy Woollen ‘George S Cooper Knock Out Cup’ match.

John Wesley, the founding father of the Methodist movement, would definitely have approved of the hard work and commitment of the night’s winners. But he’d have winced at the brutality of their attack with the ball and the bat.

It had all started very differently. Brodie Tait sent their opening batsmen’s off stump flying with the first ball of the game. The rest of the over wasn’t too shabby either.

Charlie was up next. It turns out we weren’t giving ‘leg befores’. Good job as their was no way George was giving his brother what looked a fairly plum one.

The scorecard gave cause for optimism early on.

It wasn’t to last. Range was found. And boundaries followed.

In the day job, I’m often called upon to advise clients about appealing their convictions and sentences. The Bobster got in on the act, telling Webby not to be shy about making his own appeals.

I have to ask courts to be merciful too. I reckon any pleas for that would have fallen on deaf ears tonight.

Fours became sixes. Retirement followed retirement. To their credit, the boys kept going. And they were rewarded with wickets. Aidan’s spell summed up that resilience. Hit for two fours and a six off the first three balls of an over, he followed with three dots. And then a wicket. Dom's safe hands saw to that.

The team were agonisingly close at times. Cricket’s a game of fine margins. Sadly, the home side kept within theirs. And, being blunt, we didn’t.

Given the heat, drinks were taken after 10 overs.

Henry had returned to keeping duties and stayed calm to take a lovely throw from Brodie for a run out.

When hardened convicts are released from prison, they often speak of ‘going straight’. Freddie did and was rewarded with a wicket. For the avoidance of doubt, he’s never done time. As far as we’ve aware anyway (that’s enough legal references for now).

Jim, Webby and Dom had mixed spells. The positive to take away was the way dots would follow the big hits. Heads didn’t go down. Nobody could have blamed them if they had. The pattern continued for Seth and George. It wasn’t to be their night. But they kept going. Max has found some real pace this season. He was rewarded with a wicket when Brodie took a high one.

At the end of the 20, Crossbank had reached an impressive 155 for 6.

A mix up between The Villager’s openers meant Henry had the long walk back to rope after a run out on the first ball. Charlie had an uncharacteristically short spell with the bat. The fact one of Crossbank’s openers was twice his height, literally, may have had a hand in that.

Dependable Dom is usually ‘Mr Cricket’ and can be relied upon to keep the score ticking over. Goldens are hard to take. It was his turn tonight. But we know that over the season there’ll be more highs than lows. Jim told me after the match that when he knew he was following him at four, he’d relaxed a bit when Dom went in to bat after the early exchanges.

He was soon making his own way out. A creditable six runs, a direct hit on the Achilles and an exchange of words with one of the opposition (‘Dalmations my a***’ apparently) made for an eventful knock.

Brodie was joined by George and some good shots followed. In any game at U13 level, you often expect the quality of the bowling to dip as the game progresses. We had a long wait.

Brodie definitely played his ‘get out of jail free’ card. More than once. He was dropped twice and had a third drop just short. But he also found the boundary and was Lightcliffe’s only retirement. Webby’s knock helped keep the score respectable. Ish.

The scorecard tells one story, but it doesn’t record how much older and bigger some of the Crossbank players were when compared to the U11s playing up. It had looked like we were headed for another George retirement but it wasn’t to be.

Seth came in and faced up to the pacey attack. Runs weren’t there, but it’s part of the learning curve. You have to get out there to get better. He and all his teammates will.

Max may have been one of the smallest on the field. But he didn’t let that worry him. Again, it’s all part of that learning curve. Freddie came in and scored a four off the first ball he faced. He obviously enjoyed the feeling a bit too much as he went for it again on his second. Sadly he found hands and not the boundary on that second attempt. That summed up the difference tonight. Catches for Lightcliffe had been sixes for Crossbank.

The crease can be a lonely place. Aidan’s dismissal was a particularly cruel one. A ball that must have gone 15ft in the air came down just in time to bounce and find the stumps.

67. All out.

We should always take positives from every match. The team could have crumbled. They didn’t. For all the negatives, there were plenty of moments that showed the progress every player has made. Onwards and upwards boys, onwards and upwards…