The victory, on a night interspersed with showers and a rain delay, was by 86 runs with a score of 132/3 in 20 overs (net 317) yet another strong performance, especially when you consider nine wickets fell for the home side.

It was Stainland who won the toss and elected to bat and, for the opening overs to miserly bowling from Charlie (1-2), Ollie Webb (0-16) and Dom (0-7) (a trio who, yet again, didn’t concede any extras from their 7 overs), the hosts could only score slowly.

Freddie and Aidan entered the attack and as their middle order pairs came in, the wickets started to fall – Freddie 2-12, Brodie 1-6 and a brilliant 3-5 from Aidan. Jim (0-4), Noah (0-7) and Nico (0-2) also impressed with the ball when every single one of the bowlers deserves credit, as does Isaac for another brilliant spell with the gloves, especially as only 15 extras were added in the entire innings compared to 40 conceded by Stainland’s bowlers.

At the break, it was 76/9 so 231 was the net score needed. Charlie and Noah were first in and by the end of their four overs, the net score was already past that total at 235. Nothing taken for granted of course in a format where wickets costs you runs, but whereas five Stainland batters ended on negative net runs, no Lightcliffe batters did. And, put simply, that meant victory was guaranteed well before the end, which gave time for a reenactment of some of the moves from the Lightcliffe’s Year 6 end of year performance – a moment which proved that while our team’s cricket has very much developed this season, our dancing has very much not.

And so the first of our two U11 leagues came to an end for another year. Across the season, 20 different U11s have represented Lightcliffe in the Halifax Junior Cricket League, the side beat the two teams who ended above them in the table (Copley and Outlane) and they had the highest average runs per wicket (used to determine league placings for teams tied on points) of all eleven teams. It all shows the strength in depth of our squad and the huge improvements seen throughout the season.