Great Club Effort

A sterling effort from the KCC junior section, mirroring senior selection, saw a youthful looking U14 side head to Kimberley.

With the holiday season well in the swing it was a case of fielding 11 players. Steiner, Machin, Healey, Brown and Mills were the recognised 14s and were joined on seasons debut by the popular Coulthard. The 13s of Nice, Shepherd and Kitching made 9.

Without hesitation the Under 11s of Sam Foster and Oscar Brown jumped at the chance.


Kimberley won the toss and elected to bat. The opening 10 overs were very pleasing from both sides with the hosts reaching 51-0 at the half way stage. Steiner, Healey, Brown and Mills all bowling tidy spells. The KCC fielding was excellent with Foster, Oscar Brown and Coulthard all setting the standard.

Coulthard and Kitching: relaxed.

The fielding remained solid during the second half but the Kimberley opening pair tucked into some leg side short deliveries that were hammered to all parts of the ground.

Brown did create a break through in the 14th over with Steiner taking a regulation catch at mid on. The other opener retired after a chanceless knock of 50 as 10 runs an over were being amassed.

Kitching was the pick of the bowlers, with 2 tidy overs at the death. Machin taking a neat caught behind to leave Kitching with figures of 2-0-11-1.

Steiner returned for the last over and cemented himself at the top of the wickets taken chart. Shepherd holding on to an up and under in the covers, then rearranging the stumps with his final delivery.

Kimberley: 145-4 off 20.

Steiner and Machin opened and were relatively untroubled before Steiner picked the wrong fielder to return for a second run and was half a track short.

Machin (13) was well set before a piece of huge misfortune whilst attempting a pull: the ball rolling up the pad, glove and bat before coming down the elbow and dropping with the faintest of touches onto the stumps.

With the run rate well below, Nice and Healey started to panic the fielders with a full repertoire of shots as the scores were tied at the halfway stage.

Nice (13) fell to the only fielder capable of taking such a catch who was deliberately positioned at deep midwicket. Looking like a 6 all the way the fielder plucked it out of the sky, sending Nice back to the pavilion.

This appeared to be the turning point of the evening as Brown came and went, being run out by the same fielder! and was immediately followed back by Coulthard, caught in the covers, and Shepherd who was clean bowled.

Healey, looking for his second half century of the season, found runs hard to come by and was run out after a fine knock of 40 - and the score on 84.

Mills played a beautiful square drive before departing and was followed by Foster, who connected but was caught.

This left Kitching and Oscar Brown for the final 2 overs, and what a 2 overs, the pair finding 4 boundaries as the score passed 100, Kitching (12*) registering his highest score and perhaps the biggest cheer of the night - Oscar out scoring his older brother!

Keyworth: 103-9 off 20

How many runs did you get big brother? I got 5 not out!