Toss Crucial In 14's Season Finalé

Gedling won the toss and decided to bat first at the Field of Dreams, needing to beat Keyworth to keep alive their hopes of winning the Notts Youth League Under 14 title and began cautiously scoring only 39 runs off the first ten overs thanks to good length and line bowling by Ben Healey (4 overs 1 for 13) and Issac Brown (4 overs 0 for 14).

Gedling’s star opener began to hit out and was retired on 51 yet during this Tom Rock from the KCC Under 12s bowled a 4 over spell up the hill in very tidy fashion, finishing with 1 for 15 and Gedling progressed to a total of 102 for 4 wkts at the end of their 20 overs, a total thought to be within the compass of Keyworth’s ability.

Harry Normington and Sam Machin matched Gedling off the first ten overs scoring 44 runs but the light was fading fast and they were having difficulty getting their shots past the alert opponents in the field. Both perished on 16 attempting to up the run rate and although Ben Healey (11), Zack Tudor (7) & Issac Brown (6) did manage to see the ball enough to strike some runs a ‘miners helmet with a lamp’ would have been more helpful than cricket helmets as all the lower order struggled to sight the ball and the run chase petered out on 81 runs for 9 wickets.

If the toss had gone the other way, Keyworth would surely have made Gedling fight for the precious points but there were many erstwhile performances to end a highly productive and promising season.