Devon U12's played their first match of the season against Gwent at Abergavenny CC on Sunday 29 May 2015. On a glorious sunny day Devon won the toss and elected to bat first. Joe Farmer and Jasper Preswell started briskly enough but just as runs had started to flow, Joe chipped a simple catch to mid off. Rory Medlock and Jasper were looking good until Rory was run out in the unkindest way. A straight drive from Jasper was deflected back onto the stumps by the bowler and Rory was out of his ground and 'run out'. This brought the captain Archie Farkins to the crease but unfortunately another promising partnership was broken after fifteen minutes. Jasper Preswell had played a very nice innings and was looking good when a very good ball from Pipe found the edge and he was well caught at slip for 31. Ollie Sherwood had been presented with his county cap before the match and played a couple of nice shots and found the boundary once before misjudging a straight one and was bowled. At 68 for 4 a partnership was needed and Archie and Wilf Auty obliged. 63 off 79 balls was the first significant partnership that the innings was built on. Archie was eventually out for 62 but the momentum was with Devon. The lower order all contributed and of particular note is the way that despite losing a couple more wickets they accelerated the scoring rate in the last few overs exactly as required. Sammy Broomhead and Oli Smith took 61 off the last 41 balls in 21 minutes. Gwent commented that the batting and running between the wickets of the whole team had looked sharp and had put their fielders under a lot of pressure.
After the break, Gwent never really looked in the game. Whilst wickets didn't tumble some tight and probing bowling was very well backed up by the field and kept the run rate from getting away. Gwent more or less kept up with the rate for the first third of their innings but once Protheroe was well caught by Tom Hatton and Hall was also caught (same fielder) the run rate got away from them and they batted out their overs losing by 81 runs. Archie Farkins bowled with pace and aggression (8 overs 1 maiden, 2 for 22) and Rory Medlock deserved more rewards than his figures showing his parsimonious runs conceded. For a young offspinner, he bowled extremely well. (8 overs 2 maidens, 0 for 14) On the other hand Tom Hatton also bowled better than his figures suggested. (5 overs 0 for 28) A deserved mention for Tom Hatton for his excellent catching and fielding, but the man of the match award goes to the Devon Captain, Archie Farkins
This was a comprehensive win for the young cricketers in which they out-batted, out-bowled and out-fielded the opposition. Even though all the players haven't been mentioned by name, they all contributed to a good whole team performance. It was a lovely afternoon with a good game of cricket played in glorious sunshine at a beautiful cricket ground. Thanks to all the parents and supporters who came to support Devon U12's.
John Morris. Devon U12 Manager
There is a slight hiccup in getting the Play Cricket link to the results to show the score sheet and stats. In the meantime there is a link to the TCS score here: http://www.totalcricketscorer.com/TCSLive/TCSScorecard.aspx?id=44328
