UNDER 11 UPDATE, APRIL 2006

Because of Brentwood Cricket Club's Under 12 successes both outdoors and indoors over the previous 12 months, they were invited to represent Essex at a regional indoor competition in Norwich, sponsored by the Lord's Taverners, on Saturday 1 April.

Essex played Huntingdonshire in their first match and, after batting first reached a competitive score with the help of excellent innings' from Tim Hembrough and Edward Hornby. Thanks to the bowling of James Welham and the wicket keeping of Owen Mathias, Brentwood convincingly won their first match and thus grew in confidence.

Essex's next match was against Suffolk, who had won their first match and were thus an obvious challenger to Brentwood for qualification from the group of four. Brentwood bowled first and kept Suffolk to a low score thanks to a fantastic bowling and fielding performance by 10-year old Harry Coombes, where he played a major part in all six wickets in the Suffolk innings. With excellent batting in particular from Coombes, Ravi Rupal and Matthew Thorpe-Apps, Brentwood won again and were one win away from the final.

However, the strength of Brentwood's opposition in their final match was mighty. Norfolk ‘B' were the opponents but Brentwood still managed to keep their efficient and intelligent opponents down to a net score of +86. A good start from Mathias and Sam Dawes gave Brentwood the upper hand, but the game somehow became out of reach by the time Welham and Rupal came to the crease with four overs left. Despite a valiant effort and some excellent running between the captain and vice-captain, Norfolk ‘B' prevailed and won by a painfully close six runs.

I was delighted with the standard of cricket played by the team, and was pleased with the way that Brentwood would clearly learn from playing against different opposition. It was unfortunate that Brentwood came so close to reaching the final, but ultimately satisfying that they had done Essex proud.

The eight players representing their county were James Welham, Ravi Rupal, Sam Dawes, Edward Hornby, Tim Hembrough, Matthew Thorpe-Apps, Owen Mathias and Harry Coombes.

A day later, the Under 11s were knocked out of the Indoor League at the semi-final stage, after a disappointing defeat by Wanstead. Although going into the game distinct underdogs, an excellent batting performance saw us reach 87/3 from our 10 overs (Edward Hornby 28*, Prem Pithia 28*). However, after whittling Wanstead down to 20 needed from three overs with only one wicket remaining, we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and so undeservedly exited the competition. However, the summer looks promising for the Under 11s, and should be able to retain their league title from last season.

Phil Crook