Petersfield U13s vs Steep

Well after what seems like a long 3 or 4 weeks since starting this job we finally got the season under way with another rearranged fixture with local rivals Steep.
On a nice evening at the Heath Petersfield won the toss and chose to bowl first with new lad Oliver Simpson and player of the season Tom Pocock (1-18) opening the bowling. Tom took the first wicket with a very good return catch; from the first ball of the next over Gabriel Broadhurst (2-5) bowled the other opener to leave Steep 2 down for 10 from 3 overs. J Nobel (23) then launched a counter attack with some lovely shots. Wickets went down at the other end at regular intervals with Will Grange taking the wicket of the dangerous J Nobel and Rob Schofield running out G.Crew.
The bowling again was tight with only the occasional bad balls being dispatched over the boundary for 4. Josh Bird (0 for 1 off 2 over’s) and Dan Parry (0 for 6 off his 2 over’s) bowled some very tidy and tight over’s.
The bad balls being punished helped push the scoring along, with the Steep middle order playing well to keep the momentum going (M.Edmundson making16) before Oliver Simpson returned to take 2 wickets with his first and last ball of the final over but also conceded a few runs to leave him with figures of 3 for 22 from his 3 over’s. Steep having set Petersfield 107 to win the match
Petersfield opened with last year’s successful opening partnership of Joe Mayall (15) and Tom Pocock (0), Gabriel Broadhust (30 retired) joined Joe in the middle after Tom was out bowled and between them took the scoring swiftly along with Joe hitting some lusty blows including a six over cow corner before being bowled by J Thompson trying to repeat the 6. Gabriel Broadhust (30 retired) was playing some beautiful cover drives and all was going well until Oliver Simpson (3) was run out trying to run a 2nd having not listened to the call of NO from his partner. With Gabriel on 30 he retired n the same ball which really knocked the stuffing out of Petersfield effectively losing 2 wickets in one ball.
Robert Schofield (9) and Daniel Parry (13) kept the momentum going and put the pressure on the bowlers who struggled a bit with their line and some nice shots through the offside. J Nobel (3-22) returned to the attack and took a wicket in his first over back and another in his last with a ball that crept under Rory Classens bat giving him no chance of keeping it out. Will Grange was then bowled by J Thompson(2 for 9), Josh Brid (11) then took the score on to 100 – 8 giving Petersfield a chance off the final over needing 7 to win the game. Unfortuantely for Petersifled and to the delight of Steep Josh was out 2nd ball of the over leaving Daniel May and Tom Thompsett to see out the last 4 balls without scoring.
A tight game played in a great spirit, congratulations to Steep but a fantastic effort from Petersfield in their first game of the season