Yr 7 North Somerset Cricket Tournament

On Monday 24^th of June Year 7 took part in the North Somerset schools cricket tournament, that led to be quite a successful day of cricket for Churchill Academy.

Our first match was against Priory, we won the toss and decided to field first, this way we would know how many runs we would need to chase. Our opening two bowler’s, Raff Alexander and Charlie Vann, got us off to a good start with Charlie Vann picking up a lovely wicket, clean bowling one of their opening batsmen. Going further down our line of bowlers, Alex Cockram bowled his leg spin that proved to be too much for the batsmen to cope with. This was then followed by a maiden over (six balls where there were no runs).

In the 5^th over captain Benedict Skudder came on to bowl. He bowled a ball on the off-side which the batsman nicked behind for wicket keeper, Oscar Hall, to take a beautiful clean catch. Later on in the over, B Skudder bowled again with a clean straight ball, which rebounded off the batsman’s pad and onto the wickets. We restricted them to a total of 34 runs, a good total for us to chase. As we went in for our talk, Mr Doel told us to keep a straight bat and to hit the balls that are off the wickets. Our two opening batters, J Knight and O Hall, hit some lovely shots with some excellent runs. Soon enough the eight overs were over and the two batsmen had finished the job on their own.

A pretty easy win.

Our second match was against Gordano who were promised to be better than Priory. We got off to a good start with some excellent fielding from Alfie Gait and Jack Cockayne. With some wides and a few mis-fields, the batsmen achieved a total of 48 runs. Now it was our turn to face the Gordano bowlers. Batting wise we didn’t get of to a good start, losing some wickets in the first 3 overs. With 4 overs remaining we knew that 24 runs wouldn’t be enough to reach the total. With hope in our hearts, Joshua Weall and Joel Knight were playing some lovely shots and running quick singles as often as possible. With two overs left we needed 20 runs and then we needed 13 runs off the last over. It was tense with the pressure on but Joshua and Joel held their nerve to win off the last ball. A fantastic win for two wins out of two.

Our final match of the group stages was against Backwell who we knew would be tough to beat. Because we had our winning streak of bowling first we stuck to it. Our bowling in this game wasn’t the best standard but our fielding was excellent which was displayed by Raff Alexander and JJ Weall. Later on in the game, the batsman hit it hard but not true and it sailed into the soft hands of Charlie Vann. As we bowled the final over Backwell had run hard to get the score of 60 runs. A hard score to match. As our opening batters walked onto  the crease a confident start was displayed by our top hitter Oscar Hall with some lovely shots that gave us a quick start. But from some excellent fielding and some well-pitched bowling, wickets seemed to roll through the team until two batsmen, Alfie Gait and Kimi Powell, steadied themselves and gave us a hint of hope. With an over to come A Gait hit a lovely cut shot to the off- side, which rolled away for 4. The runs began to come with some loud but affective calling from our very own Kimi Powell.

But our best wasn’t enough as we lost the game by ten runs.

Good effort!

This loss meant we were out of the final but still had the game of 3^rd and 4^th placed playoffs.

For a change we started batting, our two openers were Raff Alexander and Tom Evans. They got us of to a brilliant start nudging quick singles and running well between the wickets.

Half-way through the 6 overs they swapped with Bene Skudder and Alfie Gait and they saw the match through to the final over. All we had to do now was bowl well.

On the first ball of the 2^nd innings a county player hit a powerful pull shot which shot into the reach of Raff Alexander and he did really well to reach the ball but then it dropped to the floor but we don’t worry about that. After that a strong over was displayed by Harvey Rogers with an excellent caught and bowled that he had no time to react to. This catch was the one to get their best batsman out. For the final over the pressure was mounting. They had to get 5 off 6 balls which was a comfortable stat. The bowler (B Skudder) stood up to the crease and bowled the first ball, it was not a good start. As the 4^th ball came they needed 4 of the last 3 which was still possible but the bowler restricted the batsmen by bowling a clean straight wicket which left two balls to go. We had done it. We came 3^rd out of 9 schools and had a great day of cricket.

Well done boys!

Written by Benedict Skudder