Weybridge U11's Development Team won by a run in a nail-biting final over against an excellent Whitely Village team. Captain, Dylan Rao, elected to field first after winning the toss and Sachin Phull opened the bowling with excellent line and length. Whitely Village batted very consistently with some quick running between the wickets on a slow outfield and steadily built up their score. Mason Wolton broke their streak with a lovely ball having decided to come right arm around the wicket and bowling the bails off the leg stump. This was followed up shortly afterwards with a beautiful caught and bowled by Finn Blayney; there was never a chance of him dropping that one off his own bowling! Sam Tovey, who stepped in at the last-minute (quite literally), had a lovely spell with an economy of 4.33 and helped to keep the run-rate down as did Will Cowland whose left-arm unorthodox spin is going from strength-to-strength. Tristan Tindall hit the new season on great form and bowled really solidly throughout and fielded consistently well. Alfie Coulthard kept wicket brilliantly with some great low pick-ups and certainly helped to keep our extras to a minimum.

With a very respectable score of 82/2 to chase, we set after them with a steady start. The team, both in the field and whilst batting, had matured considerably since last year, with sensible calling and avoiding run-outs which was excellent to see. Sam and Finn opened the batting with a good innings between them. Mason and Tristan faced some of their strongest bowlers but kept their nerve. Halfway through, we were at 24/2 and the target seemed to be getting away from us. Will and Sachin held their ground and were gifted a number of extras, learning to leave the ball alone when going wide and gladly taking the extras. With our final pair going in requiring 15 runs off the last 4 overs, Alfie and Dylan faced quite a task knowing a win was within our grasp. Having become convinced that boundaries were an impossibility with an unbelievably slow outfield, steady nerves held and two much needed fours from Alfie, one of which ended up on the athletics track, meant victory was within reach. One run needed to win off the last two balls and an excellent call from Dylan on the penultimate ball got us there with Alfie solidly blocking the final ball.

The team did outstandingly and continue to work together as a great bunch who support and encourage each other, creating exactly the right environment for a development team. This win would not have been possible without every person on the pitch playing their part. We will need to continue to work on being a bit more aggressive with our running between the wickets and backing-up which will be one of our focusses in training. A huge thank you to Stephen Cowland for scoring and to the other parents for their support. Well done to Whitely Village for playing a really well-spirited game and the Weybridge team should be congratulated on an impressive start to the season.