U9s so close at the Capel Festival

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Merstham U9s entered two teams for the Capel 6-a-side festival last weekend.  The Rhinos (Matty Beggs, Alex Bird, Will Carney, Harry Colbourne, Connor Morris and Michael Noad) and the Hippos (Dinuk Jayamanne, Will John-Cox, Jacob Law, Flynn McRobbie, James Pieters and Max Thomas) were separated in the group stages, and for much of the day it looked like the final would be an all-Merstham showdown.

After a scare for the Rhinos in their opening match, both teams progressed serenely through their four group games, simply blowing away the opposition with a combination of accurate bowling, dynamic fielding and intelligent, aggressive batting.

There were so many great performances it is hard to pick out specific highlights, but mention must be made of Flynn’s stunning diving catch off his own bowling, Max’s unplayable fast yorker to dismiss one of the best batsmen in the league, Connor’s cool four off the penultimate ball to win the opening match, and James’ brutal dismantling of one bowler, hitting him for two fours and a six in successive balls.

But sport is a cruel mistress. In their semi-final the Rhinos struggled to score runs against a very good Kenley bowling attack, and lost by a dozen runs, thus missing out on the chance to play the Hippos in the final.

Having played almost perfect cricket over the preceding 10 hours, tiredness finally caught up with the Hippos in the final.  Chasing 35 from 30 balls, the Hippos found themselves requiring 10 from the final five balls, against Kenley’s best bowler, to win. Surely impossible?

Maybe not, with Will and Jacob at the crease, both exuding far more calm than the nail-biting watching parents… But it wasn't to be: despite a valiant attempt, the Hippos fell one single, agonising, run short.

Every one of the boys performed fantastically throughout the day and - far more importantly - were incredibly sportsmanlike in both victory and defeat, and a credit to the club.  Many thanks to all the parents who supported, scored, cheered and ultimately consoled the boys.  

Next time, boys, next time...

Graeme Law