First Cricket Match Of The Season

Well, not quite the first as the boy had played and won away at St. Bede's on Thursday, scoring 11 in 18 overs playing the anchor in a game-winning partnership of 80 or so. (He's quite good....)
But Hurstpierpoint v Ardingly was the first game I'd watched.
Ardingly batted first & got 166 all out. Hurst had 35 overs to chase them down. It looked like it would be close, tense, exciting.
Unfortunately it was none of those things.
The 2 Hurst openers are both current Sussex county players at U14 level, on scholarships & U14s playing for the U15s. (They're very good...)
They both carried their bats to win the game, finishing 87 & 60 something not out.
They were probably the most impressive innings I've ever seen at this level.
Patient & considered, they both played with the utmost concentration and no little skill and just picked off the runs they needed.
The run rate never dipped below the required 6 an over, yet they never looked hurried or pressured. Astonishingly mature. Between them I don't think they offered more than a couple of chances to the opposition all afternoon
But fuck me it was boring to watch.
Quite why they weren't told to swing the bat once they'd reached 50 I don't know.
Just once or twice it would have been fun to see them take on the spinners & get down the pitch to them. When you're two thirds of the way to victory with ten wickets standing you can take a few risks surely?
Because whilst mightily impressive, i'm afraid there were only 2 people, either on the pitch or off it, who were having fun.

For the record the boy didn't bowl (shoulder injury), didn't take any catches, didn't get any run-outs, and obviously didn't bat. He wasn't best pleased to say the least.

But God he looked handsome in his whites. And sometimes that's all that matters.