East Woodhay entered the Berkshire Cricket Foundation League 1 finals day as heavy underdogs having qualified as West Zone group winners by the skin of their teeth following an outstanding display versus Reading in our last regular league game.
A draw versus Crown Taverners in the semi final was a bit of a trip into the unknown although a few of the opposition players were known to us from the Hampshire U14 and U15 County age group teams.
Skipper Seb Chapman won the toss and elected to field. The pre match team talk was to try and get the boys to win each individual battle on a ball by ball basis - the theory being that these micro battles set the tone and pattern of the match. The boys responded magnificently.
The opening pair of Freddie and Joseph were accurate and with the Taverners openers unwilling to take risks in the field something had to give. It was Joseph with the break through getting King to drive at a ball that was not there for the shot, the catch comfortably pouched in the covers by Seb.
The pattern we set continued with Taverners struggling to make any headway against more accurate bowling from James Hall and Toby. This allowed Seb to push some of the fielders back a little to cover what was a huge outfield and still able to cut off the singles due to the excellence and enthusiasm of the fielding. In fact it was the fielding that brought the next breakthrough.
Opening bat Corbett who was struggling for rhythm drove Seb hard to Archie at mid on who was feeling quite deep. His initial instincts were to take a run but soon realised his mistake as Archie swooped to gather and return to Seb leaving the non striker stranded.
The spin twins of Seb and Barney were next up bowling 6 overs unchanged with Seb bowling the dangerous Deshpande and Barney keeping Corbett guessing with a variety of deliveries. By the time they finished their spells Taverners had only progressed to 65-3 off 14 overs.
Harrison and Archie continued in the same vein as the other bowlers , Harrison dismissing Sleight for a quick fire 20 , and with another 2 run outs and 2 quick wickets from James Hall Taverners subsided to 97 - 9 off their 20 overs
Opening bats Barney and Seb were keen to replicate their form from the Reading match and early on things looked promising taking 12 off the first 2 overs with no alarms. However Seb hit a long hop straight at mid wicket and with Charlie being bowled first ball by a beautiful yorker from the pacy Deshpande things were more delicately poised.
Up steps James Hall who combined with Barney for a brilliantly paced partnership of 50 runs in 9 overs to steady the ship. By the time Barney was out bowled by Sleight for 38 the game was almost done. Archie (10 not out) ensured there were no more alarms as he and James (33 not out) saw us home with 3 overs to spare. And on to the final v Slough........
After such a commanding performance in the semi all coach Chapman could do was ask the boys for a repeat performance - with the only change to the team being Zac to come in and replace Harvey.
The other semi final had been live streamed on Youtube. Dom Walters kindly kept a close eye on proceedings and fed us the intel on Slough so we had a fair idea of what we were up against - a hard hitting team that liked to be aggressive and dominate the bowlers. Seb won the toss again and put them in hoping that without a definite target to chase they may go a bit too hard too early and offer up some chances.
Freddie hit the ground running and had already done for one of the Slough openers LBW before the live video feed was switched on! With relatives watching the action live from places like Canada, Dubai and whichever airport Nick Thomas was in the final was a real spectacle.
The fielding was once again on the money - led by another superb performance by wicket keeper Alex Braidwood who did really set the tone all day for us in the field. However Slough were not to be rolled over and they continually pressurized our bowlers resulting in a flurry of wides which helped maintain a run rate of 6 an over for Slough in the first third of the innings.
James Hall did strike again for us with the last ball of his second over a top edge being well caught by Alex. By now Berkshire U15 opener Akavarapu was beginning to find his feet finding with a couple of very powerful boundaries. Seb stuck with his plan though and the introduction of him and Barney to bowl the middle overs oce more paid dividends.
Seb took a fabulous caught and bowled to dismiss Akavarapu (and probably save the umpires teeth - who had hit the ground such was the power of the shot) and with Barney bowling a maiden with his third over to finish with figures of 3-1-0-0 Slough were an under par 67-3 off 13.
Sheeraz counter attacked with 42 not out but off 50 balls it was a bit too slow to make a real dent in the scoring rate and the Woodhay boys held their nerve and shape in the field to restrict Slough to 118 - 6 off their allocated 20. It really was another fabulous performance in the field with the boys backing each other up - showing great awareness, discipline and accuracy.
So - 119 to become County Champions and repeat their feat of 2 years when they were U13's. An all spin opening attack greeted Barney and Seb as they opened the innings. A cautious start saw us take 14 off the first three overs before Barney was trapped LBW.
After his brilliant knock in the first game James Hall was promoted to 3 and he and Seb went about building a platform. Slowly they built a partnership advancing to 45 off 9 overs with no further losses. Slough continued to ratchet up the pressure with very few loose deliveries and nerves were beginning to fray on the sidelines. Not in the middle though, as Slough turned to their later bowlers Seb and James started to build the run rate with ice cold precision.
Slough turned back to their opener Chopra to bowl his last over in a bid to break the deadlock - a gamble that failed as Seb dispatch him for 11 with consecutive 4s from his opening 2 balls. With the pressure released the score rate climbed, and at last the Slough bowlers started to offer up a few balls to hit, James duly obliged with 2 big sixes and nerves on the sideline began to ease.
By the time Seb retired for 53 off 42 balls we only needed a few runs to win with plenty of time to do it. James (44 not out off 48 balls) and Archie 4 not out saw us home with 3.1 overs to spare for the boys to be crowned champions once more.
Whilst its often the players in the final that take the glory we cannot forget the players who played their part in the regular season league games. With a number of boys away at school we had several U13's step up to the plate not only to make sure we had 11 on the pitch but also to put in match winning performances. It was only on the back of such performances that we were able to get into a position to be at finals day - and that cannot be underestimated
An outstanding effort by a highly talented group of boys and girl who have been an absolute pleasure to coach over the last 6 years.
CHAMPIONS!!!!!!