Ben played cricket for his school again today (Brentwood County High School) and captained the side to another victory. Unfortunately all these games are played while I'm still at work, so I don't get a chance to see them, but as my lecturing duties have now diminished because of the summer break I might see if I can get along and see one of his school matches - maybe even tomorrows? So, after last weeks success with the bat scoring 11 runs (Family record we're all No.11's) he put himself up the order to bat at No.4. BCHS fielded first and restricted the runs to around 58 from 14 overs, Ben bowled first and took 2 wickets off his two overs, obviously not conceding that many runs, though he doesn't think to keep any record of his average. Another wicket was taken by the No.2 bowler and then the wickets dried up, but not many runs were made which is pretty typical of school cricket as the teams are generally populated by a handful of boys that play cricket and the rest are made up of lads that are just up for a game.
You have to realise that extracting this info out of a 12 year old isn't that easy. Ben hit 9 runs off his innings and then stepped back on his stumps and I thought that was about it and then he remembered. Spoken with absolute derision for spin bowlers he then recalled..........
"Aaaah you should have seen me bat - they brought on their spinner (Said with total contempt) and they had all their fielders in close at silly positions, 2 slips and a gully - hardly anyone out of the circle - they were giving it the right biggun and then this spinner (Again with utter contempt) walks up and throws this grenade ball through the air and it sits up in front of me so I spanked it out of the park for 4 and then he does it again and this time I smacked it back over his head for another four". The next ball the kid got his hand to it and Ben got his single to make 9. The first ball of the next over he then stood on his stumps.
The opposition I think were Galleywood which is a school in the Chelmsford area. But it's good to see him playing and deriving some enjoyment out of his batting as he bats way down the order with B&P and rarely gets a chance to bat, not that he wants to he leads me to believe at that level. But it's good that he's the captain and he's winning matches and getting wickets. This game was in his year group (Year 7), but he's got another game tomorrow with the year 8's, so that'll be more interesting and hopefully I might get over there and perhaps see it?
