APCC Under 11 Golds: Round 8 vs Kiama Gold

In cricket there is the old saying “One bring two!” which generally refers to getting a quick second wicket after securing the first. This weekend, “One brings two!” refers to the Albion Park Under 11 Gold cricket team, who notched their second win for the season as well as their second win in succession in their match against Kiama Gold at beautiful Gainsborough Chase in Kiama Downs.

Skipper Max Sciberras won the toss and elected to field on a humid morning, which to be quite honest seemed to affect their efforts. The concentration levels were down, the energy wasn’t there and there seemed to be a lot of statue standing in the field. And that was just the coach at the bowlers end. The conditions didn’t help but it felt as though the team had switched off a little after last week’s win, and they were fortunate not to suffer a bit more on the scoreboard for it. Looks like it’s back to fielding training this Wednesday.

Despite this, much of the bowling was excellent. Skipper Max and Kane Rex shared the wicket keeping duties for the day, and did a good job considering both got a couple of tough bounces. Kane bowled two overs for 9 runs, but did not bowl a no ball which was an excellent effort to go with his three wickets last week. He took on board the lessons from training which was excellent. Max bowled two overs for 7 runs, and also picked up his first wicket with the ball, clean bowled. An exciting moment in everyone’s career, and his teammates were excited for him. Well done Max! Charlotte Rodda followed up her good spell from last week with two overs for 9 runs, while Bodhie Rodda couldn’t quite get the motor running today, with his two overs costing 13 runs.

Blake Ison is still mixing his deliveries up a bit, he probably needs to be running a bit harder through the crease to get his mojo back. You can’t argue with his figures though, taking 1/3 from his four overs. The speedster Lucas Brown got taken for four off his first delivery, but was again superb after that, finishing with 2/7 from four overs, and if only he bowled more than two deliveries at the stumps he would get a lot more wickets. And I know I sound biased, but Albion Park have got a pretty fair leg spinner on their hands in a few years, as Josh Peters improved on last week to deliver another great spell. He finished with 1/6 from four overs. At the end of the innings, Kiama Gold had scored 5/64 from their twenty overs.

With last week’s success we decided to keep the same batting order, to help the kids get to know their partner and hopefully improve the understanding between them in their batting and running between the wickets. And this seemed to be successful. Bodhie was unfortunate to firstly be run out for not getting back into his crease fast enough and to be nailed by a throw from the outfield on the arm, but apart from that run out he and Lucas once again were not dismissed as the opening batting partnership and got the team off to a great start. Bodhie once again improved on his highest ever score, which is now 5, and Lucas made double figures for his highest ever score of 14, and their calling and running was excellent. Well done to both boys. Kane also made his highest ever score of 6, but was dismissed a couple of times, though once we get that defense tightened up he will be scoring a lot more. One off drive in particular that he hit today was fantastic. Charlotte Rodda showed her patience and defense once again, bating through her innings for 0 but not being dismissed, and running well for her partners.

The excellent top half of the innings allowed the bottom half to do their job without any pressure. Max made a solid 4 runs this week, and could have made a few more had he set off for runs a bit earlier. No doubt he’ll get those next week. Blake batted well again for his 18 runs, with many more there for the taking if he can put out of his mind the previous shot and concentrate on the next ball. Josh continued on from last week’s good innings to post his best score this season with 21. It all added up to a terrific total of 4/109, with an excellent 68 of those runs off the bat.

After penalties were added, the final scores were Kiama Gold 80 to Albion Park Gold 129, and a victory to the Eagles by 49 runs.

It is pleasing to see the improvement in these kids every week, each and every one of them. Winning is nice too, so hopefully we can continue to do the right things at training and then bring them into the game on Saturday. Thanks again to all of the families who show up to watch them play every Saturday, the kids appreciate being able to play well for you as well.

And remember – two brings three!