U11 Lions begin the season with a solid outing.

View from the Boundary

Sunday 2 May 2021- U11 Lions 174-5 beat U11 Ashley by 135 runs

On a morning of classic British weather requiring coats, umbrellas, sunglasses and short sleeves, Ashley won the toss and took to the field. Didsbury Lions wasted no time piling up the runs, with Nikash, Milan, Ted and Freddie taking the scoreboard to 48 off the first five overs. The loss of Milan, Ted to a very controversial run out and then Freddie started to jangle the nerves. Thankfully Nikash, who was joined at the crease by Zac, remained calm and played some excellent strokes to reach his 25 N/O retirement, also running superbly between the wickets. Zac’s route to his 26 N/O was somewhat more leisurely, firing an arsenal of 4s and a huge 6 in his 14 balls.

With Rory taking a pearler of a ball and Zac & Nikash carrying their bats, it was all change and reload again. Up stepped Ashden with a sublime 25, including two lovely fours and some wonderful calling/running to score more 2s than singles. He was fantastically supported throughout by strong batting and perceptive calling from Evan, and after Ash’s retirement, Evan continued to plunder 2s and singles with Ollie and Luke, taking the final scoreboard to a healthy 174-5.

The first over effectively sealed the match in the space of six unplayable balls, three batters all clean bowled. A case of Ashden 3 wickets vs Ashley 1 run. Freddie in his captain’s role passed the ball around for all bar Ted, who was taking everything behind the stumps, to have at least an over. Ollie obliged and bagged himself two clean bowled batters, with Evan and Luke also helping themselves to a wicket each. James also bowled a lovely tight over, always threatening. Freddie saw off another with a tight over of spin, in which he also ran the batter out at the bowler’s end. It was fitting that the final wicket fell to Ashden, a superb all round performance with bat and ball, Ashley stumbling to 36 all out.

It was wonderful to draw so many positives from the match- the genuine spirit and camaraderie which runs through the side; the respect we had for the opposition despite the one sided nature of the game; the sheer depth in batting and bowling; and the brilliant calling/running throughout which constantly maintained a high rate run rate and was always putting pressure on the fielding side.

A great start to the season, well done Lions, long may it continue.

By Chris Mulcock.