DTCC Under 10’s vs Bovey Tracey – Friday 29 May 2015 (AWAY)
On a bright and breezy late May evening, the eager DTCC beavers turned out to hopefully start the new season with a bang rather than a whimper.
The format is 6 a side, plastic bats, stumps and balls with 12 overs per side and pairs batting. The main aim is to have fun whilst still being at least a little bit competitive. Felix Stevenson lost the toss and Darts were put into the field.
Despite dropping a couple of catches, everyone worked together to try and restrict runs and put pressure on the opposition. New recruit Felix Gillies told coach he did not like bowling, but produced fantastic line and length almost immediately. He went on to bowl out two of the Bovey batsmen. It was a genuine pleasure to witness.
Starting on 200 and despite losing a handful of wickets, Bovey went on to a make a total of just over 280. With a quick turnaround time and some tactics from the coach about protecting your wicket (5 runs off the total for every wicket which might fall!), Darts went into bat with quiet confidence. We built steadily, not giving away too many chances and notching up some valuable extras, whilst the Bovey bowlers took some time to find the correct line.
It was down to the final pair of Nicholas Drewell and Felix S to try and breach the Bovey scorecard. They strove admirably, but 2 suicidal run outs and a couple of cheap catches led to us falling short by about 30 runs.
Despite this loss, it was a vast improvement on our first game last season, so there is much reason for optimism, as we await a double header this weekend at Foxhole against Chudleigh on the Friday and Shaldon on the Sunday.
Hugh