Busy few days at Woolpit Cricket Club

It’s been a busy few days at Woolpit Cricket Club which over the Bank Holiday weekend included a softball competition, league fixtures and the appearance of famous names in the sport as the club hosted a T20 charity match against the PCA England Masters XI .

On Friday, Woolpit held its annual U13 Girls Softball Competition and for the fourth year running Coton CC Girls (from just outside Cambridge) were the champions, taking the trophy and their winners shirts back home with them. See photo above.

In the evening, Woolpit Ladies 3rd XI Softball team played in their first ever match against Bury Ladies Softball team. It was a fun and friendly evening – with both coaches saying cricket was the winner.

On Saturday the Woolpit 1st XI hosted Hadleigh 1st XI but were convincinly beaten by 188 runs.

Winning the toss the Hadleigh openers signalled their intent early by attacking the opening bowling of George and Freddie Heldreich and reaching 50 in just the eighth over.

When Kent was bowled by Parker with the score on 60, the rate slowed slightly, but the league’s leading run scorer Maunze continued to attack and reached his century in just under 100 balls.  He was eventually out lbw to Deeley, and despite 74 from Manthorpe, the other Hadleigh batters lost their wickets regularly in trying to maximise their score at the end of the innings. Collins picked up two wickets at the end as Hadleigh finished on 276-9.

In reply, Woolpit only had 10 men to bat as Will Parker had broken his finger. Unfortunately, none of the batsman looked comfortable as a mix of both accurate and at times hostile bowling resulted in wickets falling at regular intervals. Deeley was the only one to put up any real resistance, but when he was out caught behind for 17, the writing was on the wall for the rest of the innings. The last wicket fell with just 88 on the board, giving the visitors a comprehensive victory and kept alive their hopes for promotion. Pick of the bowlers was Manthorpe with 3 for 16.

Woolpit 2nd XI won the toss and batted first on a good track away against Abberton 1st XI.  Old stagers Pilgrim (43) and West (75) built a platform built on by Flannagan (26) and Holmes (28) and finished off by good contributions from the rest of the order to total 233-8. A wicket in the first over for veteran seamer Gibson gave a good start but Abberton batted strongly to fall only 11 runs short. The other veteran seamers Reynolds and Starling collected wickets before youngsters Lilley and Block bowled well to pick up two wickets each. The 11 runs win is the fourth in a row as Woolpit look to finish the season strongly.

Woolpit 3rd XI batted first in their match against Dunmow 2nd XI and lost a couple of early wickets. Rob Jack (22) batted alongside Will West (63) to help steady the innings. Dunmow had a good bowling attack and Nicholas Kessingland ended up taking 3 for 64 off 15 overs. Woolpit managed to reach 181 for 9. Dunmow’s opener Cameron Gibson (51) started strong, as wickets fell around him, until Jamie McLaughlin (95) joined him at the crease. Some brilliant shots helped edge Dunmow closer to Woolpit’s reasonably low total. Gavin Taylor was the most economical of Woolpit’s bowlers taking 2 for 36 off 11 overs, but unfortunately this was not enough. Dunmow reached 184 for 8 off 29.2 overs winning the game by 2 wickets.

Bury St Edmunds 4th XI opening batsmen proved difficult to get out in their encounter with Woolpit 4th XI with Simon Aldous (109) and David Norburn (41) having a great partnership. Nils Carter De Jong came in at number three and added another 40 runs to the board. The 4th team bowlers were struggling, with Andy Deere taking 1 for 26 off 9 overs as the most economical Woolpit bowler. Bury ended their innings on 264 for 5 off 40 overs. Woolpit’s batsmen needed to dig in and an early wicket fell. The responsibility of scoring some runs landed on Woolpit’s young batsman Ben Smart, who had a fantastic innings before being trapped lbw on 118. Neil Jefferies posted the best bowling figures for Bury, taking 2 for 24 off 8 overs. Woolpit only managed to reach 177 for 7 off their 40 overs handing Bury the victory by 87 runs.

On Sunday the Ladies 1st XI beat Mildenhall 1st XI by 9 runs. Woolpit batted first, against some accurate bowling from Mildenhall. Four lbw’s being taken in one innings. Natalie Samuels scored 65 before being stumped by some quick work from Victoria Leyshon. Sophie Hughes took 4 for 22 off her 7 overs.

Mildenhall lost a couple of early wickets, with Jasmine Westley staying at the crease to score 96. With the match being close, the ball was passed to a ladies youth player, Amber Bradnam who took the final two wickets in just five balls, winning the game for Woolpit.

The Ladies 2nd XI beat Felixstowe and Corinthians 2nd XI by 21 runs. Woolpit batted first. Jess Board scoring 30 not out before being retired. Tracey Westley picking up 3 wickets for Felixstowe. Woolpit ending on 136 for 5. Felixstowe’s Tracey Westley and Kat Hales were retired not out on 27 and 31 respectively. Flo West was the only Woolpit bowler to pick up any wickets, taking 2 for 19 in her spell.

And on Monday the PCA England Masters beat a Woolpit team in a charity T20 match by 28 runs.