Holiday season is always a quiet time for Junior fixtures but despite the weather affected programme, the young Rams continued their great season.
Pictured U13s batting during their win over Todmorden at Centre Vale
The u9’s had friendly matches against Darwen and Burnley; its lovely to see how these young players are developing.
On 1st August, the U13s played Todmorden for a 3rd time this season, this time at Centre Vale and again it was another thrilling match. Rammy won the toss and on a pleasant evening, put Tod into bat. Oliver Croft removed one of their openers early on with a superb direct hit from the covers but Tod started to get on top. At 63 for 2, young Harry Collinge was thrown the ball and delivered a blistering spell of bowling to finish with 5 wickets for 5 runs over 3.3 overs, restricting Tod to 85 all out off 15 overs. Other wickets came from Oliver Croft and Sonny Myers.
Rammy batted carefully at first, not needing a heavy run-rate to achieve the target, but wickets started to fall around the ever-reliable Isaac Turner (30 retired not out). Brilliant batting from Joe Lynchey (18 not out) hitting the winning runs, backed-up admirably by Sonny Myers and Corey Lomax, won the game in the last over for Rammy.
On World Cup Final day, the U13s had a rare Sunday Morning game at home to Rishton in the 8-a-side pairs format (start on 200, 8 runs deducted for every wicket). Rishton won the toss and elected to bat, opening-up a reasonable score of 240. Rammy’s chase was hampered by early wickets but the two final pairs delivered what was needed under pressure with Jack Hincliffe (21 not out), Harry Bradley (26 out once) and Joe Lynchey (11 not out) being the top scorers.
The U15s made it through to the semi-final of the Cup as a result of Nelson & Walsden having to concede their game completely. A strong Lowerhouse team piled on the runs to reach 165 off their 20 overs, setting the Rams a tough challenge. Apart from a controlled innings from Ed Taylor, Rams struggled to a total somewhat less than the target, eventually losing by 100 runs.
Post-holiday optimism was essential to get the U15s game on at Haslingden on 29th Aug. a reduced over game was till challenged by the fading light, and if anyone could have seen the action, they enjoyed another thrilling game of cricket worthy of a Ben Stokes appearance. Earlier, Haslingden won the toss and set what was thought to be a low target of 71. But you never really know what a good score is until both sides have batted and it turned out to be a challenge for the Rammyfield batters. Joe Blake (13) and Toby Ashworth (13) made a decent start, but it fell to Harry Bradley to steady the ship (15 of 23 balls), taking the innings deep into the reduced 18-over game. In the gloom, Rammyfield needed 11 off the last over and some calm batting and excellent running between the wickets from Aiden Enwright and Jack Hinchliffe got the visitors over the line on the last ball.
Phil Croft
Junior Foundation Chairman