FCC Juniors 2022 report

Season review by Juniors' Manager Rob Unwin

U9 – Natasha Powlesland

The U8/9 have had a great season with plenty of keen players. Turnout on a Saturday has been tremendous and they have enjoyed starting their cricket career with some league matches. Some great cricket has been played, with all players bowling and batting well and learning to play as a team in the field. Thank you to all the parents that have helped run these matches too! It has been a great season and shall look forward to next year's season. 

U11 – Shiobhaun Watt

The U11s have had a great season with a squad of 25 enthusiastic and capable players. Each Saturday we’ve had a good turn-out for training with many committed players wanting to play matches every week.

The start of the season saw a couple of matches cancelled and disappointed children. The kids needed to show their resilience after turning up at Churt only to wait an hour in the rain for the match to then be called off! However, by mid May we were off and enjoyed regular matches until mid July. Of the 10 matches played, we won six and ended up finishing 4th in the league of nine teams.

We rotated the captaincy each week to allow as many as possible to have a turn and making the on field decisions of who should bowl next. The highlight however was leading the three cheers at the end.

It’s always hard to name particular players but recognition must go to U10s Rufus Priest and Eddie Thompson for playing up and holding their own, to U9s Brendan Watt and Toby Bowden for stepping in when we were short of players during holiday season and playing their first hard ball matches and to big hitters Ed Bowden, Felix Ghosh, Leo Corps and Dougie Watt. Particular mention should go to Leo who was playing his first full season of cricket and proved quite the destructive batsman! An enormous thank you to all the parents who helped score and umpire. We look forward to next season!

U12

Our Under 12 season started with a new experience for the team – a Cup Match! Away at Tilford, the boys cruised to victory winning by eight wickets and taking us through to the next round to face Guildford, again away. On paper this looked a tougher match, particularly with only 10 players available, so we knew we would have to be at our best, and I think the boys got the memo. Harry Owles bowled well taking 3 for 12. Charlie Hay got us off to a good batting start with 29, but with 4 wickets falling cheaply around him, it was the 6^th wicket stand of 39 from Dougie Watt and Harry Owles that saw us home to victory by 4 wickets. But our Cup run soon ended as we came up against the formidable Valley End Tier 1 team. Again away, (would we ever play at Fernhurst?), and again with only 10 players, Valley End put on a batting masterclass amassing 185. We were never at our best, and despite a valiant performance, were beaten by 101 runs.

Over in the league we had our usual strong start, with a comfortable win against Brook, where we bowled them out in 11 overs for just 33 runs, Charlie Hay and George Phillips surpassed Brook’s total in just under 4 overs with a commanding batting performance. Against Farnham, our bowling attack was again too strong, the first 3 wickets falling for just 1 run, bowling them out for 47. In reply, Dougie Watt showed everyone how to bat scoring all the required runs! An unusual scorecard.

Our home matches against Chiddingfold and Cranleigh were much more competitive affairs and narrowly won both matches. We knew the return away fixtures with these two teams would be tougher and they were in more ways than one! First up Cranleigh. With many of our team unavailable due to a school residential, we scraped together a team of 9 for a close fought match. We batted first, losing only one wicket, and with retirements from Charlie Langridge and Dougie Watt we brought up a seemingly defendable score of 158, however, with 9 players the gaps in the field seemed huge and despite taking 7 wickets, Cranleigh just managed to reach the required number of runs in the last over. Ouch!

Winning ways returned against Farnham, but our final match was away at Chiddingfold in the first week of August. This was the league decider, so we knew they’d put out their best and with many of our usuals on holiday and a few at the Southern Braves' first match, we could only scrape together a team of 9, with Rufus Priest (U10) making his debut for the U12s. Chiddingfold batted first, bringing up 151, a good score on a tricky wicket. Fernhurst took 5 wickets (2 for William Gateshill, 2 for Charlie Langridge, 1 for Finn Reeves). With the ball jagging around, keeping was tricky and despite a valiant effort from Ben Langley, extras were an added enemy. Our batting was similar to an England top order collapse and at one point we were 19/7. However, Frank Taylor and Sam Walker put on an admirable final wicket stand of 44, showing some dogged determination, to bring up a respectable 63.

Heads high, we hosted Brook for the final U12 match, again with few of the U12 regulars available! Brook were also struggling for players, but keen to play so we agreed 8 a side across several age groups. Eddie Thompson and Harry Jones made their U12 debuts, Rufus Priest joined us again and we also welcomed Isabel Jennings. Batting first, Charlie Langridge, Charlie Hay, Isabel Jennings and Max Cripps all retired as we brought up 164. Our bowling attack was again simply too strong for Brook, Eddie Thompson, Harry Jones and Rufus Priest each taking a wicket, with 2 each for Charlie Langridge and Charlie Hay.

The U12s have been captained this season by Charlie Hay who has risen to the challenge and led the team by example. Thank you Charlie. We welcomed some new players this season, Fraser, Fran and Tom and all the boys have put in some great performances, always playing the game in the right spirit and having fun.

Charlie Hay was the U12’s top total run scorer with 164, 90 of which were scored in our Cup matches, Max Cripps had the highest single score of 33. Charlie Langridge was Fernhurst and the U12 league’s, leading wicket taker, with 14 wickets, and best bowling figures of 3/1.

The title wasn’t to be this year, but there were some fine performances all round and every player should be proud of how they played. League runners up is a great achievement, with just two points in it. We look forward to seeing you all back next year!

U13

As the U12 league only consisted of 6 teams, we wanted to give our players more opportunities to play, so also entered an U13 team into a Sussex League. The team mainly consists of Under 12s, with a few U13s who usually play in U14s and is captained by Ruari Watt.

We had some lovely trips around the Sussex countryside to Ferring, Findon and Worthing on Sunday mornings. Our first match was against a 9 a side Findon who we bowled out in 13 overs for 42. Charlie Hay took 3/3 and there was a wicket each for Harry Owles, Dougie Watt and Jack Bailey. Our batting was a little mixed, but with retirements from Ruari Watt and Charlie Langridge, the required runs were made. Closer fought matches followed against Worthing and Ferring. Against Worthing, we batted first, with Hamish Unwin (30) and Charlie Hay (22) the pick of the batters and set a target of 124.Our bowling was simply superb! Hamish Unwin bowled 4 overs (2 maidens) for 13 runs and Isabel Jennings bowled 2 overs for 3 runs. George Phillips, William Gateshill and Charlie Langridge took the wickets and with two fine runs outs from William Gateshill and Fraser Anstey, Worthing finished on 100. A great match and a wonderful team performance. Next up Ferring who had proved to be our nemesis last year! We won the toss and elected to bowl first. Max Cripps made the breakthrough with 2 wickets in 2 balls and after Ruari Watt was relieved from keeping duties, he bowled beautifully to take 3 wickets in one over. Ferring set us a total of 155. We started well with Hamish Unwin (21), Charlie Hay (10), Ruari Watt (33 rno) and Charlie Langridge (21), but then the wickets tumbled and we were bowled out for 130.

Both home and away matches against West Chiltington, the subsequent league winners, were tough. Away, we only managed to post a score of 66, 20 of which were scored by Dougie Watt, which West Chiltington knocked off in just 7.1 overs. We fared better in the home fixture, making a total of 96 all out, and at least made West Chiltington bat through to over 18!

Sadly we didn’t get to play Broadwater, they conceded the match and we still have one fixture against Ferring to play. The result won’t change our league position, finishing a creditable 4^th, a great achievement, which all the players should be proud of, considering most of the squad were ‘playing up’.

Ruari Watt took the most wickets for the U13s with 6, with Charlie Hay best figures at 3/3. Batting wise, Ruari Watt also topped the batting with 109 runs and a top score of 33.

As a footnote to the U13s season, we finally played Ferring late in August and we were able to record a victory against them (at last) with no little thanks going to captain Ruari Watt's sensational bowling as he ripped the Ferring batting apart with figures of 7/10 in a destructive 3 over spell.

U14B – Colin Butfield

To B or not to B? That was the question at the start of the season. A fantastic collection of U14 cricketers but would there be enough interest to sustain two teams? After five months, six commanding victories, two heart-in-the-mouth wins …… and, ahem, Godalming, the answer is a resounding YES.

As a new manager it was an intimidating start. Godalming was the first game and it turned out they were a bit good. But there was something in our team spirit - chasing every ball in the field, encouraging each other and the early murmurings of what would grow to be a lot of good natured mickey taking. In time I was sure Peter’s optimistic running between the wickets would become as well timed as his striking of the ball, Connor would play a defensive shot and everyone would bowl as dead on target as Ella. What actually happened was something far more impressive. They really became a team. One that played in the best spirit of the game - highly competitive but always with smile and laugh.

Whilst on paper there was an A and a B team, in practice many of this great group of U14s played for both teams over the course of the season and the quality of cricket just grew and grew.

The two games against Frimley particularly stood out. The sides were evenly matched- either could have won. But in the home match Fernhurst didn’t give away a single extra- not one wide or no ball. Every single player bowled and everyone bowled brilliantly showing all the practice they put in over the season. I kept thinking surely one ball’s going to go a bit wayward…but to paraphrase one of the team as he threw in for a dramatic runout “NOT TODAY”

In the away fixture it came down to 1 run and the last ball. It was so tense I had to keep reminding myself I was umpiring not just watching. But seeing the Fernhurst team all hold their nerve, deliver when it really counted, run towards each other to celebrate and then quickly turn around to applaud the Frimley batters should make everyone at the club proud of the way they approach the game.

U14A – Robert Unwin

Fielding two U14 teams this season offered a multitude of matches for the players. Although called A and B teams, in reality many played in both teams. For the As one player from Elstead was the difference between us winning the league and finishing runners up as the league was decided by head to head results between Fernhurst and Elstead. In both matches, our nemesis was their talented wicket keeper Joe Ryman, scoring 44 not out and 45 not out across both fixtures; without him, I believe both matches would have swung in Fernhurst’s favour. Enough about Elstead, how about Fernhurst!

The U14s, captained by James Vigar, provided us with many evenings of entertainment over the late spring and summer from Oli Sutcliffe’s last- gasp winning runs in our first match of the season v Wonersh and Shamley Green, Hamish’s maiden 50 v Blackheath (7 fours and 2 sixes), in the same match skipper Vigar took four wickets which included two sensational run outs, both direct hits from distance (he was to repeat this sort of devastating form for the seniors later in the season), Toby Hunter's debut match v Hambledon smashing a six with his first ball faced, his batting continued in a similar vein all season with a swashbuckling all-or-nothing approach which was a joy to watch. To the last game of the season v Valley End where Noah Walker took four wickets and Dominic and Connor both won the game with not out innings of 41 and 20 respectively, Connor cheekily trying to win the game with an attempted ramp shot, which didn’t quite come off.

For the statisticians amongst you Play Cricket recorded the following facts in the Hall of Fame for the U14s:

Highest run scorer and highest individual score with 142 and 50 not out – Hamish Unwin

Highest Strike rate (not surprisingly) of 144.83 – Toby Hunter

Highest wicket taker with 15 – Charlie Langridge

Best bowling figures with 4-9 – Noah Walker

Best bowling economy 2.2 – Jack Bailey

All the matches were played in excellent spirit with a great team camaraderie and sense of humour throughout. The U14s were represented by players from the U11, 12, 13 and 14 age groups and a couple of games would not have taken place had it not been for the willingness of the likes of Jonny Raymond, Dougie Watt and Max Cripps to step up and play when they were needed, all three playing brilliantly against much bigger opposition. A special thanks goes out to Nick Sutcliffe for scoring most of the matches and Joe Unwin, Mark Langridge and Alex Watt for helping with team management and umpiring duties.