Portsmouth & Southsea Cricket Club

This bunch of lads have now followed up the U13 Hampshire Cup and U16 Indoor League title with the U15s league title. Team Manager Tony Randell provided the following notes for our awards evening:

Sean asked me if I would be able to help him this sumer by running the U15s and I thought how difficult can it be, I just have to get 11 players at the right place at the right team and give the ball to Harry Gadd or Harry Wratten..............turns out its getting the 11 players at the right place at the right team was not the easy bit !

Thank You's :-

Firstly thank you to all those involved with helping on training nights and match days with training, umpiring, scoring, and match teas. So thanks to Sean, Dave Cox, Phil Andrews, Keiran Dunstan, Tina, Rosie and Mandi.

Season Summary :-

We started off on a cold night at Bath Lane in May, got ourselves into a bit of a hole and were bailed out by our middle order - which was a pattern that we seemed to repeat at times through the season.
We managed to win enough early games to guarantee us a County Cup play off spot, one of those qualifying games was a big win at St Helens with Harry's Wratten and Hoolahan hitting the ball to all parts another versus Burridge saw Ollie retire with 35 and Harry Gadd retired in 11 balls which did actually include a few dots.
Once again we made hard work of winning the play off game vs Havant, but we had qualified for the County Semi's and we fancied our chances.
Then followed a frustrating period of time when the county refused to release our county players from county duty, our opponents objected to a change of date from fathers Day Sunday and we were now in a game that we were struggling to field a side for. I would like to thank Simon Wratten, Harry Wratten and Sean who joined me in various avenues of appeal, but the HCB wouldn't budge. In the end we fielded a young and inexperienced side and were beaten, but our opponents knew it wasnt the game it should have been. It was a disappointing end to the cup run as we faniced our chances in the later rounds when the competition goes national.

Out of the cup we were back to league games but we were also struggling to field teams due to mass unavailablities at times. Myself and Sean decided that we would fulfill all fixtures as best as we could in order to play the games and spread the cricketing opportunity. In one such fixture Portsmouth were giving us a good beating until Harlan hit 35 in 12 balls and Dan Turner and Freddie Gadd ticked off the required runs.

We were still struggling to field a side and lost a game at Petersfield when we only had 9 men and it looked like that might be the end of our title chances. However the availabilities picked up and we managed to beat our close rivals Sarisbury twice, in the first game we were in big trouble once again but had the luxury of Joe Martin and John Buckman lower down the order to ease us home in the last over. In the away game Harry Wratten retired quickly and once again John Buckman saw us home.

This meant our title hopes were still alive if we could beat Petersfield, which brought us to the Final on Awards Day. The game wasn't quite the thriller that would have been a fitting end to the season but we were very happy to run out comfortable and deserved winners. The attached picture is of the side from that match.

Awards : - Bowling :-
We are lucky enough to have some very good bowlers available to us, only they are not always available and have quota's and injuries to manage at times. However this enables us to vary the bowlers used, and everyone seems to get wickets through the season which is great.

Special mention to Dan T who at times carried our fast bowling attack due to the above injuries and unavailabilities. Dan didnt get the wickets he would like (at least until his final blast!) but he is one of the first bowlers on the team sheet.
4th place Henry = 6 wickets av 11.67
3rd JB = 7 wickets av 12.43
2nd Mani = 7 wickets av 12.00
1st place Harry G = 9 wickets av 9.78

Batting -
Our batting is what wins us games and admirers, we have a strong batting line up and whilst they do tend to play aggressively from the off they know that if they dont get some then the next one will, or the next one will...............and the middle order dig us out of a hole if the openers havnt already hit the ball to all parts.
7 different players retired not out through the season with 35, and Harlan and John B both retired with 50 in the cup semi when we were looking at being well beaten at one stage. If Harry Wratten could have played more often he would have probably won this award as we cant ever remember him getting out playing for us this sean or two years ago when we won the County Cup as U13s..

4th place -- John B = 157 runs
3rd place -- Joe M = 159 runs
2nd place -- Ollie K = 185 runs
1st place -- Harlan = 237 runs

Managers Award
3rd place - Dan T. With the help of Sean over the past couple of winters Dan has transformed himself from the anxious player that would easliy drop his head, to U15 opening bowler, has played 2nd team all summer opening the bowling at times and made District for the first time and opened the bowling for them too. his Final spell underlined his worth to the side.
2nd Place - John B. For his innings at home vs sarisbury when he had asked to bat last as his sore knee was playing up, Sarisbury were finally sensing a win against us but John and Joe Martin saw us home, Joe was out towards the end but John saw us home with two boundaries in the final over.
1st Place - Joe M. For his enthusiasm, commitment and will to win. For opening the batting at times, being part of the middle order that saved us at times, for keeping wicket, bowling seam and bowling spin at times. Joe was also still there when we had mass unavailabilities in the middle of the season.

End of Colts

We are aware that some players make a considerable time and money sacfrifice to play for us and we are very grateful. We are proud that so many county and district players want to play for us, and enjoy playing for us. We play cricket to win but enjoy ourselves along the way. Thank you to those players finishing U15s for playing for us and to the mums and dads for finding the time and money to make it happen. We are aware of the logistics involved in some of you staying and playing for us as adults but would like to see some of you stay and play for us. Some of the youngers u15s have had their second year in adult cricket and its fair to say that Dan T, Ollie and Harlan have all made a considerable contribution to our 2nd team this summer. We are aware that some of you will out grow P and S but we are proud that you played for us and will remember you all fondly when you are playing on bigger stages. We fully expect to have to pay for the privilege of watching one or two of you play in coming years.