Match: 17th July

Match report Dedham v Witham 17th July 2008 at Witham Dedham (105-7) beat Witham (104-8) by 3 Wickets Commeth the hour, commeth the man. With Dedham struggling in their pursuit of 104 runs to exact revenge on Witham, who had beaten us by 1 run earlier in the season, Angus Lockhart strode to the crease to dominate Witham’s bowlers as completely as he had dominated their batsmen. The captain had earlier taken 5 for 11, albeit from 5 overs, as we had recovered from a shaky start due to some very aggressive batting from Witham’s captain Hodges and the atrocious weather in early July. Angus scored 32 unbeaten runs to cap a fantastic all round performance resulting in Dedham only needing to beat Elmstead in their final match to win the division. Witham’s innings had started with a flurry of boundaries from the bat of Hodges (43), off the bowling of Archie Runacres and Joe Walters. Joe (0-11) bowled well in sharing the new ball, and with another year in the U13 league he could well become a strike bowler as he has a strong physique and a good bowling technique to match. Confidence in his undoubted ability will be the key for him. The captain quickly turned to the spinners after the rain forced a break in play, and Jamie De Cosimo (1-23) broke through with the important wicket of Witham’s best batsman. It was then that Captain Lockhart came to the rescue and tore the heart out of Witham, with 3 quick wickets. Angus has not bowled as well as he can for the U13 team this year, mainly because he has recognised the depth in our bowling, but by pitching the ball up at a good pace, he was too good for the Witham middle order. Angus has also played a few games for the senior team as a bowler, and helped win the game against Halsted with an excellent spell where he was rewarded with the wicket of their key batsman. Ieuan Davies (1-17) then joined in with a tight spell, including a wicket, while Angus took his 5th wicket thanks to a fantastic catch by Harry Spalding who was deputising for a very tired looking Angus Campbell (long nights camping in Aldeburgh according to his mother!). The other wicket was courtesy of a run out affected as a result of a wonderful piece of fielding by Archie. With a total of 104 runs to get Dedham were happy with their work, and with Cameron Rule opening the batting it was not expected to be too much of a difficult chase. As ever with Dedham we dug ourselves into a hole with some tentative shots, with Angus Campbell (2), Ed Mortimer (1), Ieuan Davies (5) and Ed Greenwood 1) all falling cheaply. The exception was the batting of Jamie who scored 33, and played some wonderful attacking shots, especially after Cam was caught for 11. Jamie has batted and fielded really well all season long, and this has made up for a relatively poor return from his bowling. As a left arm spinner Jamie has learnt to fox batsmen when playing for the senior team, with excellent variations of pace and length, but at U13 level he rather tends to fire the ball in at the pads. He is much better bowler when he varies his deliveries and needs to recognise that as a spinner patience is the key. He is one of the first names down on any Dedham team list, and will develop into a brilliant cricketer who could, in my opinion, go far within the game. It was only with the arrival of the Captain that we looked certain to reach our target, despite the loss of Jamie and Bertie Mortimer in quick succession, and it took Anjay to score the winning runs. Anjay is another who will develop into a good cricketer with more confidence. His bowling has always been very intelligent and I suspect he will take a lot of wickets at school level, as he is a spinner who does mix things up –although perhaps he needs to work on a quicker delivery against good batsmen. His batting will be very important next year, along with Ed Greenwood, Oliver Williams, Harry Spalding, and the Mortimers. So Dedham gained revenge from Witham, who were disappointed in not scoring more runs and having come up against Dedham’s own Freddie Flintoff! My thanks to those parents who made it to the game for their support in the drizzle! Felix Fitch

 

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