01/06/2026
Fantastic to witness an outstanding 7 wicket victory for a very young (and Brett Hardie... sorry Brett) Bablake Cricket Club Arden Sunday XI against a significantly more experienced Aston Unity XI.
We were asked to field, on thankfully a much cooler afternoon.
The Unity skipper was run out without facing which gave us an unexpected boost following sharp work from Jake Steady .
Our exciting opening right / left opening bowling combination of Joe Bailey and Ryan Fitzgerald challenged the top order and kept it tight, Joe taking a wicket, they were backed up really well by Luke Hardie and Rishi Patel. At drinks they were on a miserly 75-2.
The Unity middle order kicked on and reached a respectable, yet below par total of 203 on a John Wilson special, especially with a short boundary, more on that later.
Despite other superb performances, Gabriel Hayward was the pick of the Bablake bowlers with a deserved 5-41 including three wickets in the last over of the innings. We also saw the welcome return of Ned Bailey who bowled at the death.
Other than the five fer, the moment of the innings was a sensational flick behind his back direct hit with one stump to aim at from Samuel Katta, sadly the batsman made his ground, but impressive nonetheless.
In reply, we lost Luke Hardie for an unfortunate duck, who smashed a square cut to backward point, the fielder couldn't believe his luck as it hit him, popped up and snaffled it on the rebound. Samuel Katta affectionately known as The Kat, sadly didn't use up any of his 9 lives and was bowled first ball. This bought in Jake Steady for the hattrick ball, a firm defensive push travelled for four and continued in the same vein for a entertaining 32, before he holed out in the deep.
That was all the wickets taken as Oliver Eames 39* superbly supported the Skipper in a century partnership of 135.
The final word goes to Captain James Morgan and his magnificent 132* including 6 maximums that sailed over the Clubhouse apart from the one that almost killed his Dad, Paul Morgan (You should have took his drink out).
Bablake comfortably made the required runs with 14 overs to spare in a game played in a great spirit throughout.
Fantastic to finally see Sunday availability back where it should be with plenty of upcoming selection headaches to come!!!
Is this the beginning of something special... we certainly hope so!!!πππ
Please vote for Gabriel on performance of the week on previous post!!!