Glenalmond 6s 2023

U13 Boys – WINNERS!

Beat Craigclowan, Ardvreck, Belhaven and Perth Doo’cot CC

How marvellous it was to return to Glenalmond for their annual cricket sixes competition for the first time since 2019 due to COVID and bad weather. After a cloudy and overcast start to the day, the sun came out and Glenalmond looked at its very best and players, parents and staff were so well looked after, as always, and how good it was to see so many boys from lots of schools playing cricket and having lots of fun in the sunshine!

Although we were missing Xander and Charles who were down at Radley for a new boys’ day, we knew we had a team who could all bowl straight and although we might have been missing the fire power of our main batsman, we always run well between the wickets and by playing proper cricket shots, we were confident we could score enough runs which would allow our bowlers to defend.

First up, we played Craigclowan and scored 62-1 in our five overs. We only hit two boundaries, but Felix and Conrad ran extremely well between the wickets and that total proved too much for Craigclowan who in fact batted well, capitalising on one wayward over from our bowlers. Next up was Ardvreck and we scored 49-1 in our 5 overs. The bowling was not great but we found it hard to put the bad balls away as it was a very slow and low wicket, but again we ran well and our miserly bowling attack ensured another comfortable win.

This brought us up against Belhaven and their bowling attack was the best we faced and we managed to score 40-0 in our five overs: we found it difficult to put the ball away and got increasingly frustrated; however, Thabo and Felix managed to get us to 40, which was by no means a winning total but something we felt we could still defend. Ewan conceded just 1 run from the opening over, Monty just 6, Thabo picked up two wickets for just 5 runs and Conrad and Sylvan were as steady as ever meaning Belhaven only reached 25-3 in their 5 overs. A terrific performance with the ball and in the field – well played, chaps!

Our final game was against Perth Doo’cot CC which contained a few younger boys as well as some promising cricketers and we knew that we would be Champions if we could win our final game. We scored 53-2 in our five overs with Felix once again batting well and he carried his bat throughout the day, not getting out and holding every innings together – a fine effort and one that I hope will give him the confidence to go on and score plenty of runs in the rest of the season. Once again, our bowling and fielding were superb as we restricted Perth CC to just 31-2 in their allotted 5 overs and so we had deservedly come out on top and won the competition.

It was a super day’s cricket, played in a wonderful picturesque setting in the sunshine. The boys really did stand up today and played some excellent cricket throughout, and I was delighted to see the team grow and work so hard for each other. Man of the day was Felix for his batting but Ewan led the bowlers and was excellent in the field too. The Champagne Moment of the day was a fabulous direct hit from Monty to get a run out – a wonderful piece of fielding and one which epitomised the cricket that we played – closely followed by a fabulous catch by Thabo on the boundary.

A big thank you to our hosts at Glenalmond for their generous hospitality and for putting on such a festival of cricket and thank you to all the parents who came along to support.