YOUNGSTERS SHINE AS SEASON ENTERS CRITICAL PHASE

Our early season recap, way back in mid May, highlighted the important role our up and coming junior players will have over the coming months and years. The 2025 season has been a tricky for the senior sides, amidst ongoing absence and lack of senior availability, but this has presented some great opportunities for a number of our youngsters.

As we enter the back end of the season, with just a handful of games left to play, we see a 1st XI embroiled in a relegation dogfight; the recent return of Mike Burns has of course injected a sizeable presence, but with Smalls, Ry Marsh and Lachie all missing from the bowling ranks, we are still some way short of full strength. Young Jack Schofield has been on a learning curve this year, turning in great performances for all three senior sides and indeed leading the 1st XI attack on several occasions. Luke Hall has also continued to play for the Saturday sides, gaining plenty of experience along the way.

George Sowden, Katie Schofield and Sam Woolley have all had prolonged runs in the 2nd XI, each opening the bowling on multiple occasions - it's definitely been a learning curve given some of the heavy hitting sides we've come up against, but the experience bodes well for their development. None have let us down, and indeed Sam has picked up both his first 5 wicket haul and first senior half century this season. Corey Sheehan has also impressed with his contributions. Young Ruffers has also notched a couple of half centuries, while Oscar Thomas has continued to back up his early season form with plenty of quickfire innings.

It would be very unfair to single out any player, but Lucas Bright-Lees is worthy of mention as our new Awais - closing in on 150 games this season, Lucas has scored runs for all of the senior sides as well as putting in shifts for the juniors. His superb technique bodes well for a bagful of senior runs in the coming years.

Among the senior players, there have been more standout performances with Phil Hayes continuing his highly impressive season with the bat. At time of writing he had notched up over 720 runs with an average north of 50 in the league, plus a century in the cup match. In the 2nds, an unlikely success story is the 335 runs so far achieved by the veteran Clive Brooks, including a first half century in recent years. His overdue promotion up the order is paying dividends! In what has been a notably dry season, and particularly given the incredible wickets we play on at home, it's not surprising to see bowlers bearing the brunt. Very few bowlers are going for under 4.5 runs per over, with exceptions being the ever-reliable Marsh brothers, Katie, Fez and Smalley. We'd expect Burnsy to be both among the most economical and one of the leading wicket takers by season's end if his first two games are anything to go by!

We wish all our players, young and not-so-young, well for the remaining fixtures and a positive end to the 2025 campaign.