U11's wide of the mark

Goresbrook U11's fell agonizingly short of victory in Sundays Hayden Davies Cup game at the May and Baker Annex ground.
Wanstead batted first and all the top order showed sound technique although scoring runs was found to be difficult against the accuracy of Frankie Boland (1-9) and Alfie Atkins (1-13), who both took a wicket in their 4 overs. However the score continued ticking along as the home attack found it hard to keep the ball wicket to wicket - only Ted Ivory not conceding any wides in his spell. Ivory was influential in the field as well with a hand in 3 run outs, one of them a direct hit. With two batsmen retiring, Wanstead totaled 82-5 from their allotted 20 overs, 34 of which were extras.
Goresbrook's reply got off to a flyer with Danny Gilham racing to 26 with 4 fours and a six enforcing his retirement in the 7th over. But thereafter other than boundaries for Nathan Dowridge, Frankie Boland, George Sleight and Paranpreet Singh runs were hard to come by against an accurate Wanstead attack. Last man Alfie Atkins needed a 4 to tie off the last ball but could only manage to scramble a bye to leave the youngsters defeated by the slender margin of 3 runs.
The difference between the teams was that Wanstead bowled 9 wides against Brook's 16 and just two fewer could have brought victory is a lesson that needs to be learnt in the next few coaching sessions.
Nevertheless the youngsters never gave up the fight and should be proud of their efforts in this close fought game.