b'THE ELLESMERIAN 141CricketBoys U14Cricket civilises people and creates good gentlemen.The challenge andYsgol Maes Garmon were the next opponents: this turned out to be camaraderie of cricket refined character as few other games, and it wasArchie Ramsays day, as he batted well and then took three wickets in time for it to work its magic once more as the U14 team mustered forthree balls against a team that was also rather lacking in match practice. the early net sessions and practices. Ellesmere were able to close out a win with some steady bowling and fielding from all concerned.Most players had some useful basic skills but also a need for the consistent application. In a rain-affected game, Oliver Dyson dominated the batting,A forfeit in the County Cup landed Ellesmere into the Final, away at hitting an unbeaten 58 in 75/5. The bowlers were able to restrict the replyShrewsbury; the hosts batted strongly despite some steady bowling to only 47 for 3, meaning Ellesmere progressed to the next round. and two useful catches by Tom Males. Faced with a target of 228 to be champions, the response was going well until the introduction of two slow Later, Ellesmere hosted a team from Walsall: the visitors showed steadybowlers, who made run scoring much slower and more difficult, so the play, setting the home side 103 to win. The best bowling of the inningsrun rate climbed. A real boost to the Ellesmere team came with the arrival came from Archie Fearnall, whose three wickets included a superb returnof Tom Males to the wicket. He hit exactly fifty runs in a man-of-the-match catch. In response, the batting needed more determination once theperformance, joined later by Cole Nicholas who had been spending useful opening partnership of Oliver Dyson and Henry Roberts was broken, andtime in the nets. Between them, they added forty runs in five overs, but it Ellesmere finished 21 runs short. A district side from North Wales waswas just too late, as time and wickets finally ran out.next, and the difference in experience levels was evident; the team went down to their heaviest summer defeat, with only Henry Bates providing aKings Chester came for the final game of the season, and the Ellesmere bit of resistance with the bat. innings saw good knocks by Archie Ramsay and Cole Nicholas, but sadly, the opposition was able to reach the target with three over to go.In the Wolverhampton away game,the Ellesmere bowlers did a very solid jobArchie Ramsay and Harry Walker being the best of the bunchandA season of building and refining, star player from the Year 9s was Archie the fielding was reliableincluding a difficult catch right on the boundaryRamsay, while Tom Males and Cole Nicholas were undoubtedly the most rope by Tom Malesthe home side showed excellent technique to amassimproved players. I hope that all three continue to make the same sort of a total of 137. Harry Walker was the star batsman in response. progress as they move into the Under 15 team.DWC'