The perfect, sun-soaked Sunday morning saw BPCC U11s soft-ball team host Market Deeping, and it was a lovely occasion for all concerned.

Under the expert auspice of captain Sophie, BPCC bowled first, and the perfect start was provided by Tom, signing off on a double-wicket maiden first up. He then upped his game for his second over, producing a triple-wicket maiden to record the rather impressive figures of 5-0 of 12 balls! Wickets tumbled regularly and, aided by some tight fielding, Deeping were restricted to 188 (starting from 100), Seth taking a smart caught-and-bowled with the last ball of the innings. The first ball of an over was clearly the hardest to face, as BPCC bowlers took wickets with ball one of 5 of their 16 - one for the statisticians amongst you - with Alec, Fliss and Rex each contributing. Wickets also for Sophie and Antonella meant that 9 Deeping scalps were taken in total, shaving 45 runs off their total.

Facing down 188 was never going to be easy when up against some challenging bowling from an experienced and gnarly Deeping attack, but Rex and Seth took 51 off their first three overs as a pair - sublime then descending into questionable when it came to running between the wickets! Deeping bowlers pegged BPCC back and fielded well, drying up the runs - what was once a torrent became less than a trickle as BPCC batters defended stoically but struggled to score - and in the end they lost fewer wickets than their Deeping rivals but failed to match the run rate, and fell 24 runs short on 164. Pick of the shots was a bludgeoned boundary from Ruby, scorching the turf as it shot back past the bowler.
As ever the game was played in great spirit, with BPCC holding their heads high in the face of potent rivals - cricket was the real winner.