It was a real nail-biter at The Brow on Friday as Abberton hosted its second Schools Kwik Cricket Challenge. Teams from St Nicholas and Monkwick battled it out alongside two sides from Abberton in a round-robin competition. Teams of 6 batted in pairs, with each pair facing 2 overs and scoring -4 if a wicket went down, and going into the last game there were still three possible winners from 5 teams.

Abberton B, a young side of 6-9 year olds playing against mainly Year 6 children ( 11 years old ) did really well and were unlucky to lose their last game by 1 run. A highlight for them was Zach and Molly's team-highest partnership of 14 runs, and it was great to see more children turning out for the club and enjoying their cricket as they improve match-on- match.. Next time Ollie, Mum will be right and you will win a game!

The fourth placed team were St Nicholas B, who had some very close matches and tok somne outstanding catches in the field, most notably Madie, whose one-handed flying leap and grasp at the ball as it came flying towards her and seemed to have gone over her head drew gasps of appreciation (and maybe surprise!) from a capacity crowd. Jay and Joshua put on 15 runs for their team's record partnership.

Monkwick, Abberton A and St Nicholas A all finished with 3 wins from 4 games, and so it was down to the most runs scored. This was incredibly close, as Monkwick were edged into third place with 129 runs in total despite hitting the most sixes in the competition. It was great to see tham at the competition and hopefully they'll be back next year.

Only 5 runs (or the average score off one Mark Paget delivery!) separated the top two teams. Josh and George put on an impressive 18 runs [or the average number of cakes consumed per game by Coach Woodrow! - Ed] for Abberton A, who also saw Anastasia confirm her status as one of the best bowlers at the club and Caroline King get one over on her school and her next year's class teacher ( watch out for that extra homework now! ), but it was't quite enough as they finished with 131 runs, just behind St. Nicholas A, who ultimately won by being the team to get out the least. They were well captained by David and Abberton member Lucy did very well with some fast and accurate bowling. Both Abberton A and St Nicholas A were awarded medals by overseas legend and still-not-injured Callum Appleyard at the end of what was a very successful evening.

Thanks to the club members who heloped with scoring, umpiring and the BBQ, especially Chris Pettit and Ashley Edwards, and the many parents who came along and supported the children. Abberton's next tournament is at West Mersea on Friday 24th July.  DW