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| Under 15's Manager Tim Hannam : mobile - 07850804405 home - 01507343996 With a large squad of players available to them – 18 players took part in 3 or more matches – the Town U15 had plenty of strength in depth this season, which included 2 county and 3 district players.
The understandable high hopes for a special season came under immediate pressure when a strong Grimoldby team easily won the pre season warm up game. This wake up call was duly heeded and any complacency that existed disappeared after this reality check. Skippered by Ewan Hannam, the league campaign was the most successful ever for this team, winning 7 of their 8 games, therefore winning the league at a canter. The two cup competitions did not appear to run so well, losing in the first round of each competition, but in both cases to the eventual cup winners.
Statistically, Horncastle players were ever present in the League figures. In terms of total runs scored, 7 of the top 20 run scorers came from Horncastle, Dan Freeman, Andrew Ponder, Jack Hughes, Ewan Hannam, Charlie Hodgson, Kieron Wilson and Brody Willerton. Four of the top 5 batting average positions were filled by Horncastle players. U13 Captain Dan Freeman sits in the number one position with an average of 120, Jack Hughes was second with 91, Andrew Ponder came third with 58 and Kieron Wilson was fifth with 49.
On the bowling front, there were eight Horncastle bowlers in the top 25 wicket takers, Ollie Myers, Charlie Hodgson, Dan Freeman, Will Mosdell, Andrew Ponder, Eddie Wood, Brody Willerton & Ewan Hannam. Ollie Myers deserves a special mention for his outstanding bowling performances. From 27.5 overs he took 20 wickets, taking a wicket every 8 balls at an average of 4.4 runs per wicket. He was the leagues leading wicket taker by 9 wickets. To underline his superiority he had 4 of the top ten individual match bowling figures, the best of which was 4 wickets for 4 runs from 4 overs.
To complete the outstanding statistics for the club, Ewan Hannam was top of the fielders dismissals table.
This was an excellent all round team performance and all players should be proud of their contribution to this seasons positive performance.
Tim Hannam Horncastle CC U15 match report Match date – 24th June
Opponents - Timberland Competition – EL U15 League
Result – Horncastle won by 70 runs
The Horncastle CC U15 league challenge took another positive step forward with a thumping win against an experienced Timberland team.
Horncastle skipper, Dan Freeman, won the toss and batted on a fine, but cloudy and cool evening at Coronation Walk. Horncastle lost an early wicket, but this did not disturb the skippers flow. Dan was joined at the crease by Charlie Hodgson and the pair forged a good partnership for the second wicket. Dan quickly reached his retirement total of 32, while Charlie batted with a growing maturity, also retired on 30. Andrew Ponder, coming in at number 5 made a useful contribution of 26, helping the Horncastle total to 124 for 6 from their 20 overs.
The Horncastle bowlers and fielders did not allow the Timberland reply to gain any momentum. Wickets fell at regular intervals, with Timberland being bowled out for 57 in the 15th over. Once again the pick of the bowlers was Ollie Myers with 3 wickets for 20 runs from his 4 overs. This confirmed his current status as the leading wicket taker for both the Horncastle U15 team and the East Lindsey U15 league.
Two more victories from the remaining 3 matches will guarantee the league title for Horncastle this year. Horncastle CC U15 match report Match date – 9th June Opponents – Skegness U15 Competition – East Lindsey League Result – Horncastle Won by 92 runs.
Horncastle U 15 maintained their unbeaten League form in emphatic style, with a win against Skegness, that re-wrote the U15 record book.
Under leaden Skegness skies Horncastle elected to bat first and immediately set about some wayward bowling. Dan Freeman was trapped LBW for 28 in the 9th over, sharing an opening partnership of 63 with Jack Hughes. The Skegness bowlers started to find some more consistent lines after this and once Jack had retired for an excellent 31, the run rate did slow to a more normal level.
Wickets started to fall at regular intervals as the batsmen chased runs and some inconsistent bounce took its toll on the unwary. Skipper Ewan Hannam quickly scored 17 to bolster the middle order run rate and Will Rawdon held the tail together with a brisk 12 not out, at the end of their allotted over’s. Helped by 21 extras, Horncastle set their opponents a very challenging 131 runs for them to win the game.
The Skegness reply got off to the worst possible start as Dan Freeman took a wicket with the first ball of their innings. Only one Skegness batsmen, A Concoran got to double figures as the Horncastle bowlers assumed complete dominance from here on, as Skegness were bowled out for 38 (7 extras) in 12.5 over’s. The winning margin of 92 runs was the largest recorded in the club’s U15 history.
Horncastle used four bowlers and their bowling figures all deserve a mention. Dan Freeman got 1 wicket for 8 runs, Charlie Hodgson 2 wickets for 6 runs, Will Mosdell 3 wickets for 5 runs and Ollie Myers 4 wickets for 12 runs.
This win puts Horncastle on top of the League at the halfway point of the campaign and the objective for each player is to continue to raise their standards and ambitions on a game by game basis. If we can do this we will maintain a strong challenge for 2009 silverware. Horncastle CC U15 match report Match date – 18th May
Opponents – Alford U15 Competition - East LindseyLeague
Result – Horncastle U15 won by 76 runs
Horncastle U15 played the second match of their East Lindsey League campaign, against Alford, on a bright and blustery May evening at their Coronation Walk ground.
Batting first, having won the toss, the Horncastle opening batsmen hit the ground running, plundering 27 runs off the first three overs of some wayward Alford bowling. At this point the bowling did tighten up enough to take the first wicket, Brody Willerton for 8 runs, followed fairly quickly by Charlie Hodgson for 5 and Ewan Hannam for 8. While these three wickets fell, opening batsmen Danny Freeman reached his retirement score of 30 runs from 13 scoring strokes, and having departed, left Andrew Ponder to carry on where he left off last week. His destructive batting display saw him move to his retirement score of 30 from 12 scoring strokes. Lewis Lovegrove (6 not out) and Kieron Wilson (13 not out) saw the innings home with a total of 125 runs for 4 wickets from their allotted 20 overs.
In the face of some tight bowling, the Alford reply was never allowed gather any momentum. Two overs early in their innings proved to be the undoing of the visitors. In the sixth over Jim Watters ran out one of the opening batsmen and two balls later Charlie Hodgson caught and bowled the other, leaving Alford on 15 for 2. The next over, bowled by Andrew Ponder, was also an eventful over in which he clean bowled the Alford number 3 and number 5 batsmen. In between these two wickets Ewan Hannam dropped a sharp catch in the gully, but recovered in time to run out the Alford number 4 batter with a direct hit, leaving Alford on 15 for 5. From here the batting resistance proved to be stubborn but unable to cope with the task in hand. Debutant Iqbal Hussein bowled a very tidy and encouraging spell, before Ollie Myers stepped up to take the last 4 Alford wickets for only 4 runs, giving Horncastle a well deserved victory by 76 runs.
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