Academy Come of Age!

The Academy XI travelled to Sutton on Hull to face one of the form teams of the season in the division. Having lost the toss Goole were asked to bat and the decision of the Sutton skipper was rewarded straight away as Declan Eastwood, Tom McGrath & Declan Greaves were all dismissed early in the innings. With the score on 53-3, Josh Walton joined opener Guy Richardson who was batting nicely on 25 and he and Richardson managed to steady the ship to take the score into the 80s. Walton was unfortunately bowled for 15, but he had done a good job in supporting Richardson who was still scoring nicely and moving towards 50. Jason Greaves joined Richardson and moved the score on nicely. Richardson got to his 50 and Greaves played an excellent supporting innings of 42 to push the score to 143-5 before he also was bowled by Peck. Ollie Ounsley quickly got into his stride after his 42 for the 1st XI 24 hours earlier and pushed the score onto 194 before Richardson was dismissed by Graham for a well played 66. Ounsley ended his innings on 63 not out and the Goole score had again passed 200 runs, ending on 217-6.

In reply Sutton got a perfect start scoring 50 for the 1st wicket, but a flurry of wickets from Tom McGrath, Declan Eastwood, Ryan Thomson & Josh Walton left the host reeling on 87-8. Thompson ended his 6 overs taking 3-32, but this was eclipsed by McGrath who bowled six overs taking 3 wickets for 3 runs. This was a superb performance from McGrath who scored his maiden 50 for the Academy two weeks earlier and showed what promise he has as a cricketer for Goole in the future. Josh Walton followed up his good performance with the bat by bowling six tight overs for 10 runs, taking a wicket as well and Declan Eastwood ended with 6-37 from 10 overs. Sutton managed to hang on for the draw, but Goole took most of the points as they could only muster 131-9 leaving then 86 runs short.

This was another excellent performance from the Academy XI and it was especially pleasing to see that the juniors stepped up with the ball and took the majority of the wickets in the Sutton innings. On top of the bowling performance another fifty from a junior, this time Guy Richardson shows that the juniors have strength and depth in the batting line up and they will not have to rely on one or two individuals to score runs each week. The team is well led by skipper Ollie Ounsley who continues to lead the way with bat and ball, but as the juniors confidence rises it is pleasing to see that he is not the only player to contribute in the success of the team.