Rounders

 

On Wednesday the Under 10 girls went to Harrogate Ladies’ College for their annual tournament. There were 16 teams altogether which split into four pools of four teams. Our first match was quite a close game against Cundall, the final score of 2 ½ to 4 ½ was impressive, as they went on to win the whole tournament The next game ended with another 2 ½ rounders being scored but ,unfortunately, it was exactly the same score as the opposition, Highfield, so the match was a draw. Our final match was against Queen Mary’s. The girls had been told to take risks on their second bat, but unfortunately we did not always watch where the ball was and ended up without a score instead of claiming the half rounder. The result was again close, 4-5. Queen Mary’s was the other team in the final. Samantha Baker-Jones probably took the best catch of the afternoon dismissing one of the strong batters from Cundall.

Terrington Tournament

On Wednesday the U11s went to play rounders at the Terrington Tournament. We played three matches in our pool. The tournament is quite exciting because for every person out the fielding team gain half a rounder. This makes it difficult to decide whether taking a risk is worth it. Our first opposition was Ripon Choir School. We put them in to bat. They scored 4 but we managed to get three of their players out. We managed to score 13 rounders in the 36 balls allowed and as they only managed to get two of us out we had a convincing win of 14 ½ - 5.

Bramcote were the next opposition. Again we put them into bat and they scored 8 rounders but we got the whole team out in 31 balls. Although we scored ½ a rounder less than Bramcote they only got two players out so we won 12-9. The final match was against the hosts. We managed to get 7 of their team out but they managed to dismiss all of us. They scored one more rounder which meant we lost 10-12. This game was the most exciting of the three. Normally in a tournament

this would be enough to qualify for the semi-finals, but seeing everyone had beaten Ripon we were all on two wins. So they counted whole rounders scored and although we had a fantastic total, we had scored most of it through half rounders, and got knocked out. Special mentions go to Isobel, Annabelle, Zeyra and Emma K for catching someone out and Emma T for catching two people out. Also Annabelle and Sophia for being the top scorers (12 rounders between them).

 

On Wednesday the Year 5 girls played Rounders against a Westville House School (WHS) mixed team. They did not have enough Year 5s for a whole team so their team also contained Year 6 girls. After winning the toss we put WHS in to bat. We started well and good fielding was making it hard for them to score although we did have the odd panic where we gave away a rounder. Georgina was bowling consistently well and the girls on the posts were determined to catch the balls being thrown in. Westville were better than us at finding the spaces in the field and our deep fielders

had a lot of ground to  cover. It was pleasing to see our girls swing at every ball and we were unlucky that every good hit we did went straight to their fielders. After the first innings we were 4 rounders behind. The second innings was much closer. We were hitting the ball further but accurate throwing from WHS kept beating us. We

started to close the gap but ended 7-10. All the girls should be pleased with the progress they have made in both batting and fielding.

 

U11 Rounders v Ampleforth

On Tuesday all in Y6 and Lexie Murray from Y5 went to play cricket at Ampleforth but when we got there it was raining really really badly so we waited for a bit but it was still raining so we went to play in the gym. We weren’t sure of the rules so their games teacher told us and then we started playing. Ampleforth were batting first and they scored quite a lot of runs so we were starting to get worried. When we started we realized that we were quite good from playing so much rounders and finally we won.Well done to all the team.

By Annabelle Fuller

 

 Big Foot Rounders

Last Friday all the girls in Years 3 and 4 played Big Foot rounders against Bronte House. Big Foot is a training game that helps the children develop the skills needed for the main game without putting pressure on a bowler. Batsmen are allowed to continue batting even if they are out and the teams change over after a nominated number of ‘outs’. We started well but our concentration waned and Bronte House overtook our score in the latter part of the game. It was great to see the improvement in our fielding skills. Our batting was looking good but unfortunately we kept directing it towards their fielders. On Wednesday the U11s travelled to Woodleigh. There were many similarities between this match and the game last week. The first innings was to be all out. We again declared this time after 50 balls. We still had six remaining batters and the majority of the girls had managed to score. Our bowler, backstop and first post combination were in fine form. Between them they dismissed seven batsmen and the other two were burned out in 35 balls. We had limited their score to 2 ½. The next innings was 36 good balls. Woodleigh managed to score 4 ½ before they were all out. Emma King and Lexie both managed a catch. Woodleigh managed to get three of our girls out and seeing we knew that we were limited in the amount of times we were allowed to bat we took risks. We scored 13 ½ from the bat and 1 ½ rounders from good running when we missed the ball. We won 28-7. Lexie had the highest score this week but Annabelle is still in the lead with 13. Every girl scored at least one.

We are now well into the swing of the rounders’ season. The term started with a training session with Moorlands which looked at all the different parts of the game. It is technically a very difficult game if you think about tactics.

Last week both the U11s and 10s played Cundall Manor. We were beaten in both games but we were learning as we went along and both teams played a better second innings. The team are always told that it doesn’t matter if you are caught out because at least that means the ball was hit. The U11s scored 8½ from the bat and were caught out 8 times so there must have been some good batting. It is lovely to see the girls looking so determined to hit the ball.

On Wednesday Giggleswick brought one team to play our U11s. We lost the toss and were put in to bat. The first innings was to be all out. The girls were told to play themselves in and not worry if they were not scoring straight away. Our first girl was out on the 25th ball and the second on the 37th so the girls must be praised on following the instructions. Apart from the girls who were out all the others scored at least half a rounder and we eventually declared on 14. Giggleswick came in to bat and their first girl was run out at 1st post. This boosted our confidence and we got the whole team out in 40 balls. They had scored 8. The umpires decided that the second innings should be limited to 27 balls. This means that if no-one is out that each batter faces three balls. This is where tactics are really important. It is always worth taking a risk on your final bat and maybe on your second bat. Again they got two of our girls out. We managed to score 6½ which left us with 20½ in total. Giggleswick needed 13 rounders, in 27 balls, to win. They batted well but had left themselves too much to do and their total of 6 was not enough.