On Friday Dumfries travelled to Edenside for their inaugural game in the North Cumbria Thirteens’ League. The match was against Carlisle Blue, which is their younger team.
Despite being one or two players light, the Dumfries youngsters travelled with a good attitude – confident of giving a good account of themselves and determined to have a good time. They were successful on both counts.
Bowling first they were quickly on the front foot, James Hobman taking a wicket with his second ball and continuing with an accurate and penetrating spell to reduce the Carlisle side to 19 for 5 from the 8 overs he shared with his opening partner, Katy Anderson.
Carlisle then made something of a recovery through some positive batting but a direct-hit run-out from Max C-B, a couple of wickets from Fergus Bainbridge and a miserly 4 overs from Niamh Muir kept them to 67 from their 20 overs.
As with the bowling, the batting got off to a great start – this time it was the other James – James Little who did the damage. Boundaries came from the first 2 balls and, like his namesake, he was relentless, bringing up his retiral with a maximum in the eighth over.
With the temperature dropping like a stone the spectators were glad of the 5-wicket victory, especially the six-and-a-half overs to spare!