EYMET v FRANCE U17, Sunday 4 July

“Attention, Oh La La, Incroyable” screamed the French commentator as France crashed out of the World Cup. Perhaps these were the words also being written by the Sud-Ouest reporter as she watched Eymet take on “Les Bleus”, the French U17 cricket team.

France U17 was on a 3 match tour to prepare for the European Championship and Eymet was lucky enough to host one of the fixtures. It was agreed that Eymet would bat first, and with several of the recent top scorers unavailable, it gave a chance for some of the lesser players to shine; or not, as the case would be! Eymet began with an opening batting collapse, a middle order collapse, and even the tail refused to wag. Soon the team was tottering on the verge of destruction at 34 for 9. Luckily David Horlock, who had been welcomed back as a guest from his “mutation” to Bordeaux, survived the mayhem, and he was joined for the last wicket by Martin “Stonewall” Smith. The ultra-slow hero was soon in blocking mode, releasing David to rescue some pride. Limited targets were soon passed, 50, then 80, David’s half-century, and finally 100 was reached. Sadly, this saw the end of Martin, with David on a superb 64 not out, and the Eymet batting failures ruing the 7 overs that had not been used.

It is a bowler’s cliché that 100 is something to bowl at, and Vince Morgan and Alan Coombes began tightly. The Cobra struck first in the 6th over and Vince soon followed with a fine bouncer that went from helmet to wicket. The new batsmen soon got to the pitch of the quickies so the skipper replied with the ultra-slows. Billy Rhodes sent 2 back in his first 2 overs and France U17 was reeling at 40 for 4. Unfortunately, the middle order presented a couple of tyros, with the correct technique to combat this sort of stuff, and the ball was soon dispatched to the boundary. Martin Smith chipped in with one more before the end but France U17 ran out comfortable winners with plenty of overs to spare.

The President wished France U17 well in their forthcoming championship in the Isle of Man and reflected on how well this talented team had played, with a fine fielding performance. Eymet now returns to the hard grind of the league with the Cobra claiming that the result had actually been an Eymet victory - if his age formula had been applied!

 

RESULT: FRANCE U17 WIN BY 5 WICKETS

 

EYMET 100 off 33 overs (D Horlock 64 n.o., Sadiq 3-5, Beauclerc 3-17)

FRANCE U17 103-5 off 19 overs (Haroon 40 n.o., Zika 34, B Rhodes 2-15)

 

EYMET: S.Harrell, T.Smith, M.Gear, B.Rhodes, D.Horlock, M.Stratford, A.Graham, V.Morgan, G.Taylor, M.Smith, A.Coombes