Cricket can be a cruel game and sometimes nothing seems to go your way. This was a very different Goring team to the one we faced in the Oxfordshire League, the weekend before. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that Goring U11s had another game last Sunday, in the Berkshire League, to which they sent their strongest team possible. And it was that team we faced in this game, stacked full of county players. We have a different philosophy and I am proud that our team selection is based on trying to give everyone in our squad of twenty as fair a crack at the match playing whip as possible. We play to win, but participation is the priority.

As Chris said after the game, the good news is that we can learn from yesterday's experience and think about things that the opposition did that we didn't, because it was a number of differences that we can influence that created such a wide margin between the teams. Whereas Goring's fielding performance was zippy and energetic, ours was turgid. Even at the start of the innings when we kept things reasonably tight and took good early wickets, we were quiet and static. Having started with such apathy it was exacerbated when, compared to the laser accuracy and consistency of Goring's bowling, we conceded over 30 bowling extras and sprayed the ball around, bowling lots of short pitched deliveries that were easy to hit to the boundary.

We know that we have the skills developing in our team, many of whom have not had as much exposure to hard ball matches as the Goring team. As we progress through the age groups, the gap will narrow. While Goring our good, we've seen that when we play well we can be just as skilful, and we saw glimpses of that through some probing deliveries that took wickets, including a debut Cougars wicket for Jack Tinling, two for Miles Pickford, both realised as catches for Albie Morant (the second a particularly fine grab) and tight spells from Seb Jorgensen and Henry Manwaring at either end of the innings. If we can piece together more of those moments, bowling more consistently, holding the catches we dropped and build intensity in the field to put pressure on the batters, then we're really not that far away.

In terms of batting, it's possible that we were intimidated by the accuracy and pace of Goring's bowlers, backed up by excellent fielding which capitalised on some poor running, along with sharp catches and two excellent stumpings by the wicket keeper. The top learning we can take away is that early in our innings, it's good to defend and feel the bat on the ball, especially when the bowling is tight. This builds confidence to start playing some more expansive shots. But if you swing early and lose your wicket, this can start a chain reaction, leading to a collapse like we saw.

So, let's pick ourselves up, resolve to learn our lessons and take good energy into our next game!