After having battled through the qualifying stages, Bearsted Bears managed to come out on top. This means that they would play at the finals in Beckenham...

Our first game was against Old Elthamians who ended up in the final of the whole tournament. The result of the game was quite a loss for Bearsted. Marvin got Bearsted’s only wicket with a great catch by Caleb.

The next game we played was against Plaxtol who have won the tournament a couple of times. Bearsted played extremely well and only lost by 20 runs. Again there was only one wicket taken by Bearsted but this time it was by Cameron with a superb run out. After this game we are due to play HSBC CC but they had pulled out and so we were awarded a bye.

Our third game was against Kings Hill who looked a very strong side from the off. Bearsted probably played one of their best games against this side but were out-bowled by the opposition which led to us losing by 60 runs. Unfortunately, we played this game and all the rest of the games with just 7 men in an 8 man tournament as Max had to leave early to go to Ireland. However, Max did play exceptionally well in the 2 games that he did play.

Our final game in the group stages was against Castle Hill who looked a side that we could have possibly beaten but bowling no balls and dropping catches did not help our cause. However, we saved a lot of runs in the field thanks mainly to Spencer with his very strong throw and Rory putting his body on the line to stop the ball.

After the group stages all of the teams were put in different groups based on how they performed in the group stages. As Bearsted did not win a game they were put in a group with 3 other teams who had not won a game either.

The first game we played in the second round was against Hartley which was the closest game that the Bears played losing only by 6 runs. This game included great bowling from Oscar, and Angus with some very quick and needed run scoring. Caleb did an amazing run out with just one stump to aim and at a distance of about 20ft. This prompted me to nominate him for the “champagne moments” of the tournament (unfortunately he did not win the draw).

Our final game of the whole tournament was against St Margaret’s. This was the 19th/20th place play-off. Bearsted Bears performed very well in this match and were unlucky to lose it by 11 runs. We bowled well taking 3 wickets overall with Marvin taking 2 wickets in 2 balls.

Overall the boys all did very well to get this far and we are the 20th best team in the whole of Kent out of 80 teams. Very well done Bearsted Bears!

Finally, on behalf of the club thanks to Harry and David Slevin for leading the Bears in the afternoon, and to all the parents who once again provided great support to the boys. We look forward to seeing you all at the Club Day and Colts Awards Presentation on Saturday 8th September.