Despite being only their second ever hard ball game the Bears were looking to secure a win in their final match of the season against an Addington team who have played a full season of hard ball cricket in the West Malling junior league.

Under 11 captain of the day Robert Maughan decided to put the visitors into bat first.The difference between the two sides experience levels was apparent from the first over as Addington's giant opener launched the first 2 balls off the green. The opening blitz continued with 41 runs coming off the first 4 overs of the match. But the Bearsted bowlers stuck to their task and didnt let their heads drop improving as the match went on, containing the second pair to just 8 runs and the third pair to only 18. But Addington had the final say with two of their older and bigger players hitting 29 off the final 4 overs pushing their total to 296-3.

Wickets were shared between Ollie French (1-16), Louie French (1-8) and Lucas Brookman (1-15). Again extras did ther biggest damage with a total of 32 runs coming from wides and no balls.

Bearsted's reply got off to a bad start losing a wicket in the first over but recovered to put on 29 runs from the first 4 overs (Lucas Brookman 13 / Drew Kennedy 16). They remained on track with the 2nd pair adding 15 (Rob Maughan 6 / Tom Wentzell 9) but came unstuck as Addington brought on their experienced tall bowlers restricting the 3rd batting pair of the French brothers to only 2 runs through some fearsome fast bowling. Despite a late flourish of leg side runs with the final pair adding 18 (Leo Petty 17 / Alex GW 1), Bearsted fell short by 32 runs with 264-4.

Although defeated the Bearsted team can hold their heads high having competed in all aspects of the game against a team a year ahead in terms of experience and development and this will be invaluable experience as they make the transition to hard ball cricket next season.

The season has been a great success with the team only losing one league game all season and reaching the semi-final of the cup. Every player has shown great commitment and a positive attitude throughout the year, hugely developing their cricket skills in the process. Most importantly they have had fun doing it.