Stuart Hill reports:
Yateley U13's suffered a close defeat to league leaders Hartley Wintney on Sunday. Put into the field Yateley got a wicket in the first over from Henry wildey, Dan Vincent taking a skier behind the stumps. The Yateley bowlers kept plugging away keeping the run rate down to around 5 an over. This was a far better performance from the Yateley team in the field, only conceding 20 extras which always kept the pressure on the Hartley batsmen to take a few risks in their attempt to post a reasonable target. Good bowling performances from Ed O'Connell 3-0-14-1, Henry Wildey 4-0-14-2 and Jon Brogden 3-0-10-0, but all the bowlers bowled well, good preformances in the fiels from Richard Cole, Sam Hill and Grant Murray meant that at the end of the 20 overs Hartley Wintney had scored 110.
Henry Wildey, leading from the front, opened with Nicholas Ovens, meant that Yateley got of to a solid start, Henry retiring with 33 with Yateley< well up with the run rate. The tight bowling of Hartley restricted the Yateley batsment in the crucial middle part of there innings but a solid 12 from Tom Lyons and Ben Swingler-Brown's 10 got Yateley back on track. A mix-up  when Yateley were going for quick runs led to Chris Shepherd being run out, leaving Yateley needing 15 from the last over to win. A couple of 4's from Richard Cole led to cries of 6-6-6-6-6 from the Yateley supporters on the boundary, but a single from Richard meant that Yateley lost by 5 runs, Sam Hill was 0 not out at the end.
A very good performance from the Yateley team against a strong Hartley Wintney side, ironing out the problem of conceding a lot of extras and a controlled batting performance meant that Yateley can take a lot of heart from this their last NHYCL game.

The under 9s registered a league win double win this weekend beating Holybourne by 40 runs on Saturday and Rowledge by 42 runs on Sunday. Including their win at the Hambleden tournament, the under 9s have now won eight straight games on the reel. They have only lost one game all season, the first one against Hartley Wintney who are still top of the North Hampshire league and unbeaten. We are close up behind them but need them to slip up if we are to have a chance of adding the league title to our Hambleden success

Stuart Hill reports:
Very unusually, Yateley suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Alton at Chandlers Lane.
After winning the toss, Yateley decided to bat and were soon in trouble at 5 for 2 after 2 overs. Tom Lyons hit a quickfire 10 but wickets continued to fall leaving Yateley in real trouble at 33 for 7 with 11 overs remaining. Chris Shepherd and Ben Fear needed a solid partnership to steady the ship and this is exactly what they achieved. Chris hit a steady 18 before being stumped after attempting to hit some late runs off the last two overs. Ben Fear was 4 not out at the end of the innings.
Yateley tried to exert pressure with tight bowling and fielding but never quite achieved their aim, Alton held firm hitting the runs with 10 overs remaining and losing 1 wicket to Ben Swingler-Brown.
Yateley again showed their frailities with extras, bowling 32 in Alton's winning score of 62.

Pip Squire reports:
The depth and strength of the U13 squad was demonstrated last night when we tied our league match against Hook with seven of our County/District players away on school trips/cricket matches.
The 12 players who took part Chris Shepherd, Hugh Squire, Ben Swingler-Brown, Richard Cole, Dan Bailey, Tom Charles, Steven Cummins, Alisdair Dow, Sam Hill, Ben Fear, Marcus Fairclough and Andrew Utton demonstrated real team spirit and commitment when they stood on the boundary fence and cheered their batting mates on instead of sitting inside the clubhouse watching the England v Croatia football match. Notable memories for me are:

• Andrew Utton bowling their opening batsman with his second ball.
• Ben Fear bowling their number 3 with his fourth ball.
• Hugh Squire returning 4 overs, 1 maiden 19 runs for 1 wicket (bowled).
• Nine players consistently walking in with the bowler.
• Ben Swingler-Brown scoring a quick-fire 20 runs off 22 balls.
• Hugh Squire opening the batting and chivvying his partners along to get 71 on the score board in 12 overs.
• Chris Shepherd leading from the front as bowler, fielder and batsman scoring 18 runs to keep the run rate on track.
• Marcus Fairclough coming in to face the last 2 balls of the innings off one of the fastest U13 bowlers in the district and coolly driving his first ball for 4 through the covers.
• Danny Bailey calling Marcus for a single off the last ball BEFORE the wicket keeper even had a chance to miss the ball and making it.

Colin Justice reports:
Yateley CC were well represented by five lads in the North Hampshire squad who won the Hampshire under 10 championship title last week. They beat Winchester and District in the final by 59 runs having run up a massive 175 including 74 for the first wicket thanks to a fine 44 from Yateley's Chris Clubb. William Avrili chipped in with a good 17 and when Winchester batted Josh Parkin took 2 for 17 to put his side on the road to the title. Anthony Avrili and Matthew Bailey played in the other matches and both contributed well with Anthony making 19 in a record last wicket partnership of nearly 50.
With Jack Wood, Jonathan Burgin and Chris James already promoted from this squad to the full county side, this age group promises great things as an under 11 group next year .............. Well played lads!!

Colin Justice reports:

Hampshire Cricket Board have announced their youth squads for the 2004 season and six Yateley boys who have been selected. They are pictured with Colin Justice, county under 12 squad coach, at the National League match against Warwickshire last Sunday. Congratulations to Jack Wood and Chris James (Under 10s); Tom Wood and Oliver Barker (Under 12s) and Michael Bates (Under 13s).

Pip Squire reports:
With our County Players collecting their caps at the Rosebowl on Sunday it was a more subdued team than normal that made the trip to Basingstoke for our return league match. Henry Wildey, skipper for the day won the toss and invited Basingstoke to bat. Despite giving away 19 runs as wides we had Basingstoke all out for 53 in 16 overs. Ben Swingler-Brown led the way with three overs, 2 runs (1 wide) and 4 wkts. No runs off the bat must be some form of record. He then took a stunning catch at square leg, (running backwards and over his shoulder). Our fielding was really good and for once we acted like a team with everyone walking in on every ball, which created at least half of the pressure on the batsmen. It was marred only by a wild throw, which wasn’t even saving a single that carried on for 4 overthrows. The culprit shall remain nameless.
Our batting was solid with Henry building an innings until a mix-up in calling resulted in him being run out. Jonathan Brogden was the highest scorer with 10 runs, not out, he and Hugh Squire saw the side home at 55 for 3 after 12.5 overs.
This great result gave us maximum points, well done lads, it just shows what can be done when we play as a team and support each other, we now need to buld on this approach to get ourselves back in the running for a title.

Colin Justice reports:
Bank holiday Monday saw Yateley's talented under 9 squad win the 8 a side Hambledon festival to which all the best teams in Hampshire are invited. Played in pairs - 8 overs a side - Yateley chalked up enormous wins against Fair Oak, Portsmouth (by 120 runs!!) and Portsmouth and Southsea.
Into the semi-finals and the lads produced an amazing win that out did the under 13s winter exploits for sheer drama. With 10 needed off 3 balls, Miles Covers relieved the tension with a tremendous cut for four. Leaving the next ball hoping for a wide, we were left needing 6 off the last ball. A hip high full toss handed us a dramatic life-line - 4 needed off 1 ball. Praying for a short pitched ball, down came a yorker!! Cometh the hour cometh the man and Miles cover drove the ball unerringly between two boundary fielders for the best four of the day. The cheer was heard in Kent!!
The final was a formality as we beat Liphook by 30 runs to clinch the trophy and not one wide was bowled. Pictures will appear shortly.
Many thanks to Paul Finch for his hard work and managing the lads on the day and to Emma, Mark, Kevin and everyone who has worked hard to put this squad together in such a short period.
But finally congratulations to the boys- Ryan Bone (Capt), Joe Aspel-Beaumont, Joshua Grimmett, Peter Hull, Jack Springgay, David Easterbrook, Adam Finch, James Halson and Miles Covers who looked the smartest and played the smartest and were a credit to the club

Meanwhile at Alton the County under 10 squad were playing the North Hampshire under 10 squad in the county festival. Hampshire's opening batsman, Jonathan Burgin and Jack Wood came out to face North Hampshire's opening attack of Chris Clubb and Josh Parkin. What's unique about that? Well they all play for Yateley CC!!

Colin reports:
Amazingly two colts matches last Sunday ended in ties!!
The under 13s are struggling to re-produce their indoor form and allowed Alton to reach 109 for with the generous assistance of  extras!! Henry Wildey gave Yateley a confident start with 30 before retiring but with Michael Bates going for 17 and Ollie Barker for 19 when well set, we managed to turn a winning position of 72 for 2 off 12 overs into an improbable tie.
Meanwhile the under 15s had held Cove to a commendable 106 and again with victory in sight they lost Chris Tull for an excellent 35. However with 2 needed off the last ball we inexplicably only took one run with two easily on and again had to settle for a tie.
The under 9s are shaping really well and were in the game for a long time against an excellent Hartley Wintney side. However the last H.W pair were just too good for us and they ran out worthy winners by over 20 runs. However a very inexperienced Yateley side are starting to play with no little skill and that first league win is not far away.
The top of the table clash between the under 11s and Cove was played on Monday night and with 7 county level squad players between the two teams and even more district level players on show it was bound to be a high quality game and so it proved. In the end Cove's older team held sway and their 116 total was too much for us but we battled well to 72 in response and we still have a chance of a tilt in the title if we can reverse the fortunes in the return match"

Pip Squire reports on the U13s clean sweep of their Indoor League trophies:

Congratulations to Michael Bates and his team who played outstandingly on Wednesday night to add the North Hampshire District Indoor Colts Cup to their North Hampshire League and Hampshire Cup titles.
Michael won the toss and put Basingstoke in to bat.  Our bowling started out pretty well and the run rate was kept down to under 5 an over for the first 7 overs.  It began to slip a little after that and Basingstoke scored 108 for 2 in their 12 overs.
Michael Bates and Dan Vincent opened the batting for Yateley and set the pace at over 9 an over.  When they retired Ed O'Connell and Tom Wood kept the moment going leaving Ben Swingler-Brown and Hugh Squire to close the match out with 9 balls to spare. (For the record we scored 110 for 2 in 10 overs and 3 balls). Thanks to Ollie Barker and Dan Bailey for coming down to support.

The colts season got off to a double win as both the under 9s and under 13s won on Sunday morning.
Congratulations to the new under 9 team, most of whom were playing thier first game for the club. They played Cove who ended up with 211. (Each team starts with 200) James Halson and Miles Covers got Yateley off to a flying start in reply putting on 28 and with good performances from Isaac Cowdrill, David Easterbrook, Joe Aspel-Beaumont, Ryan Bone and Adam Handcock , it was left to man of the match skipper Jack Wood to see his side home to its first win.
The under 13s defeated Basingstoke by 7 wickets getting home with an over to spare chasing 108. Michael Bates retired on 30 but man of the match was Tom Lyons with wickets and useful runs.
The under 11s and 15s play their first matches of the season on Monday and Tuesday respectively -both at Chandlers Lane