A young Harlow side won the HECC Division 2 indoor cricket league this week. Captained by Harry Burton, the team won 11 of their 12 matches, defeated only by a strong Matching Green side. It was a very enjoyable series of night time excursions to HECC with the side showing great team spirit and losing only 18 wickets over the whole 12 games. Cheered on, sometimes nervously by their parents, everyone made valuable contributions at some time in the season.
Harry Burton – played 9 matches and scored 212 runs without ever being out. This was a terrific achievement and it follows last years when he also managed to go through the season without giving his wicket away.
Callum Sykes – played all 12 matches but batted in only 9 games scoring 277 runs and was the highest runs scorer. Overall this placed him second out of both leagues in terms of runs which he should be very pleased with and always got the team off to a rapid start. He also bowled 170 deliveries taking 8 for 209 which also placed him second overall out of both leagues. Most impressively, Callum was ranked the most valuable player in either league.
Ben Yates – played all 12 matches and scored 136 runs with 6 not outs, picking up a wicket when called upon to bowl. He was also instrumental in a number of crucial run outs at key times which helped turn games our way.
Jack Sykes – played all 12 matches and captained the side in Harry’s absence. Jack scored 125 runs from 9 innings but crucially had the highest strike rate at 186, often pushing our score beyond the reach of other teams. Jack also took 8 wickets for 214 runs from 144 deliveries, placing him 3rd and with 5 catches, he topped the catching stats for the league and was 5th ranked as the most valuable player overall.
Tyler Dobson – played all 12 games but batted only 6 times but when called upon, always stepped up. His most valuable innings was against Matching Green in the return fixture. He was last man standing and needed 10 of the last 5 balls but saw us to a very tense victory by holding his nerve. Tyler bowled most deliveries at 198 and picked up 8 wickets at a cost of 321 which placed him 4th overall.
Nathan Mcarthy – played 11 games, batting only 8 times for 104 runs but with a strike rate of 176 which was just behind Jack and again added that last impetus at the end of the innings. He bowled 180 deliveries and picked up 5 wickets for 284 runs which is a good performance for a spin bowler indoors.

There were also important contributions from Amir Farooq and his son Abdullah who stood in and covered in three matches and scored 94 runs between them. Lloyd Sykes also played a game to help us out.

A great start to the 2018 season for Harlow and hopefully the players will take their indoor form out into the middle when the outdoor season begins