Saffron Walden Academy under 17s came out on top in their first ever match in the CYCA Transition League, away to Cambridge Granta at Fitzwilliam College. This league allows age groups up to under 17 to play alongside adults and gain experience of playin

Saffron Walden Academy under 17s came out on top in their first ever match in the CYCA Transition League, away to Cambridge Granta at Fitzwilliam College.

This league allows age groups up to under 17 to play alongside adults and gain experience of playing in 40-over league cricket.

Captain Sam Shepherd lost the toss and Cambridge Granta elected to bat first, scoring 134-9 in their 40 overs.

Nick Oakley (3-24) and Tom Mockford (2-36) were the main wicket takers and they were well supported by tight spells from Alex Taylor (1-23), Kieran Greig (1-10) and Fraser Hill (0-16).

After a poor start, Walden improved from 30-4 with some fine hitting from Alex Taylor (20) and a match-winning innings by Fraser Hill (43 no), who also shared in an unbeaten 50 partnership with his dad, Peter Hill (16 no).

Saffron Walden under 16s played only their second fixture after three wash-outs in the Essex Matchplay League and were comprehensively beaten by Buckhurst Hill, although they were seriously weakened by the loss of several players on county duty.

Walden batted first and James Read was quickly out for a duck, soon followed by the other opener Aaron Pledger.

David Herd came to the wicket and proceeded to hit the ball all around the ground. He was supported at first by Gill, who scored 19, but the following batsmen added little before Ben Wyatt came to the wicket and hit a robust 25.

Herd was eventually out for a magnificent 71 and his example was taken up by Theo Norris, who, hit 29 not out before running out of partners as Walden could only make 191.

Buckhurst Hill opened their reply confidently and, although losing an early wicket to Ben Wyatt, the opening batsman P Bojpai and the number three S Mongera, took the Walden bowling apart, scoring 84 and 66 respectively to guide

their team to victory with 10 overs to spare.

Stephen Larsen, on his return from injury, was the most economical bowler with 18 runs scored off four overs.

Saffron Walden under 14s secured back to back wins away at Barrington and at home to Linton.

On Wednesday they travelled to Barrington. After winning the toss and deciding to bat, the Academy side finished on 104-4, with Jamie Glydon carrying his bat for 49.

Any thoughts of a close encounter were dispelled within the first few overs of the Barrington innings, after some accurate bowling

had pinned them back to 13-5 at

the halfway stage, finishing at 18

all out.

Six of the seven Walden bowlers took wickets, with Glydon again starring with 3-3 and young Ollie Gramlick getting 2-4.

The next evening saw Linton visit the Anglo-American playing fields. Having been put into bat, Walden got off to a flying start with 38 runs coming from the first five

overs, with Fraser Hill hitting 24 off 18 balls.

Joe Heath and Max Oliver kept the runs coming at a consistent rate, enabling a total of 133-3 to be posted, Oliver getting 36 and Heath becoming the second successive player to carry his bat for 45.

Linton's reply never really recovered after a Hill hat-trick tore apart the middle order. O'Toole was the only batsman to offer any real resistance with a well-struck 28, helping Linton to 58 all out in the 18th over.

Saffron Walden under 11s beat Matching Green by 28 runs in the West Essex League.

Walden set the home team a gettable target of 76 runs in 16 overs. The visitors lost four wickets, three to some accurate bowling from the Matching Green side and one caught at mid-wicket.

The runs were scored largely by Ed Low (20 retired, no) and Domenic Wilson (17 no), supported in the last four overs by Reece Thear (6 no).

Matching Green's innings was hampered by some good fielding from Saffron Walden by wicket keeper Ryan Brown, captain Matthew Williams and by the team as a whole.

The visitors took five wickets with the key bowlers being Daniel Procter and James Kenyon, who took a wicket each, and Paddy Brown who took two wickets in two balls as Matching Green finished on 48-5 in 16 overs.

Saffron Walden under 12s overcame Linton in their local derby.

Walden won the toss and elected to bat and openers Andrew Jordan and Jamie White put on a partnership of 36 before Andrew Jordan was bowled for 13.

Will Glydon then came in and played a good supportive role before being run out on eight.

Walden scored 92 from their 20 overs with a superb batting performance from Jamie White falling two short of his maiden half-century.

Michael Orriss was the most successful bowler, with two wickets from successive balls.

The Linton batsmen could not cope with Andrew Jordan's opening spell who bowled three wicket maidens. Jack Fosbury was Linton's only batsman who showed any resistance and was eventually out off the bowling of George Knowles caught by Alex McIntosh for 15.

Will Glydon and Hamish Penman both bowled exceptionally well finishing with figures of 3-1-7-1 and 4-1-4-2 respectively as Linton finished their innings 31 runs short of the Walden target on 61-8.

Linton under 13s took on their under 14s in a match that turned out to be a real tussle.

The under 14s batted first and set a good target of 135 with Ashley Auger hitting 21 and Sam Dew making 24.

Lacam, Sanderson, Beck, Linney, Schumann, Pratt and Brooker all took wickets for the under 13s.

The younger team pushed their opposition hard in the batting and looked at one point as though they might just clinch a victory but eventually fell short with a total

of 89.

Alex Flynn top scored with 18 and was supported by innings from Linney and Manion.

Thursday saw Saffron Walden under13s play at Linton and despite Linton being forced into making late changes to their team it proved an exciting match.

Walden batted well with Howard top scoring. Linton gave their best display in the field so far with one cracking stop by Johnathan Manion and two run outs

with sharp throws from Linney

and Auger.

Lacam with three wickets in one over and Macer with another two kept Walden to 112-9.

Linton batted confidently in fading light against some excellent bowling. Some well-timed shots from Auger (28 no) and support from Herbert (16) and Lee (16), pushed the score on, but wickets for Woss, Diggins, Stevenson, White and Dewey saw Linton eventually fall short of their target by six runs.

Linton under 10s were triumphant again, proving too strong a side for the under strength Saffron Walden visitors.

Linton posted a fine score of

272-5, with some sound batting from Noah Wright on his debut.

Peter Gordon played a captain's role in keeping Walden down to 234-4, with a consistently good spell of bowling supported by

all his team with some

excellent fielding.

Thaxted under 15s put in a good all round performance to defeat Little Bardfield.

A good opening spell of bowling from M Rendell and Alex Yeldham put Little Bardfield in trouble and good bowling followed from Andy Yeldham, L Matthews, E Priest and M Saville. Bardfield finished on 74 all out from 18.4 overs.

Thaxted lost an early wicket, however Webster (16) and Matthews (39), put on a solid partnership of 61 to see Thaxted home to a nine wicket victory.

Webster and Matthews retired and Thaxted finished their 20 overs on 130-2.

Dunmow under 11s were beaten for the first time this season by eight wickets against a very strong High Roding side.

After winning the toss Dunmow elected to bat and were soon in trouble at 12-5, but some good resistance by the lower order, especially Sam Bullock who remained unbeaten on 10, saw Dunmow bat through their 16 overs and reach 45-8.

In reply High Roding always looked capable of reaching their target and did so for the loss of two wickets, scoring 46.

The pick of the bowlers was Dan Trendall who took 2-12 as Dunmow showed a good attitude in the field.

High Roding under 16s had a notable victory against Old Parkonians in a clash which had to be played at Cloghams Ground.

Some good bowling and fielding from High Roding saw Old Parkonians all out for 103.

Sandy Barr was the pick of the bowlers taking 2-7.

Roding reached the total comfortably with the loss of only four wickets.

Main run scorers for High Roding were Buttleman with 35, Holdgate who hit 17 and Hebrom who also made 17 runs.