Entertaining game in Leeds!

Leeds Kites 299-3 (Mark Shaw 50*, Will Clarke 50*; Ian Mosquito 1-14) Mersey Rose 148-4 (Alex Leivesley 37, Dave Leivesley 27*; Chris Ison 1-14) Leeds Kites won by 151 runs Scorecard

It can be a tough life being a captain of a cricket club, but particularly at Mersey Rose. There are plenty of difficult decisions to take. For example, on winning the toss should you bat first on a good batting pitch or should you field because you only have eight players of limited batting ability, one of which is an inexperienced junior and one is currently unable to walk following an injury, and you want to give everyone a chance to bowl? Where do you place fielders who are struggling from injury but are playing to make up the numbers after others have pulled out, while also trying not to make the injury worse? What happens when the quickest fielder in your already depleted team suffers a nosebleed in the second over and is off the field for the next hour? What do you do when the opening batter is also the only person available to score?

A depleted Mersey Rose team travelled to Calverley St Wilfrid's CC on Sunday for a game with Leeds Kites. Not only was this the first ever meeting between the only two LGBTQ+ clubs in the north of England, it was also our charity match in support of Sahir. For both of those reasons it was absolutely vital that the game went ahead and there was no way Mersey Rose would allow a reduced team to result in the game being called off, going so far as to hire a bus due to a lack of available drivers.

Put into bat, Leeds Kites made a strong start with Mark Shaw and Chris Ison building a useful partnership. Rose's bowlers asked questions but were unable to find the breakthrough until Ison hit a delivery from Alex Leivesley to mid-wicket where David Leivesley held the catch. It was the first father-and-son wicket for the club. The fall of the wicket made little difference to Kites' approach as Will Clarke joined Shaw in the middle - both went on to make half-centuries before retiring.

Andi Page took the wicket of Chris Skipworth with a delivery that kept low and hit the pads. Ian Mosquito also claimed a wicket when David Leivesley took his second catch of the afternoon to dismiss Cale Covella. There were no further wickets and, due to a combination of good batting and tired fielding, Kites finished on 299 for 3 from their 40 overs.

During the break Andi Page encouraged the team not to chase the total but to "go out and bat positively... express yourselves and most importantly enjoy yourselves". Batting has not been Rose's forte and sometimes our innings have been characterised by dramatic collapses. Often we have struggled to bat through our allotted overs. Prior to the game one of the players quipped that "we're a team of tail-enders", not entirely unfairly. The improvement in technique that we see in training isn't always replicated during games.

However, after tea - and thanks so much the Leeds Kites for putting on a great tea, and for thinking about those of us who are vegans! - Mersey Rose set about building something of a response. Everyone batted well, with opener Andrew Foster hitting 27 before edging to the keeper, and the highlight of the afternoon was a stunning partnership of 79 between Dan Barrowcliffe and Alex Leivesley. Barrowcliffe started slowly but, once he had played himself in, his innings began to gather momentum and he played intelligently before he was caught by Jude Tate off the bowling of Chris Skipworth.

Alex Leivesley was joined by dad David and they continued to bat effectively against some probing bowling. It looked like Alex was set for his maiden half-century but unfortunately was undone by a Howard Field yorker on 37. It's astonishing to think that this time last year Alex had never played a game of cricket and his considered innings showed how much he has progressed - not only in terms of technique but his understanding of the game.

There was one more wicket for Kites - Ian Mosquito holed out to Glen Jackson off the bowling of Chris Ison in the penultimate over - but it proved academic. Kites were comfortable winners in the first LGBTQ+ Roses match (there will surely be more!) while Mersey Rose were able to take away several positives from the strongest batting performance we have seen to date.

Shout-outs to Heidi Page for brave fielding and to wicketkeeper Jake Vaughan for a great effort behind the stumps.

Many thanks to Leeds Kites for hosting us, for the fantastic way they approached the game and of course for the cricket tea (a rare experience these days). We hope this will be the first of many games between our clubs.