For the second time in the last 4 years, the Hill Under 15s will travel to Scotland for the North Regional Final of the ECB Under 15 cup. The game is at Carlton Cricket Club, good luck to the lads, and congratulations for your progress so far, read on below to hear from team manager Barry Pearson how we got to this stage.
Following the excellent win over South North in 1st round (covered in our last junior update), we travelled to Blyth in the semi final. Batting first, after losing an early wicket, Rory Mustard with an unbeaten 55 and skipper Aaron Armstrong with 30 put on an excellent century partnership. Fergus Wallace kept the momentum going with an unbeaten 34 as the Hill amassed 173/4 in 20 overs. Blyth rallied from 19/6 to reach 92/8 in their 20 overs with the wickets shared around.
The final was held on 26th of June away against a strong Tynemouth side. The home side batted first but were soon in trouble as excellent opening bowling from Ben Robinson and Gabriel Mellor together with a fantastic catch from Harsh Patel put the Hill on top. Ben took 3/12, Fergus 3/22 and Ibrahim Ahmed 3/4 led the bowling honours as Tynemouth were bowled out for 78.
In reply, Rory batted beautifully scoring 40 from 32 balls, and despite a late wobble, Fergus and Harsh led the Hill to a six wicket victory and the first silverware of 2024.
Our reward for this excellent cup win is a trip to Carlton CC in Edinburgh on Sunday 7th July as the competition opens up nationwide. As long as the weather holds, we head north with high hopes of progressing further although we know Carlton will provide strong opposition.
