Future of Surrey's Cricket Looks Bright
Published 28 August 2008
This weekend the Surrey U13’s were crowned ECB National Champions. This superb achievement was the culmination of several years’ hard work.
The youngsters reached the finals - held at Oundel School last weekend - after beating an excellent Essex side in a close quarter final tie which they had qualified for after having won their group which included Kent, Sussex, Hertfordshire and Berkshire.
The semi-final against Yorkshire was a tight affair which went down to a nail-biting last over. Yorkshire scored 162-7, Jack Winslade taking 4-24 from his eight overs. At 81/6 Surrey looked to be heading to defeat but a seventh wicket partnership of 71 between Matthew Stiddard (28) and Harshil Patel (35*) put them back in the hunt.
Two quick wickets then looked to swing the match back towards Yorkshire but Umar Rehman (10*) then played a key role as the last eleven runs for victory were scored under intense pressure.
The Sunday final against Warwickshire had its start delayed until one o’clock due to torrential overnight rain, but this did not bother Surrey, who scored 183 with opener Ben Rogers making an excellent 74. Further key contributions came from middle order pair Matthew Stiddard (24) and Charlie O’Brien (23*).
Warwickshire set off in pursuit at a rapid rate but only Mark Best (42) stuck around for any length of time. Warwickshire were always behind the required rate but at 94-3 looked to have an outside chance of chasing down the total.
However, a dramatic collapse then followed as the last 7 wickets fell for only 15 runs with Shane Thompson (4-19) and Marcus Dawes (3-27) causing most of the damage.
Speaking to www.surreycricket.com Surrey Cricket's Performance Officer David Court said: “I would like to praise the mature performance of the team, who were well led by David Buck and his vice-captain Jack Winslade.
“The team played with fantastic spirit and have created great friendships over the years they have been together. The finals weekend was a top performance but everybody in the squad contributed at some stage throughout the season.”
SURREY U13'S SQUAD
David Buck
Marcus Dawes
Alex Hughes
Ashley Middleton
Charlie O'Brien
Richard O'Grady
Ben Rogers
Dominic Sibley
Matthew Stiddard
Shane Thomson
Jack Winslade
Umar Rehman
Harshil Patel
Add to Del.icio.us Digg it share on Facebook (What is this?)
