County Under 14: Last season
2008 Averages
2009 Season
WILTSHIRE v GWENT - FRIENDLY
On Mon 25th May we played our first competitive game of the season, when we were up against Gwent at Biddestone CC. On a damp and overcast day Gwent won the toss and surprisingly opted to bat, this was a decision they started to regret as after 6 over’s they were 14 – 3 with new Captain Jack Mynott taking two early wickets. They continued to lose wickets at regular intervals with Lawrence Hannaford taking 3 – 18 from 8 over’s and after 40 over’s ended up 129 – 8. Jack Mynott taking 2 – 24 from 8 over’s was the stand out bowler along with Hannaford. For Gwent, J. Harris made a very good 47. We changed our batting order around a little for this match and Harry Hawkins (61) and Kit Patrick (32) made the most of their opportunities up the order by putting on 77 for the 4th wicket and we eventually ran out winners by 4 wickets. Pick of the Gwent bowlers was J. Bachelor with figures of 8-1-15-3.
WILTSHIRE WON BY 4 WICKETS
BERKSHIRE v WILTSHIRE - FRIENDLY
After our win against Gwent, we travelled to the beautiful surrounds of Wellington College to play Berkshire on Fri 29th May. On winning the toss, on what looked like a belter of a pitch. Our captain didn’t need to think twice about batting first. As we moved to 34 – 0 after 4 over’s this looked like a great decision with Mynott and Sam Wild hitting 8 fours in that time. Then there was one big shot to many and Wild was gone for 19, swiftly followed by Mynott also for 19. This unfortunately started a trend and we lost wickets at regular intervals with not enough application and good shot selection from our lads. Only Kit Patrick with 33 played sensibly and we were disappointingly bowled out for 140 in 39 over’s when a more realistic score should have been 190 to 200. Pick of the Berkshire bowlers were R. Akram 6-1-20-4 and J. Dawes 9-3-25-3. Berkshire showed our lads how to bat on this pitch and duly knocked off the runs for the loss of just one wicket in 36 over’s with S.Carson (68no) and C. Gaur (43). Our only bowling success was Adam Lavis with 7-1-22-1. It is safe to say Coach and Manager had some strong words for the boys afterwards and it was hoped they took what was said onboard and we would see some improvement for the next match which was our first ECB County Cup match of the season.
WILTSHIRE LOST BY 9 WICKETS
WILTSHIRE v OXFORDSHIRE – ECB COUNTY CUP
On Sunday 7th June we played are first ECB County Cup match v Oxfordshire at South Wilts CC. On a fine afternoon after a damp morning Oxfordshire won the toss and decided to bat first. This looked a bad decision as after just 5 five balls; Jordan Butler got the first of his 3 wickets in the match as Oxfordshire were 1 – 1. Two more wickets fell quite quickly before a 62 run partnership for the 4ht wicket got Oxfordshire to 80 – 4 after 28 over’s. This however quickly became 92 – 8 as newcomer Matt Brooks ripped out the lower middle order with some very fine leg-spin bowling. Oxfordshire quickly folded to 124 all out. Pick of the Wiltshire bowlers were Jordan butler 7.5-1-22-3 and Brooks 8-0-31-3. Wiltshire got off to a solid start but with the score on 25 we lost our first wicket and a second quickly followed. We were still going at 4 runs an over but 3 more wickets saw us 94 – 5 and a close finish looked on the cards until an unbeaten partnership of 31 between Sam Wild (56no) and Adam Mitchell (23no) saw us to victory by 5 wickets and 18 over’s to spare. Pick of the Oxfordshire bowlers was J. Megson 7-0-26-2.
WILTSHIRE WON BY 5 WICKETS
GLOUCESTERSHIRE v WILTSHIRE – FRIENDLY
Next up was a hastily arranged friendly against Gloucestershire at the lovely Cirencester Cricket Ground on Sun 14th June. We had a bit of a make shift side for this match with only 11 players including two very good U13 players, Tom Alsop and Joe Clare. On a hot and sunny day we were a bit surprised to be asked to bat upon losing the toss, but the boy’s were more than happy to make first use of the track. In a very consistent batting performance we made a very good 199 – 6 from 45 over’s. Solid contributions all through the batting card with Sam Wild (21), Harry Hawkins (39), Tom Alsop (30), Adam Mitchell (53) and Jack Bramwell (23no). In reply Gloucestershire batted solidly right through their innings also but we keep picking up wickets at regular times to bowl them out for 178 in 42 over’s. As with the batting the wickets were shared around with everyone taking at least one wicket, but the pick being Jordan Butler 9-2-24-2 and Kit Patrick 6.2-0-18-2.
WILTSHIRE WON BY 21 RUNS
WILTSHIRE v WALES – ECB COUNTY CUP
This next match saw us back in ECB County Cup action against an always powerful Wales side at Devizes CC on Sun 21st June. On an overcast day with always a hint of rain in the air we won the toss and decided to bat first. It was hard going against a very accurate new ball partnership, but the innings was built around three main partnerships, one of 79 between Jack Mynott (53) and Tom Cowley (24), one of 53 between Harry Hawkins (37no) and Adam Mitchell (35) and finally one of 33 between Harry Hawkins and Tom Alsop. We ended our innings on 183 – 4 from 45. Pick of the Wales bowlers was H. Powell 9-2-21-1. Wales kept up with the run rate at all times but as with the last match we keep taking important wickets at the right time with the help of some excellent catching and fielding we bowled out Wales for 167 in 42 over’s. Pick of the Wiltshire bowling were Tom Cowley with figures of 9-3-14-2 and Jack Mynott 9-2-27-2.
WILTSHIRE WON BY 16 RUNS
GLOUCESTERSHIRE v WILTSHIRE – ECB COUNTY CUP
For our next ECB County Cup match we travelled to Stroud CC on Sun 5th July to take on Gloucestershire and after beating them in a friendly only a couple of weeks earlier I’m sure they would be out for some revenge. The weather was never good at any stage and with 2 sizable rain breaks thrown in it meant the game took some time to finish!!! We won the toss and asked Gloucestershire to bat on what looked like a helpful surface, but at no stage did our bowlers put the ball in the right areas to cause problems, add in some very poor fielding and this was easily our worst performance in the field so far this season. Gloucestershire batted well right through their innings ending up with 226 – 8 form their 45 over’s. Our only bowler to come out with any credibility was Tom Cowley who had figures of 7-1-21-1. Top scorer for Gloucestershire was B. Ringrose with 57. Having said what I have about our bowling, our batting was in complete contrast and a superb run chase ensued with us always being up with the required run rate. There were lots of good contributions to the scoring with Tom Cowley (56), Adam Mitchell (a very hard hit 59 with 9 fours and 1 six, his second fifty of the County season), Sam Wild (26) and Jordan Butler (24). But in the end it was numbers 9 and 11, Akash Sharma (15no) and Chris Baker (9no) who saw Wiltshire home in the gathering gloom at five past nine in the evening to win the match with 3 balls to spare, much to the delight of everyone watching who was connected with Wiltshire Cricket. Pick of the Gloucestershire bowling was T. Bradley 9-1-29-3.
WILTSHIRE WON BY 1 WICKET
OXFORDSHIRE v WILTSHIRE – ECB COUNTY CUP
Sunday 12th July was our last ECB County Cup group match of the season and for this we went to the beautiful ground of Shipton-Under-Wychwood to play Oxfordshire. The skipper once again won the toss and again invited Oxfordshire to have first use of the pitch. We again bowled very steadily, but still not enough balls in the right areas to cause their batters many problems. It took two excellent catches to get rid of their openers, but then two partnerships took them to 91 – 3 from 22 over’s and they were looking set for a big score. Enter our slow bowlers into the attack and this saw a quick change in the Oxfordshire innings and soon they were 97 – 7 with Adam Lavis and Tom Cowley completely crushing the Oxfordshire middle order. Lavis finished with 9-2-30-3 and Cowley the remarkable figures of 9-4-6-2. However once our seamers came back it was a different story and Oxfordshire lifted their score with the help of some late order big hitting and untidy bowling to 164 all out in the 44th over. Jack Mynott was the pick of the seamers with 3 – 37 from 8 over’s. from the outset Wiltshire never really looked in trouble scoring freely all round the the wicket, with the main contribution again coming from Harry Hawkins (51, his second County 50 of the season) and Adam Mitchell (48no, again a hard hit innings containing 7 fours and 2 sixes). It was left to Mitchell and Kit Patrick (16no) with an unbroken partnership of 49 to see Wiltshire home in the 43rd over with only 4 wickets down. Pick of the Oxfordshire bowlers was J. Garrett 9-1-18-2. This win now means we have won our group with 4 wins form 4 matches and a maximum 8 points. We now go on to play local rivals Hampshire at South Wilts CC on Fri 24th July starting at 12.00pm. Well done to the boys who can now take their place alongside our U15’s and U13’s who have also booked their places in their respective ECB County Cup Quarter Finals.
WILTSHIRE WON BY 6 WICKETS
WILTSHIRE v HAMPSHIRE – ECB U14 COUNTY CUP QUARTER FINAL
On Fri 29th July we played our much anticipated ECB County Cup Quarter Final against Hampshire at South Wilts CC and with the weather we have had it was a miracle we had any game at all. It was of no surprise that on winning the toss Hampshire invited us to bat first in what were very bowler friendly conditions. Due to family holidays we were without our Captain and Wicket-keeper which didn’t help matters but we were still confident that we could pull of a win. Batting was quite a challenge against some very good Hampshire bowling. We lost our first wicket at 3 and never really recovered from this early loss. We lost wickets at regular intervals and it was only due to Kit Patrick (33no) and Lawrence Hannaford (21) that we put some sort of score on the board. We reached 128 for 8 from our 40 overs (game was reduced to 40 overs a side). Hampshire’s best bowler was H. Peruzi 8-4-12-3. In what was a mirror image of what happened to us, we got our first wicket with Hampshire score on 3. The next wicket fell with the score on 25, but whatever our Captain tried we just couldn’t take enough early Hampshire wickets to put them under pressure. We did get 2 more wickets but Peruzi came at us hard, just as he had done with the ball earlier and made 36no from just 18 balls winning the match with 13 overs to spare. Pick of the Wiltshire bowlers was Lawrence Hannaford 6-0-19-1. So another year goes’ by with this team being knocked out at the Quarter Final stage of the Cup. This season they have been quite superb but unfortunately have fallen at this hurdle again but hopefully they can go one better next year as U15’s.
HAMPSHIRE WON BY 6 WICKETS
WILTSHIRE v DORSET – FRIENDLY
We played our last stand alone County match of the season on Sun 2nd Aug, when we entertained local rivals Dorset at Trowbridge CC. On what was a greenish wicket and with an overcast sky, Jack Mynott had no hesitation in asking Dorset to bat first. This started to look like a bad move as Dorset moved to 73 from 17 overs, but they then lost L. McManus for 31. Dorset moved on to 114 before they lost their next wicket, R. Scott (51) and another one followed with no addition to the score. Wiltshire bowlers were starting to gain a bit more control now and a further wicket fell at 131 with the help of a second runout. Dorset batted sensibly for the rest of their innings and ended up on 209 for 7 from 45 overs. Pick of the Wiltshire bowlers was A. Lavis 9-1-24-1. In reply we started in a positive fashion with our openers running brilliantly between the wickets and putting away all the bad balls for four. We lost our first wicket with the score on 98 from 19 overs, when Sam Wild was out 2 short of his 50. This opening partnership of 98 had no fewer than 17 boundaries, this really was entertaining stuff!! Tom Alsop got to his 50 but was out soon after for 52. This left us 112 for 2. With the Taunton Festival fast approaching we changed our batting line up around a little so we could give some valuable time in the middle to players who hadn’t batted a great deal this season. With that wonderful thing hindsight, perhaps this was not the best thing to do if we wanted to get a positive result from this game because from a good position we lost regular wickets with only Adam Mitchell (29) putting up any worthwhile resistance. We therefore were bowled out for 185, losing by just 26 runs. Pick of the Dorset bowlers was R. Scott 7-2-24-4. Although we lost both Tim and I felt it was the right thing to do giving everyone a go as they would all be needed at Taunton during the Festival.
DORSET WON BY 26 RUNS.
TAUNTON U14 FESTIVAL
MATCH 1 v CORNWELL
On Mon 10th Aug we played our first game of the 2009 Taunton Festival, our opponents were Cornwell. On a cloudy, overcast morning we won the toss and invited Cornwell to bat. We were hoping to use the conditions to our favour and started with 2 maidens but this was to be the end of our good bowling. In what was our worst bowling display of the season, Cornwell scored 252 for 8 from 50 overs. Nearly all of our bowlers showed a lack of discipline, bowled in all the wrong areas and did not use the favourable conditions on offer. Only Jack Mynott 4-1-10-0 and Akash Sharma 8-1-25-1 bowled well. For Cornwell there were good knocks from Brownfield (66) and James (42) but all their batters chipped with runs. So with this daunting total facing us , we started off in pursuit with only one thing in mind – a win, this is the attacking nature of this team as well as it’s Coach and Manager. We put on 37 for the first wicket before Tom Alsop was out for 18. This brought in a determined Tom Cowley to join Sam Wild. In great fashion the pair put on 80 for the 2nd wicket. We kept chasing the total at all times with good contributions from Mynott (37), Harry Hawkins (41) and Cowley (56). But with overs running out we just could not keep up with the ever increasing run rate and in the end we finished on 225 for 9 from 50 overs. This was a very creditable run chase from our lads and we ended up with a losing draw.
CORNWELL 15 POINTS WILTSHIRE 12 POINTS
MATCH 2 v BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
On Tues 11th Aug we played Buckinghamshire. Slightly better weather greeted us today, in fact the sun was actually shinning!! Once again we won the toss, but this time we decided to bat first. Once again we started brightly with Wild and Alsop putting on 48 for the first wicket in 11 overs. But as in the first game both were out after getting to 30 and 20 respectively. After this we started to lose wickets at regular intervals but everyone was chipping in with some runs, so the scoreboard was moving along at quite a pace. It wasn’t until Harry Hawkins was joined by Jack Bramwell that the innings really started to blossom, the pair put on 68 for the 7th wicket. With Hawkins making a very fine 62 and Bramwell a County best 41 we ended up making a fairly decent score of 217 for 9 from 50 overs. Pick of the Buckinghamshire bowlers were Lane 5-1-33-2 and Shiel 10-1-35-2. In reply Buckinghamshire never really showed any signs that they were going to try and chase our total, batting for bonus points instead. After 25 overs they were 55 for 4 and somewhat behind the run rate required. Liam Gough (son of Darren Gough) keep batting hard but never really had any support. He finished on a very good 91no as his side finished on 165 for 7 from 50 overs. Pick of the Wiltshire bowlers were Cowley 10-0-21-0, and Bramwell 6-2-22-1, there were also 2 very good run outs.
WILTSHIRE 13 POINTS BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 9 POINTS
MATCH 3 v ESSEX
We played Essex on Weds 12th Aug in our 3rd match of the festival. On a cloudy and overcast day Essex won the toss and asked us to bat. We lost an early wicket, but as in the other matches we were scoring at a quick rate, after 15 overs we were 70 for 2. Again our Achilles heel was the inability of our batsmen who get in to carry on and get a really big score. That was until Harry Hawkins joined opener Tom Alsop. They put on 77 for the 4th wicket before Alsop was out for 48. Hawkins carried on in the same vain as he had shown all week, scoring runs all round the wicket. After 2 more wickets he was joined by Kit Patrick and together they put on 79 for the 7th wicket which took our final score to a very competitive 236 for 6 from 50 overs. Hawkins was unbeaten on 87 and Patrick unbeaten on 39. In reply Essex started their innings in the best possible way with opener Hussain hitting the first ball 6! We bowled better than in the first two games but whatever we tried Essex were equal to the challenge. The score was 120 before we got our first breakthough when Hussain was out for a very well played 64. As is always the case after a big partnership, we struck almost straight away when we got Rudkin out for 52. This only brought Phillippe to the crease and he carried on were the openers had left off. He made a quickfire 35 before being the 3rd wicket to fall. At this atage Essex were easily keeping up with the run rate. The skipper Baldock was joined by Wagstaff who hit an even more quickfire 49no, and together they saw their side to victory by 7 wickets with 9 overs to spare. Pick of the Wiltshire bowlers was Cowley 10-2-30-1 and Sharma 8-1-37-1.
ESSEX 18 POINTS WILTSHIRE 6POINTS
MATCH 4 v LANCASHIRE
Our 4th match of the week saw us play probably one of the pre-festival favourites, Lancashire. After a large amount of overnight rain, the morning arrived cloudy but dry. The match started on time and upon winning the toss, Lancashire elected to bat first. All of our first 4 bowlers bowled with excellent control during their first spells and we were rewarded with both openers back in the hutch with the score on 0. Our first 20 overs went for just 52 runs. This brilliant start really put the brakes on the Lancashire innings. Once we had used 4 seamers we switched to spin and between them Tom Cowley and Adam Lavis bowled 20 overs for just 56 runs, it really was turning into a great effort from our bowlers. With some late order hitting, Lancashire finished on 188 for 7. Excellent bowling from Mynott 10-1-52-3, Lavis 10-2-22-2 and Cowley 10-1-34-0. Pick of the Lancashire batting was B. Sloan (45).With a slightly restyled batting order, Kit Patrick was promoted to open the innings with Sam Wild. It was a move that was close to inspirational as together they put on 90 for the first wicket from 19 overs before Sam was out for 43. As in previous matches we lost a couple of quick wickets after a good partnership but Tom Cowley and Adam Mitchell came together after the loss of the Captain and not to put too fine a point on it, they ‘put Lancashire to the sword’. With 10 fours and 5 sixes in an unbroken partnership of 97 they made sure Wiltshire cruised to victory by 7 wickets with a massive 12 overs to spare against a very strong first class County. Cowley finished 30no and Mitchell a very hard hit 60no. The winning runs sparked great scenes of jubilation on the boundary edge as the boys realised this was probably the best performance and win that they have had during their County careers so far.
WILTSHIRE 16 POINTS LANCASHIRE 4 POINTS
MATCH 5 v SHROPSHIRE
On a yet another cloudy but dry morning we won the toss and asked Shropshire to bat first as we saw this as our best way of getting a positive result and as many points as possible from our last match of the Festival. If we could win with a decent amount of bonus points, it was possible we could finish 3rd in the Festival. Shropshire began in the worst possible way when they lost their first wicket with the score on 0, but this was to be our only wicket for the next 25 overs!! M. Gregson and T. Weston batted very well to take the score to 125 before Gregson was out for 58. Weston carried on and reached a very good hundred. He was out almost straight away after reaching 3 figures, he was out for 102. The rest of the Shropshire batting chipped in and they finished on 247 for 7 from 50 overs, their highest score of the week. As with most of the week, our bowlers again didn’t put the ball in the right areas and paid a heavy price. The pick of the Wiltshire bowlers was Chris Baker who took 4-30. As has been the case all week, our batters got our bowlers out of a hole. We batted quite superbly while chasing down Shropshire’s score. There were solid contributions all the way down the order with Sam Wild (55), Jack Mynott (64), once again Harry Hawkins (35) and Adam Mitchell (36no). The runs were knocked off in great style as we reached 251 for 5 with again 12 overs to spare.
WILTSHIRE 18 POINTS SHROPSHIRE 7 POINTS
This all meant that we did indeed finish in 3rd place with Lancashire below us and only Cornwell and Essex above us. This was an excellent performance from the boys, something they should be very proud of.
