Match report.
Yorkshire U14A v Warwickshire U14 (2 day game), held at Bishop Vesey Grammar School on Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd August 2018.
Yorkshire 286 all out (Rhys Ditta 120, Harry Finch 68) and 45-0 (Noah Priestley 25*) beat Warwickshire 94 all out (Alex Midgley 5-34, Jack Young 3-10) and 236 all out (George Horbury 4-30) by 10 wickets.
The second two day fixture in successive weeks saw the squad travel to the picturesque Bishop Vesey Grammar School in Warwickshire to face their U14s. Some overnight rain had made the wicket slightly damp and skipper Harry Allinson lost the toss and was invited to bat first. He then strode out to the wicket alongside fellow opener Matthew Weston to get the innings underway. The two reached 30 in testing conditions with the ball moving in the air and off the seam before Allinson (11) fell LBW in the 10th over. Weston (17) and Nico Nicola (5) fell in quick succession leaving the innings interestingly placed at 60-3 going into the lunch break. Rhys Ditta and Harry Finch came back out after the lunch break knowing a couple of quick wickets could put them up against it. However, both players showed some superb batsmanship in testing conditions, with the ball still offering seam movement and with the pitch increasingly taking spin, to progress the scoreboard on, before beginning to open their shoulders in an outstanding 170 run partnership, before Finch fell for 68 attempting a reverse sweep. This triggered a mini collapse with the wickets of Priestley, Douglas and Horbury falling in quick succession before Ditta fell for 120, ending an excellent, skillful and mature innings. Jack Young (16) offered some lower order resistance, taking the innings to the final over of the first innings allocation before finally falling attempting to score some quick runs.
With 30 overs left in the day and some helpful overhead conditions, Alex Midgley took centre stage; running through the top order with 4 wickets in his opening 6 over spell. This decimated the Warwickshire top order, before George Horbury followed up with 2 further wickets in a economical spell of 6-2-10-2. Jack Young then took a wicket to reduce them to 77-7 overnight. Midgley started the morning off well, completing an excellent maiden five wicket haul, ending with figures of 12-3-34-5 whilst Jack Young (9.3-7-10-3) finished off the innings with 2 wickets caught behind, bowling out Warwickshire for 94 in 42.3 overs. A special mention also goes to wicket keeper Tom Douglas who took 4 catches, including an excellent diving catch to remove the opposition skipper.
After a discussion, the team unanimously decided to enforce the follow-on with George Horbury and Noah Priestley taking the new ball. Priestley (8-2-27-1) wasted no time in removing the dangerous Dubb for 9. Regular wickets were taken by Doughney (10-2-33-1), Young (13-2-55-1) and Midgley (9-2-11-1) before some resistance from the Warwickshire middle order started to wear the bowlers down. Cue George Horbury, who returned to take a hat-trick, with each victim being bowled, to completely change the course of the innings. With Warwickshire 9 down, still requiring just short of 100 runs to force the Yorkshire lads to bat again, Yorkshire took their foot slightly off the gas and a 96 run last wicket stand, ended by George Booth (6.1-1-22-2), saw Warwickshire surpass Yorkshire's total and set 45 to win from 22 overs. Nico Nicola (11*) and Noah Priestley (25*) cruised to victory with Yorkshire winning by 10 wickets. A fantastic team spirit shown throughout with everyone celebrating each others success like it was their own. A fantastic 2 days of development for the lads and thank you to Warwickshire for some great hospitality.
Full scorecard available HERE.