Oundle School took on Northampton School for Boys (NSB) in the final of the U14 County Cup on Wednesday 8th September. NSB won the toss and inserted Oundle into bat on a glorious day.
Freddie Johnson (F) and Ralph Hayward (StA) opened the batting and started positively with Ralph racing to 20 runs before being run out. Freddie continued positively whilst a couple of wickets fell at the other end. Monty Spencer (L) coming in at 6 batted sensibly and started to form a good partnership with Freddie. Monty fell in the last over for a well-made 27 with Freddie finishing up on 83 not out. 161-5 was a good score but was by no means a comfortable score, as NSB had some strong batters and it is a quick scoring ground.
As expected NSB came out firing and raced to 60-0 off 6 overs. Jack Bates and Prash Chauhan punished the bad balls and ran well between the wickets, putting plenty of pressure on our boys. Monty made the first breakthrough when Prash holed out in the deep to a good catch from Ben Jurdjevic (Sc). Further wickets from spinners Jack Buik (Ldr), Anthony Lindsay (B) and a run out kept NSB pegged back. Jack, however, kept going at the other end to ensure we were never fully relaxed but eventually fell to Charles Chu (F) for a well-made 77. NSB finished on 143-5, resulting in an 18 run win for Oundle.
A great game of cricket and well captained by Ralph Hayward under much pressure. The team now go on to represent Northamptonshire in the U15 national competition next summer.
