ECB National U15 Champions 2002

Shrewsbury’s Under 15 side walked away from the finals of the Sunbank Club Cricket Championship on Tuesday victorious. The team saw off competition from Fenner C.C. in the semi-final and Cardiff C.C. in the final to claim one of junior crickets most prestigious titles. It was quickly dedicated by the players to the memory of Dave Reynolds, The Director of Youth cricket at Shrewsbury, who passed away earlier in the year.

Both the semi-finals were to be played at the same time with Shrewsbury playing Fenner from Hull on pitch two and Cardiff meeting Horsham on the main square.

Fenner had first use of the facilities and were in trouble soon as Rob Foster bowled opener Fuller for 10 with the score at 13. Foster together with fellow spinner and skipper James Gale kept things tight in the first eight overs with Fenner only scoring 24 runs in the time. With the pressure on the batsman to score quickly after the slow start medium pacers Tom Gardner (4 overs 2-11) and Pat Duncan (4 overs 2-18) took two wickets each to remove the middle order as Fenner struggled to 59-5 inside 13 overs. Foster then swapped ball for wicket keeping gloves as Joe Hart was relieved to bowl. Quickie Hart, left to bowl at the death took pleasure in skittling out the tail and removing the top scorer Cooke on 16. He went on to claim figures of 3-19 from his four overs.

The final score of 77 for 9 did not look to be enough on a small ground. So it proved as Shrewsbury reached the total for the loss of only two wickets (Gale (18), stumped and Foster (2), bowled) with 40 balls remaining. Joe Hart continued from his bowling, showed no mercy striking a 25 ball 34no coming in at number 4. Opener Nick Edwards anchored the innings and remained unbeaten at the other end on 16 from 25 balls.