Shrewsbury School edge out Ellesmere in U14s final
Shrewsbury School claimed the ESCA Under 14s Shropshire Schools Final in a tight contest against Ellesmere College.
The match was held at Ellesmere and was reduced to 20 overs-a-side with a 9.30am start due to last week’s hot weather.
The visitors batted first and after the loss of two early wickets, a stand of 38 for the third wicket between captain Bruno Dowland (35) and Ruben Pembleton (15) helped to get the visitors to 125-9.
There were valuable contributions down the order from George Randall and Louis Van Cutsem who both chipped in with 14
Jack Bettis returned excellent bowling figures of 2-12 off his four overs while Freddie Latham also took two wickets.
The hosts made a disastrous start to their reply, losing their first six wickets for 36 runs.
However, Ellesmere battled their way back into the match thanks to good knocks from captain Gethin Griffiths (25), an unbeaten 38 not out from Bettis and Bobby Small hitting 17 enabling them to get tantalisingly close to their target, finishing on 109-7
That meant Shrewsbury were the winners by 16 runs.
Pembleton (2-17) and Eli Grave (3-9) were the pick of the Shrewsbury attack.
The Player of the Match award went to Bruno Dowland for an innings that stabilised the Shrewsbury innings and helped them to a competitive score, a good spell of bowling and his captaincy holding firm when Ellesmere started to turn the pressure back on the visitors.
Shrewsbury will now represent Shropshire in the national rounds of the competition next year – their side have reached this year’s national final early next month.
