U13 Boys enjoy Taunton Festival trip
Shropshire’s Under 13 Boys enjoyed a successful week at the Taunton Festival – winning three of their games after losing their opener, and just falling at the final hurdle in their other tie.
The opening game saw them face King’s College Taunton NCA who went on to dominate the week, winning all their games.
Shropshire won the toss and batted first but struggled to build partnerships as a number of batters made starts but failed to carry on to a big score.
Harry Dillon, Harry Harrison and Freddie Baker all made 19 as Shropshire were dismissed for 112 in the 37thover.
Baker then claimed three wickets early on as King’s College Taunton NCA were reduced to 34-4, but a half century from their opener saw them to victory by five wickets.
Day two saw Shropshire up against King’s College Taunton California, and again they won the toss and batted first.
This time they reached 198 before they were bowled out in the 44th over with George Jenkins anchoring the innings with an unbeaten 90 off 92 balls before running out of partners.
Opener Dylan Barkley chipped in with 22 and Ralph Davies hit 36 down the order to boost the Shropshire total.
In the reply, Shropshire picked up wickets at regular intervals as they mixed up the bowling, with Dillon claiming 2-29 and Jenkins completing a fine all-round game with 2-7 off his 3.5 overs as Shropshire claimed victory by 25 runs despite some late resistance.
Day three saw the boys up against King’s College Taunton, and again they won the toss and batted first, putting an impressive 232 on the board.
This time Harry Harrison led the way with 77 off just 55 balls, with Barkley chipping in with 22, Lucas Marshall 26 and Jenkins 22.
Excellent opening spells from Sayak Mukherjee (2-19) and William Reece saw the hosts reduced to 14-4 early on, and although they staged something of a recover, they were bowled out for 158 with Reece picking up the last two wickets to finish with 4-16 from 8.4 overs.
Ralph Davies also claimed two wickets in the middle order.
Cambridgeshire were the opponents on Day Four in a contest which went right down to the wire.
This game saw Shropshire in the field in the first innings, and excellent spells from Mukherjee (3-17) and Barker (3-39) helped reduce Cambridgeshire to 108-9.
But a 58-run partnership for the tenth wicket saw them finish on 166-9 – and that proved crucial.
After losing a couple of early wickets, Harrison (33) and Jenkins (40) appeared to have put Shropshire back on track in the reply. But wickets then began to tumble, and despite 23 from Barker, Shropshire fell three runs short when the final wicket fell with plenty of overs in hand.
The final day saw Switzerland as the opponents, and Shropshire again won the toss and batted first with Bobby Langton leading the way with 72 off just 53 balls as Shropshire finished their 40 overs on 255-9.
He was backed up by contributions from Harrison (23), Jenkins (32) and Barkley (24 not out) in Shropshire’s best total of the week.
Fin Bradbury did the damage early on in the reply with 3-23 and Harrison chipped in with 2-21 as Switzerland were restricted to 160-8 in their reply to give Shropshire victory by 95 runs.