In perhaps their last year representing Walmley’s age group sides for many, the U17s repeated their success from last season, securing the top spot in the Burton and District League, winning the Fred Lowe Trophy for success in the Burton and District Cup and then making it a treble, advancing to the top spot in Division 1 of the Warwickshire U17 T20 Blast Group 1, with a Finals Day set for 3rd September.
The team are undefeated from 15 games, winning 14 and tying with Kings Bromley in an epic fixture in June. Their success has been on the back of fantastic starts from the top order, playing sizeable and responsible innings’, completing wins both batting first and chasing. If our first innings’ scores haven’t been enough, our bowlers have stood up to the task in both the pace and spin departments, keeping tight lines and good lengths with able support in the field. This was most evident in our last fixture on Tuesday: defending a meagre 100/8 in 20 overs, we kept Handsworth down to 87, making it 5 in 5 and qualifying for the Warwickshire U17 T20 Blast semi-finals.
The main stand out from the managers point of you has been the significant contributions from all players in the squad. Everybody has put their hand up and taken crucial wickets and scored runs at important times; a true team effort.
With all but a game to go, well done to Reiss Chagar, our top scorer with 429 runs (3x50s) as well as spinners Nicolas Maas and Farhan Karim, both having 12 wickets apiece to top the charts. Their contributions were part of a wider success for the U17s, resulting in the ‘treble’ and with Finals Day set for 3rd September at Sutton Coldfield cc, they hope to ride into the sunset in style.
Written by Adi Muthurkumar
