U15 Cricket Team Crowned Midlands Champions

On Tuesday 22 May, our U15 cricket team became the Midlands Champions in the ESCA U15 One Day Cup* after a conclusive 25-run victory over Bromsgrove School. The team won the U14 County Cup in 2017 in order to progress to the regional competition this season. This win secures a well-deserved place for them in the ESCA National Finals, which take place later this season.

Bedford batted first, in glorious sunshine on a superb Bromsgrove ground, with Rowan Bascetta-Pollitt and Elliott Byrne both batting positively to get the team off to a good start. Byrne was unfortunately run out for a brisk 18, however this brought Cam Melly to the crease and, in no time at all, he was running quick singles to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Both batsmen continued to run well and punish the bad ball until Bascetta-Pollitt was out LBW for an excellent 66 and Melly was stumped, looking for quick runs, for a superb score of 65. At this stage of the innings, Bedford were really looking to push on to get as close to 240 as possible, and it was Henry Warren who went in and blasted 38 not out in just 18 balls, which took the team up to the challenging total of 225 for 4 off 40 overs.

Bromsgrove came out to bat with all guns blazing, which took our boys by surprise. Their opening batsmen looked to hit boundaries from the first ball, so Bromsgrove got off to a flying start scoring 50 off the first four overs of the innings! This now meant that it would be difficult to defend the total; we would now need to bowl Bromsgrove out to win the game. Henry Warren eventually took the first wicket for Bedford by bowling their ‘pinch hitter’ with 60 on the board. Bromsgrove continued to keep up with the required run rate and, at 20 overs, they were just about favourites to win the game. However, Bedford kept plugging away, and a good spell of spin bowling from Varun Parmar got our noses back in front as he took three wickets, including the prize wicket of their opening batsman, for 60. At this stage, Bedford looked to have the game sewn up as they kept taking wickets for very few runs scored, but a last wicket flurry by Bromsgrove’s number 10 and 11 batsmen meant that the game was not quite over, as they crept closer and closer to our score. It took an excellent catch by Elliott Byrne to end proceedings and give the victory to Bedford, who won the game by 25 runs.

Overall, this was a superb performance by the U15s, and they are now just one game away from the final.

*The ESCA U15 One Day Cup (formerly known as the Lord’s Taverners Colts Trophy) has over 1,100 entries and is renowned for being an exceedingly difficult competition to win. The competition is played over a two-year period. At U14, the teams compete at local level, progressing to county level when the team reaches U15.