On a blistering bank holiday Monday in Broxbourne, our U19s won an U19 T20 Day with two excellent performances against West Herts and Broxbourne.

In the morning game, skipper Austin Osborne won the toss and put West Herts in. R’Jai Gittens set the tone excellently taking a couple of early wickets (finished 3-12 off 4). We lost a little discipline just after the powerplay, however with both spinners Dan Laskey and Will Hodges combining well, we turned to Ben Foster’s leggies which came out beautifully as Ben went on to take a hat-trick! Ben’s final figures of 4-12 off 3 overs were well deserved! West Herts finished 130-9 off their 20 overs.

With the bat we lost a couple of early wickets but Austin and James Frans counter attacked with Fransy in particular looking in incredible form hitting two of his first five balls for big 6s! Austin fell for 17 but Fransy kept going with some extraordinary ball striking particularly straight down the ground. Ably supported by Ben Foster, Fransy finished with an unbelievable 77 off just 32 balls! He fell with us needing 3 to win with R’Jai obliging with arguably the biggest junior 6 I’ve ever seen to complete the win.

In the second game, an “unofficial Herts final”, we played Broxbourne who won the toss and chose to bat.

Dan Laskey and R’Jai set the tone with R’Jai bowling the quickest junior spell everyone on the ground had seen. Will Hodges made the key early breakthroughs taking an excellent 3-18 off his 4 overs including Broxbourne’s best player. Harry Frans also bowled very well taking 2-9 off 2 overs as they fell to 62-7. Broxbourne fought back well with their number 8 striking the ball very well for a quick fire 41. There were late wickets for James Frans, Ben Foster and Ben Warren with the latter thanks to an excellent stumping from Henry Hawkins who had replaced the ill-stricken Cam Krauth from the morning game.

We were chasing 127 to win and Henry got us off to a flyer striking the first three balls for 4 off their county opening bowler however fell trying to make it 4 in 4. We fell to 40-3 with the game very tight, until U16s Lewis Greenhill and Charlie Waugh (18) combined excellently to wrestle back the momentum. After Lewis fell for a counter attacking 33, James Frans came in and continued where he left off in the morning striking the ball all over Broxbourne to ensure BSCC would be victorious. Ben Foster (16*) stuck around with Fransy (37*) as they knocked off the required runs with 5 overs to spare.

It was an excellent performance from all the lads, with everyone performing with either the bat or ball in one or both games.

James Frans was named Player of the Tournament for his combined 114 runs off just 65 balls!

It was a great day hosted by Broxbourne with the strongest clubs in Herts competing in a good quality day of cricket. I’m sure we’d love to take part again next year with Geoff at the helm.

The U19 Ravi Bopara (Essex) tournament kicks off in 2 months time as we look to retain that title!