Frocester Foxes clinched the Gloucestershire Vitality Under 19 T20 title with a thrilling last-ball victory over Bedminster Bashers at the Brightside Ground.

Needing six to win off the final delivery, the reigning champions failed to score, handing the Foxes the silverware in a reverse of last year’s final.

Frocester all-rounder Will Naish (1-17) held his nerve, restricting the Bashers to seven runs in the last over and picking up the wicket of Lewis Mason (2) as Bedminster finished five runs short of the Foxes total of 121.

Frocester reached the final with a 37-run win over the Corse and Staunton Sixers in the first semi-final. They chose to bat first in the final but got off to a bad start as Bedminster reduced them to 29-3 and then 46-4 with two wickets for left-arm quick Josh Smith (2-18) and one each for spinner Max Tryfonos (1-19) and medium-pacer Joe Millard.

The Foxes fought back with a partnership of 39 between Will Helmke (29 off 26 balls) and Harry Senior (30 from 31) before Millard (3-25) struck twice in quick succession to make it 86-6.

But again Frocester staged a recovery – this time through Senior and Ashley Babbage who made 20 off 19 balls to help his side to 120-7 from their 20 overs.

In reply Tryfonos started brightly for the Bashers and had raced to 25 by the time Daniel Brownlee (2-32) made the breakthrough, clean-bowling Aiden Jones (5) to make it 31-1.

Millard and Tryfonos added 19 before 13-year-old off-spinner Taylor Ireland (2-16) picked up the key wicket of Tryfonos, stumped by Luke Woolway for 34 (32 balls).

The wicket failed to derail the Bashers as skipper Joseph Shean and Millard kept them on course with a third-wicket stand of 29.

With the score on 79, Shean (17 from 18) became Ireland’s second victim. And when Millard (21 from 26) fell to spinner Chad Trainor (2-26) 10 runs later Frocester sensed a way back into the game.

With Millard gone the wickets began to tumble, leaving Bedminster needing 12 from the final over with just two wickets in hand. Jack Filer (5* from 3) ensured the game would go to the last ball but Naish remained cool under pressure to seal Frocester’s first U19 T20 title.

Three players from the finalists received individual honours with Frocester’s Taylor Ireland winning the ‘Gun Bowler’ prize, his team-mate Chad Trainor took the fielding award while Bedminster’s Joe Millard was named as the tournament’s ‘Gun Batter’.

The finals day was the culmination of the fourth annual Gloucestershire U19 T20 – a tournament designed to recreate the razzamatazz of professional T20 competitions and keep young players in the game.

As well as featuring coloured clothing and pink balls, finals day was brought to life with music and video highlights on social media thanks to My Action Replay.

Finals day also featured both semi-finals. Frocester beat Corse and Staunton after posting 154-6. Trainor top-scored with 51 not out off 31 balls as Jack Worgan (2-17) and Callum King (3-54) shared the majority of the wickets.

In response Kiran Chakraborty and Adam Robson both made 36 as the Sixers reached 95-2. But they lost their last seven wickets for 22 runs to finish on 117-9. Naish (2-21), Ireland (2-17) and Brownlee (3-19) were the main men with the ball.

In the other semi-final Bedminster beat Cheltenham Chiefs by 27 runs. Josh Smith made 45 from 34 balls to help his side recover from 61-5 to 128-6 from their 20 overs.

Chiefs’ spinner Rutwick Kulkarni returned the remarkable figures of 2-10 from his four overs while left-arm seamer Josh Mill took 2-8 from three.

In reply opener James Palmer scored 43 but with no other meaningful contributions, Cheltenham fell 27 runs short. Mason took 2-22 while Gibbs was the pick of the bowlers with 3-14 from his four overs.