Gloucestershire Under 15 Boys v Middlesex Under 15 Boys (at the Bristol County Ground),
ECB Under 15 Royal London Cup Quarter Final
Gloucestershire 224-9 (50 overs)
Middlesex 135 all out (38 overs)
Gloucestershire won by 89 runs
Scorecard

Gloucestershire Under 15 Boys booked their place in the semi-finals of the ECB Royal London Cup with a convincing 89 run win over Middlesex.

They take on Yorkshire today for a place in the final tomorrow after a superb allround display at the home of Gloucestershire Cricket, the Bristol County Ground.

After losing the toss, Sami Hamid’s (Winterbourne) men were asked to bat, with Will Hope (Great Rissington) and Tommy Boorman (Dumbleton) tasked with seeing off the new ball. Boorman clipped a ball off his legs through mid-wicket and looked perfectly at home, before being judged LBW to Ramzan, in just the second over with the score on 11.

Left hander George Driver Dickerson (Rockhampton) came to the crease in a bid to build a partnership, only to get caught behind with only 3 added to the score.

New man Stanley Brown (Cheltenham) hit a boundary early on before being bowled to make it 20-3. With the home side now under real pressure someone needed to dig in and bring some stability to the situation.

Hope did just that with a disciplined and dogged innings of 21. Nick Schubach (9) (Dumbleton) and Hope doubled the score before the former was run out looking for a tight second.

The home side were on 44-4, as Praneel Choughule (Thornbury) walked to the crease. He set about restoring order with a patient innings that included some crisp stroke play through the off side and careful running between the wickets.

When Hope was caught behind for a gutsy 21 from 67 balls the score on 68-5 with Middlesex well on top. The situation went from bad to worse for Gloucestershire at 68-5 became 72-7 soon afterwards.

But Choughule and wicketkeeper Ollie Elliott (Cheltenham) proved to be Gloucestershire’s saviours with the bat and gave the home side a fighting chance with an outstanding 109 run partnership.

Elliott took the attack to the opposition with some explosive shots, including five sixes and four fours. At the other end Choughule was the perfect foil, playing a more patient innings of 56 off 91 balls before being bowled attempting a pull shot to make it 181-8.

Gloucestershire lost their ninth wicket one ball later and seven overs left, it was important that Will Gilderson (Dumbleton) occupied the crease and supported Elliott in a bid to top 200. He did just that and at the other end Elliott now opened up, hitting beautiful straight sixes and some innovative ramps to push the score to 224-9 and end on 85 not out.

In reply Gloucestershire opened up with the left arm spin of Ryan Kilmister (Dumbleton) and the pace of Brown. They started well but it took the introduction of offspinner Choughule to get the breakthrough when Schubach took a fantastic catch to dismiss Imman with the score on 19.

The Middlesex batsmen ran well between the wickets and recovered to 68 before Choughule struck again.

This time Driver Dickerson took the catch to start a collapse which saw Middlesex go from 68-1 to 78-4. Choughule claimed his third of the match when Noori was caught by Hamid at extra cover and Hope (2-22) joined the fray with a caught behind to dismiss walker.

Now buzzing with belief, Gloucestershire now had the momentum and continued to make inroads into the visitors’ batting line-up. Hope claimed his second to make it 98-5 and Chougule capped off a tremendous allround day with two more as Middlesex slumped to 115-7. Choughule finished with a brilliant 5-11 from nine overs to put his side in the driving seat.

Gloucestershire still needed three wickets for victory and Thornbury’s Rhys Price (2-32) was involved in all three. First he had Ramzan caught by Hope for 9 before running out skipper Bulathsinhala off his own bowling for 10.

He then brought the curtain down on a famous Glos win with his second wicket – John caught Hamid for 1 – as the Middlesex innings came to a close 89 runs short of their target.


Under 17 Boys Development XI Round-Up
v Warwickshire – Glos lost by 16 runs
v Northamptonshire – Glos won by 76 runs
v Somerset – Glos won by 49 runs

Gloucestershire Under 17s Development bounced back from a narrow defeat against Warwickshire to record convincing wins over Northants and Somerset.

In each game Gloucestershire fielded youthful line-ups containing a number of the Under 14 squad alongside more experienced individuals.

Against Warwickshire, Gloucestershire won the toss and chose to field. But they may have been ruing their decision as the visitors reached 72 without loss in double-quick time. The introduction of spin brought the breakthrough as skipper Max Shepherd (2-32) (Bourton Vale) clean bowled Alfie Blundell for 26.

Shepherd struck again soon after to remove the other opener Callum Herron (30) as the home side wrestled back control of the game. Legspinner Sam Swingwood (1-37) (Monmouth) then got in on the action to dismiss Hashim Iqbal (9) and make it 99-3.

But Warwickshire fought back with a fourth wicket stand of 82 between captain William Isles (53) and Yasin Khan (60).

The game then swung back Gloucestershire’s way through the introduction of legspinner Tamed Ahmed (3-45) (Weston-Super-Mare).

He broke the fourth wicket stand by removing Isles before clean bowling his replacement Idris Otto-Mein. Ahmed then had Dinuk De Silva stumped by Under 14 Sam Brooks (Bristol YMCA) and ran out Khan to help restrict Warwickshire to 247-7 from their 50 overs.

In reply Gloucestershire put on 31 for the first wicket before Freddie Merrett (Lechlade) was trapped LBW by Angad Kandola for 8.

His opening partner, Brooks, continued to play positively, with 30 that included seven fours before falling to the same bowler. When number four Fuzael Ahmed (Bristol YMCA) went cheaply Glos were wobbling on 60-3.

They got back on course with 40 from Tamed Ahmed who shared in stands of 43 with Kunal Barman (15) and 37 with U14 captain Ben French (Frocester). But with the run rate rising and wickets falling just as partnerships were developing Gloucestershire were always chasing the game.

French was eventually run out for 33 and despite Swingwood making 35 from 28 and receiving good support from the tail, the home side were eventually bowled out for 231 in the 48th over.

Against Northants, Merrett led the way with a composed 75 from 110 balls. He was supported by Tamed Ahmed (27) and Swingwood who made an excellent 52* from 64 balls coming in at number six as Glos finished on 237-8.

In reply the visitors saw off the opening bowlers but lost their first wicket to first change quickie Alex Haynes (1-15) (Cirencester) who had Sam Birch caught and bowled for 16 to make it 41-1.

But it was the Gloucestershire spinners who eventually did the damage. After recovering to 80-1, Northants lost their last nine wickets for 81 runs as Tamed Ahmed (4-19) and Shepherd (3-33) combined to rip through the visiting batting line-up to secure a dominant 76 run victory.

Away to Somerset a Gloucestershire line-up containing six Under 14s pulled off a creditable 49 run win. Batting first, the visitors racked up 193 all out with contributions from Max Trotman (43) (Twyford House), Swingwood (35), Oliver Wood (24) (Cirencester) and Shepherd (20*).

In reply 14-year-old Taylor Ireland (Frocester) bowled an incredible spell, taking 2-20 from 16 overs to send the run rate rising. Shepherd and Swingwood continued their fine allround form taking 2-24 and 3-28 respectively to ensure Somerset were bowled out for 144.