The School County cup competition was a great success in the u14 side albeit playing a final in September due to a disrupted season due to the rain. We progressed through the early stages very swiftly with good performances from all team members, and when it came to the final it proved no different with all players taking responsibility and working as a unit.

The Final Cup match was played against Manor School from Mansfield at Welbeck Cricket Club. The new venue proved to be one that a couple of our teachers will recall is not in the middle of a housing estate as suggested by the Google Map and resulted in the team being lost for a short time in Mansfield.

The toss was won by Manor School and they chose to put a strong NHS batting line up in to bat first. Grant McCarthy and Sam Storey made a solid start with the score being 22 after just 3 overs. Grant then lost his wicket for 18 and Sam for 4. With 2 key wickets at an early stage for Manor, they may have thought there could be a collapse on the cards, but Paldip Sidhu came in, steadied the ship and played a scintillating innings of 71 n/o.

 

Curtly Martin-Wyatt (21) and  Richard Brierley (11*) accompanied Paldip and ensured the NHS posted what would be a daunting target of 134 for 3.

 

Manor School came into bat and although they battled well to keep out the opening bowlers, the 3 overs 5 wickets for 2 runs from Charles Lea put the game beyond reach of Manor School who were by this stage already losing the battle against a climbing run rate of more than 8 runs an over by this stage. To top it off Charles’ spell included a fantastic well deserved hat-trick. The match result was then sealed as NHS ripped through the opposition’s batting line-up with Richard Brierley taking 2 wickets, Martin-Wyatt taking 2, and Sam Storey taking 1, and the Manor

The “Man of the match” award went to Charles Lea for his 5 wickets for 2 runs with Paldip Sidhu a close contender with his unbeaten 71. Well Played!!