Ardingly College U13 Festival Winners.......
Hertfordshire Under 13's boys squad have just returned from a very successful tournament at Ardingly College in West Sussex where they won the competition for the first time.
The festival which is hosted by Sport Arabia and Sussex CCC and now in its sixth year invited 8 teams to compete and split into two groups.
Hertfordshire were placed in the same group as Sussex, Oxfordshire and G force from Dubai.
Herts first game was against Oxfordshire and having won the toss and electing to bat openers Scott Rolfe (47) and George Langston (56) put on an excellent 88 for the first wicket.
Good contributions from Oliver Howell (38) and Tom McCormick (32) took the Herts score to a very respectable 215 for 8 off their 40 overs.
Oxford lost early wickets in chasing the large total and could only muster 171 for 9 in reply off their 40 overs.
Pick of the Herts bowlers was Arthur Garrett with figures of 4 for 13 off 8 overs.
The following day Herts travelled the short distance to play Sussex at the Blackstone Academy ground and the game was delayed until after the lunch break following heavy overnight rain. With the game reduced to 35 overs per side Herts again won the toss and made 180 for 9 with Arthur Garrett top scoring with 39.
Sussex made a poor start in reply with Jamie Regan taking 2 wickets in the opening over! Sussex had slumped to 58 for 3 off 20 overs when the umpires took the teams off the pitch following the return of the rain and when the game was abandoned 30 minutes later Herts had won the game on a faster run rate.
The final group game against G Force saw Herts bat first and amass 233 for 6 off 40 overs with valuable contributions from Tom O'Toole (69 no) Rohan Day (60) and Jamie Regan (29). G Force could only reply with 114 all out, Arthur Garrett again the star man with the ball with figures of 4 for 11 runs.
Having won the group Herts were due to play the winners of the other group, The Zayed Academy from Abu Dhabia but the following day was lost to heavy rain.
So the last day of the festival which had originally been set aside for a T20 tournament instead hosted the final between the two group winners and Herts were asked to bat having lost the toss.
A brilliant century from Oliver Howell (109) steered his team to a massive total of 247 for 8 off 40 overs. Zayed Academy facing a daunting task of chasing the huge total crashed to 48 all out in the 17 over. Arthur Garrett with match figures of 5 for 3 in 7 overs.
Not surprisingly Arthur was named the man of the tournament for his 14 wickets and contribution with the bat.
Tour Squad: Scott Rolfe, George Langston, Oliver Howell, Jamie Regan, Rohan Day, Tom O'Toole, Jack Timms, Arthur Garrett, Sam Biggs, James Mitchelin, Tom McCormick, Ben Adshead, Teddy Duke, Harry Kendell.
Manager: Malcolm Kiely
Coach: Mark Stear