U14s and U18s enjoy cup success

Sussex U18s have reached the ECB 50-over Plate final at Kibworth CC on Monday, 31st August, 10.45am start, where they will face a Cumbria side who knocked out Nottinghamshire in their recent semi-final.

The previous three rounds have seen Sussex beat Berkshire at Finchampstead by 26 runs, Cricket East at Blackstone by five wickets and Hertfordshire at Blackstone by seven wickets.

Notable performances from Charl Spies and Adam Ibrahim saw the pair both record scores of 95 against Berkshire, whilst Dan Burton claimed four wickets.

Against Cricket East, Ollie Kirtley took four wickets in the same match that Finn Roberts blasted 94 and Zan Copleston hit an impressive score of 82.

The following game witnessed excellent bowling by Tom Bailey, who claimed figures of 3 for 30 before Arthur Hanson (62) and Louie Lawrence (60*) saw Sussex complete the victory over Hertfordshire.

Moving into this recent weekend, and it was time for the semi-final against Wiltshire at Royal Wootton Bassett CC.

Sussex batted first after winning the toss and posted an impressive total of 380-9, with Louie Lawrence scoring 155 off 104 balls and Arthur Hanson 67 of 60 deliveries as the two main contributors.

The bowlers restricted Wiltshire to just 197, as Adam Ibrahim took wonderful figures of 5 for 41 and Rupert Anderson chipped in with a handy 3 for 29. Victory, then, was secured by a margin of 183 runs.

This competition runs alongside the U18 County Championship and, with two games to go, Sussex are currently top of the table with maximum points having secured victories over Middlesex, Essex and Kent. This week, they travel to Basingstoke to face Hampshire for a three-day match, starting on Tuesday.

Head of Talent Pathway, Keith Greenfield, said: We have played a lot of very good cricket across this summer with our batting unit functioning very well having all of our top 6 having scored hundreds and this backed up by a a solid bowling unit led by leading wicket taker Alfie Smethurst and over the next three weeks we are hopeful to push on and win both of these competitions."