Read CC triumph in under-14s cup final

READ have won the Ribblesdale League Under 14s Knockout Cup Final.

Surprisingly, in this excuse for a summer, the match was played on a dry ground and a firm pitch, with Senior League umpires in charge, and only a short break for a shower.

Read captain, Keiron Grimshaw chose to field and Euxton soon lost a wicket to the enthusiastic Lancashire Under 12s’ Joe Noone.

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However, there was now a big stand with Johnson, who played some excellent strokes, scoring seven fours and one six in an aggressive innings of 42, and Meredith with an equally fine and strong innings of 41, which included hits into the adjacent farmyard.

Fortunately for Read these two worthy batsmen were clean bowled by some fine fast bowling by Aaron Carter and Joe Shirtcliffe, the innings finishing at 125-4, after 20 overs.

Read captain Grimshaw was confident his men could reach the target, and they were given a great start by the Under 12s’ opener Will Wrathall, playing a very aggressive and brief innings of 18.

The very strong Bradley Graham continued in a similar manner, with three confident boundaries in his innings of 15.

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The next batsman, the powerful Joe Troup, enhanced the scoring rate with two big hits into the farmyard.

His replacement, Aaron Carter, wisely picked out the balls to hit and, with three boundaries and two sixes, put Read ahead of the required scoring rate.

All through the innings the imperturbable and patient Grimshaw, as in previous rounds, played some beautiful stokes, between very sound defence, to hit the winning boundary through extra cover.

The new and highly enthusiastic and experienced Youth League Secretary, Ted Holden, introduced Derek Birchall, the Youth League Vice-Chairman and Read’s long-serving President, who presented the cup to captain Grimshaw after an exciting match.