Kent win U17 double in style

Kent won the U17 County Cup on Sunday 13th September in a match played at Caythorpe CC in Nottinghamshire. The beaten Finalists were, once again, Durham. The Cup Final was a repeat of the Championship Final played at Arundel ten days before and once again Kent proved to be too strong for their northern opponents.

On this occasion there were no concerns about the weather forecast so Durham batted first. Ben Raine (77) and Joe Coyne (14) got their team off to a good start. Raine took centre stage as he pounded anything short through the mid-wicket area. The Kent seamers did not have any answer to this onslaught and the opening partnership put on 68 in 13 overs. Joe Coyne was caught behind off the first ball of spin bowled by Kent. Durham continued to build a good score until Ben Raine fell to Chris Piesley when a loose shot offered a catch to short extra which was pouched safely by Adam Ball. Ben had scored 77 out of 137 in 26 overs and Durham looked to be on the way to a total of around 280. From this stage the Durham scoring slowed as the Kent spinners started to stiffle the run scoring. When Fabian Cowdrey came into the attack in the 38th over the complexion of the match changed further. Ramanpreet Singh was bowled for 43 with the total on 173-3 and then Durham wickets started to fall as they pressed to increase the scoring rate and post a good total. An attempt at a sharp single saw Usman Arshad run out by a direct hit from Fabian Cowdrey and with the score now at 192-6 Kent had the upper hand. Charlie MacLeod then made two exceptionally smart stumpings to hasten the end of the Durham innings with Cowdrey finishing with impressive figures of 5-21 from 6 overs.

When Kent batted it was obvious that the wicket was still playing well as Daniel Bell-Drummond (11) and Chris Vernon (68) started the innings at an impressive rate. Bell-Drummond made a fatal error by playing back to a ball from Josh Bousfield, when he should have gone forward, and was hit on the shin in front of middle stump - probably one of the easiest decisions Rob Bailey has had to make all season. With Chris Piesley run out for 10 and then an outstanding catch made by Joe Coyne to dismiss Cowdrey (21) the game was interestingly poised at 82-3 but as Durham had only bowled 15 overs at this stage more inroads into the batting were needed. Adam Ball then came to join Chris Vernon and the pair added 109 in 24 overs to put Kent in an impregnable position. With the score on 191 Chris Vernon was caught behind by Tom Hodgson off Matthew Sampson-Barnes, who had been the pick of the Durham bowlers, but by then Kent were in the driving seat needing 26 off 11 overs. Lorne Burns and Adam Ball (79*) made sure that no further wickets fell as Kent eased to victory by 6 wickets with 5 overs to spare.

The Presentations were made to the teams by ex-England and Notts player Eddie Hemmings and Paul Johnson who had also played for Notts and England A.

Eddie Hemmings was able to enjoy a dual role as he is also the groundsman for Caythorpe CC and was congratulated by all for producing such an excellent playing surface for this Final.

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