New Forest U16 boys through to defend Ageas Cup

New Forest U16s gave themselves the opportunity to defend the Ageas U16 Cup they won last year with differing victories over Parley and Basingstoke in the round robin qualifying format.

New Forest 147-3 (19 points) beat Parley CC 135-4 (7 points) by 12 runs

Batting first New Forest started cautiously with Sam Presland (16) and Joshua Royan (40 no) taking the total to 57 at the half way point in the face of some accurate Parley bowling and tight fielding. It was the arrival of Daniel Bailey (27 no) that saw a leap in the run rate with some powerful clean hitting well supported by Toby Mills (23 no) and with useful attacking cameos from Joshua Bailey (9) and Jack Harris (11). Royan returned at the death to add to the anchor role he had performed earlier and to close the innings at 147-3.

In the Parley reply New Forest struggled to shake off the Xmas rust, straying frequently down the legside with the ball, overstepping and finding it difficult to exert pressure on the batsmen with plans they could execute. At the mid-point Parley were 10 ahead of where New Forest had been and a good middle order partnership between Kyle Hopkins (31 no) and Kieran Laird (27 no) gave Parley a fighting chance of the win with 29 needed off the last 2 overs. With the game on the line the New Forest returned to something like their usual selves with good final overs from Joshua Bailey (3-0-25-1) and Joshua Royan (3-0-24-1) buttressed by a run out through the combination of Mills and Harris. A good tight game with Parley ending just short on 135-4.

New Forest 192-2 (22 points) beat Basingstoke CC 56-6 (2 points) by 136 runs

In the second match of the evening New Forest took on a young but game Basingstoke side depleted by withdrawals of some of their senior players. Batting first a succession of New Forest batsmen made hay beginning with Jack Harris (28 no) and Joshua Royan (30 no). Daniel Bailey (29 no) completed a good nights work with the bat in partnership with his brother Joshua Bailey (18). Finally Toby Mills (28 no) and Sam Presland (25) guided the New Forest to a daunting total of 192-2.

In response Basingstoke battled away bravely against insurmountable odds with opener Billy Lewis (20) innings a particular highlight. Wickets fell regularly with a couple of sharp run outs by Daniel Bailey in the 3rd over effectively ending the contest. There were also successes for Joshua Bailey (2-0-16-2) and Sam Presland (2-1-7-2) who picked up a rare wicket maiden to close out the Basingstoke innings on 56-6.

New Forest now move on to next week's final where they will take on Havant and South Wilts in the round robin format.