Hambledon took two teams of U9s to the Rose Bowl on Sunday July 3rd for the inaugural Zooter's Cup. 28 teams from all over Hampshire played out their games in the main arena with Cup and Plate trophies at stake.
Hambledon 'A' played their group games against Hartley Witney, Ropley and Sparsholt. The 'A' were well beaten by Hartley Witney, but rallied well to record wins against Ropley and Sparsholt.
Finishing 2nd in the group, the 'A' went into the knockout stages of the Cup competition, along with the 'B'. The eagerly awaited draw for the last 16 games saw the 'A' and 'B' teams playing each other with a quarter final against the winners of the Waterlooville v IBM Hursley match the prize. The 'A' came out on top against the 'B' to play Waterlooville.
A close game resulted in the 'A' winning by a handful of runs. Odiham & Greywell were the semi-final opponents. Odiham batted first and a below-par performance against some excellent Hambledon bowling and fielding saw them post 27 runs which Hambledon passed with ease.
Hartley Witney narrowly won their semi-final to set up the second meeting of the two teams that day - 9 hours after the first!
Hambledon won the toss and fielded first. A good bowling and fielding performance gave Hambledon a target of 57 to win. Losing a wicket to the very first ball of the innings didn't bode well, but some fine batting saw Hambledon home, seeing out the last few balls to win by 3 runs.
Eddie Mann was named man of the match.
Ross Hillman' report for the Bs:
Our first game was against Yately, where we lost by 34 runs i.e. 232 - 3 against 266 - 1
Second game we played Petersfield and won by 11 runs i.e. 255 - 1 against 241-2. In this game Max Harvey scored a huge six, almost clearing the next door pitch as well as the boundary.
In our final group match we beat Fair Oak by 32 runs i.e. 253-1 against 221-4. This game saw good batting from Andrew Perrott, James Whiting, Ben Jones and Frazer MacKenzie, and good bowling all round.
In our match against Hambledon A, we were a little out gunned in the batting, but Lloyd Paxton and Freddie Besly played well, a great catch by Seb Sharpe and then good bowling from Ollie Tinson and Max Harvey.
The boys really enjoyed themselves and being a B team did well to make the Cup competition.
Thanks must go to all the parents for their support during a very long day!
Well done to both Hambledon teams.
'B' squad:
- James Bristowe
- James Whiting
- Max Harvey
- Seb Sharpe
- James Lumby
- Ollie Tinson
- Ben Jones
- Lloyd Paxton
- Frazer MacKenzie
- Freddie Besly
- Alex Barker
'A' squad:
- Cameron Clarke
- Oscar Gillespie
- Matthew Houlberg
- Hugh Jones
- Hugo Pennant
- Ed Mann
- Ed Moger
- Joshua Wise
- Henry Wood