Unstoppable U11s Win Terry Moore Trophy

23 August, 2017

GREAT MELTON U11s beat BROOKE U11s by 24 runs at Garboldisham in the Terry Moore Trophy Final

Great Melton's unstoppable U11s produced a superb bowling and fielding performance against Brooke in the Terry Moore Cup Final to make it 16 wins in 16 matches this season and carry off the trophy – becoming the second Great Melton side to win an Alliance final.

The performance, epitomised by a man-of-the-match Jamie Granville's 12 not out and 2-9 in 3 overs, was built around teamwork with all 8 players making a good contribution led by captain Corey Rushton whose astute field placings and bowling changes made chasing the 66 runs needed for victory impossible for Brooke who fell 24 runs short.

Having lost the toss and been invited to bat first Melton's total owed much to second pair James Cooper (11 not out) and Daniel Graves (4 not out). Granville, Rushton (2 out twice) and Harrison Cunningham (7 out once) tried hard to add further impetus to the innings but several wickets were lost, including one off the final ball so the total of 295-5, giving them a net score of 265, looked a little below par. Harry Ford with 1-8 was Brooke's most economical bowler but there were wickets for Will Banter (1-17), Sam Reynolds (1-14), Greg Taylor (1-14) and E.Cross (1-20).

Brooke's reply never really got going against some accurate bowling and enthusiastic fielding. Marshalling his team well, Rushton was quick to spot which Brooke batsmen were the most dangerous and starved them of the strike. Wickets fell regularly and there were 2-fers from Granville (3-0-9-2), Cunningham (3-0-19-2) and Ben Gaskin (2-0-8-2) plus one for Peter Thomas (2-0-10-1) and all the Brooke batsmen struggled for runs with only Cross (12 not out) reaching double figures. By the time he and Harry Grove came to the wicket Brooke needed 34 to win off just 4 overs. As Cross was allowed a single wherever possible Melton's bowlers kept young Grove on strike and he was dismissed twice as Brooke fell further behind the required rate. In the end Melton won by the comfortable margin of 24 runs – a victory for tactics and teamwork.

Alliance Chairman Peter Thomas asked Rob Amey of sponsor Cecil Amey to present the medals and trophies with Granville just edging the man-of-the-match award from Rushton and Cunningham.

Well done the U11s on a fantastic season and a big thank-you to their manager and scorer, Maxine Rushton, who has organised the team superbly, Assistant Manager Marcus Mawby and coaches Matt Rushton and David Bunn. Having also won the South Norfolk League Barnard Division there just remains the Carnival Cup where Melton and runners-up Mattishall will take on Norwich and one other team from the Tungate Division at Garboldisham on Friday 1st September.

For scorecard click here: http://greatmelton.play-cricket.com/website/results/3198890