KES T20 Bath Champions for the 3rd Year running
Congratulations to the T20 team that continue their impressive record of results in this format versus teams from Bath and Bristol. Since the competition started three years ago, KES have now played 9 and won 9. The only game KES have lost in 3 years was against Kings Taunton, who went on to become eventual National winners last year.
Semi Final v Prior Park: KES 165-6 beat PP 125-8 by 40 runs.
Having got off to a brisk start, the match winning partnership was from Will Collier (66 from 46 balls) and Olly Metcalfe (36 from 32). Their 4th wicket stand of 79 in 57 balls set up the total of 165. Prior were never really in the hunt and lost wickets regularly. Metcalfe started the ball rolling with the key wicket of Seth Tapsfield caught at slip for 1, but Rupert Morgan finished off any hopes they had with the key spell of 4-0-25-3 in the middle overs.
Final v Kingswood: KES 195-3 beat KW 140-9 by 55 runs.
KES won the toss and batted first for the second time in the day. Losing Will Wales early brought Sam Mount to the crease and for the next 60 minutes it was carnage. Starting off with a partnership of 71 off 8 overs with Collier (35 off 23) and then 89 off the next 7.4 overs with Nick Green (19 off 20), Sam Mount crushed Kingswood hopes with controlled hitting and intelligent placement.His first 50 came up off 29 balls, his hundred 24 balls later. Hitting the last 4 balls for 6,4,6,6 Mount finished on 115 not out off 55 balls.
The Kingswood reply would be built around Harry Rouse who had scored a quickfire 100 in the semi final. Again Metcalfe got the first wicket and Rouse came to the crease and promptly hit his first 2 balls for 4. However in the next 5 overs KES set excellent fields and bowled good areas to restrict Rouse to only facing 3 more balls. By the time he faced his 6th ball the run rate was up to 12 an over and he was caught by a diving Will Collier off Rupert Morgan to effectively end the match. With KES having the luxury of trying out different bowling options, Kingswood eventually limped to 140-9 at 20 overs. Oli Metcalfe (2-25) and Rupert Morgan (2-28) the pick of the figures.
KES now play the winners of the Bristol and Gloucestershire groups in the last 32. Kings Taunton/Millfield will play the winners, and the last 4 will be played at Lords on June 28th in a round robin.
Congratulations to the whole squad and to Mr McComish, Head of Cricket and 1st team Coach.