DAY 1

Here’s The U14s Wrap For The Day…

We won the toss and elected to bat. Brisbane North had a quality bowling line up and made our boys work for every run. Jack Southgate and Isaac Russell put on a 42 run opening stand. Jack top scored for the day with 39 runs.

Brisbane North’s spinners tied us down and took wickets at crucial moments as our boys had difficulty building partnerships. After 50 overs we were 10-97.

Connor Cadwell, Braxton Tusa and Dan Desmet all bowled well with no reward, but the first wicket fell after an excellent fielding effort from Max Holden, getting a run out from the boundary. Our spinners came on and slowed down the game creating plenty of opportunities. Zavier Carter bowled well for no reward, Aedan Mayo bowled tight and finished with 2/13 off 8 overs, and Jack Southgate took 1/6 off 4.

Brisbane North passed our score in the 37th over 5 wickets down.

Not the ideal start, but the boys are keen to bounce back tomorrow against the BEARS

DAY 2

Here’s The U14s day 2 wrap…

Game day 2 saw us take on the BEARS on a dewy and damp morning. We lost the toss and got sent into bat. Jack Southgate got us off to a good start scoring 22, but by drinks we were 2/37. An unfortunate runout saw Dan Desmet out for a duck and shortly after Maxi Holden was back in the sheds. At 7/99 we were looking in a bit of trouble. Enter Ben Blackwell and Ollie Friend who put on a 36 run partnership for the 8th wicket, the boys set us up for a strong finish. Scorchers scoring 159 off our 50 overs.

Connor Caldwell got an early wicket to put the BEARS under pressure, but they batted smart and dug in to form some strong partnerships. Our boys toiled away with patient bowling and when the BEARS were 2/135, we looked to be out of the game. Enter our captain Dan Desmet and young gun Ollie Friend who turned things around with the ball. The energy was high and the boys didn’t give up, and wickets started to fall.

We took 7 wickets for 35 runs to bring the game to the second last ball. Unfortunately for us, the BEARS passed our score with 1 ball to spare.

Connor Cadwell 2/15 off 7 overs
Dan Desmet 2/13 off 8 overs
Ollie Friend 2/12 off 5 overs

We are extremely proud of the effort today. The boys played brilliantly and with incredible spirit. Well done.

DAY 3

Here’s The U14s day 3 wrap…

Today we had our third and final pool game, this time against Wide Bay. The boys were pumped up and ready after the narrowest of losses yesterday.

We won the toss and elected to bowl first, and the boys did not disappoint. We took regular wickets and had Wide Bay 5/60 until some great batting and big hitting at the end saw Wide Bay reach a total of 160. We had individual wicket takers but congratulations go to Zavier Carter for bowling some very good leg spin and applying pressure with almost every ball.

The boys were confident in chasing down the runs and by drinks we were 1/55. Jack Southgate and Luke Wellington putting on a great partnership until  Luke got out the over after drinks. Enter our captain, Daniel Desmet. He and Jack went about batting as a maestro does his piano and had Wide Bay chasing leather. They boys amassed an 80 run partnership with Dan getting out for 45 doing the team thing in attempts to up the run rate for a bonus point. Rory Ramsden came in and supported Jack as they took the game away from Wide Bay. Jack hitting the winning runs on the last ball of the 40th over.

We won with only 3 wickets down, and Jack finishing on 78 not out.

Our boys finished second in Pool A which means tomorrow we take on MSW in the semi-final.

Amazing performance today, lads. Very proud!

DAY 4

Here’s The U14s day 4 wrap…

We played in the semi-final against MSW today. We won the toss, and on an overcast morning and pitch we thought may seem, we elected to bowl first.

We had MSW 1 for not many with Connor Caldwell opening our account with a seed that sent off stump flying. MSW fought hard and rotated the strike well. preventing us from building pressure. The MSW played our spinners well, forcing regular bowling changes, but some tight bowling from our quicks restricted MSW to 8/223 off 50 overs, where at one point it was looking like a score of 300 plus was possible. Connor Caldwell took 3/40 off 8 overs, and Dan Desmet took 2/27 off 8 overs.

We went into our innings with complete confidence we could chase the runs down, but after loosing 3 quick wickets, we needed to rebuild. Our captain, Dan Desmet, and all-rounder Max Holden went about steading the ship playing sensible but brave cricket to get us to 85 after 34 overs.

We needed to up the run rate and take some risks if we were to get into a winning position, and unfortunately we lost Dan’s wicket after drinks. Rory Ramsden came in and played an amazing innings hitting MSW’s quicks all over the ground. He finished on 43  and was supported by some solid batting by Aedan Mayo and Zavier Carter. Unfortunately, MSW were too strong for us today, with Scorchers finishing all out for 143.

We meet Gold Coast tomorrow in our final game as the two sides play off for 3rd place.

DAY 5

Here’s The U14s day 5 wrap…

The boys were excited for the final day of the carnival. We took on Gold Coast in the battle for 3rd place.

We lost the toss, Gold Coast elected to bat. The boys bowled exceptionally well; you wouldn’t think they’ve already played four days of cricket. Gold Coast went about their innings with patience and we gave them very little opportunity to score. Zavier Carter bowled 10 overs straight getting 1/32. He put on an excellent display of leg spin bowling. Captain, Dan Desmet, took 2/35 off 8 overs, but special mention goes to Connor Caldwell for an excellent display of quick bowling, getting 3/12 off 6 overs. An absolute stand out. Gold Coast finished their innings 8/155.

Pumped up to chase the runs, our boys went about our innings. Jack Southgate opened up and batted patiently and ran between the wickets superbly. He made 26 off 55 balls. When we needed a partnership, Luke Wellington and Rory Ramsden put their hands up. They put on 50 together to get us in a position to have a crack at the total in the last 5 overs. Luke finished on 39 off 91 balls and Rory with 25 off 27 balls.

Maxi Holden and Brax Tuza fought hard in the final overs but we fell 11 runs short. We finished 6/144.

With two very close losses this carnival, the boys are very proud of their performances and look forward to representing the Scorchers in the future.

A massive congratulations go to Jack Southgate who made the QJC merit side. With 166 runs at an average of 41.5, and two wickets, Jack was outstanding and was recognised for his performances. Well done.