Yorkshire Cricket Board

Yorkshire U14A 185-0 (Alex Cree 115*, Sam Spenceley 59*) beat Cumbria U14 184 all out (Leo Diffey 3-35) by 10 wickets.

A warm day greeted the squad at a rural Kirkby Stephen CC to continue their ECB Royal London U14 cup campaign after a couple of washouts in recent weeks. On what looked to be a flat deck, captain Sam Spenceley lost the toss and Yorkshire were asked to field first. Charlie Pearson (8-2-18-1) set the tone with a miserly spell on his A team debut, getting the first wicket to an outstanding diving catch at gully by Lachlan Doidge. Leo Diffey bowled with some pace and bounce from the opposite end, making life uncomfortable for the batsmen and not allowing many scoring opportunities. Caleb Bradford was introduced first change in his first game of the year and did not let the captain down, continuing to build the pressure bowling an economical spell of spin bowling (8-2-19-1). Combined with George Crowther, who bowled with some real pace (8-0-25-1), Yorkshire restricted Cumbria to 55-3 at the halfway drinks break. Cumbria came out after the break with some added intent and began to put the pressure back on the Yorkshire bowlers with some boundaries off the bowling of Lachlan Doidge and Isaac Coates, despite the movement found in the air from Coates. The introduction of left arm spinner Will Chapman (6-2-21-2) and the reintroduction of Leo Diffey (10-3-35-3) took the backbone out of the Cumbria fightback, eventually bowling them out for 184 in the 50th over.

Openers Alex Cree and skipper Sam Spenceley came out with intent from the word go, reaching the total for the loss of no wickets with Alex finishing on and excellent 115*, after showcasing his ability to go through the gears post drinks break, and Spenceley ably supporting with an equally impressive 59*.

Scorecard: https://yorkcb.play-cricket.com/website/results/3736493

Yorkshire U14A 172-3 (Lachlan Doidge 88*, Leo Diffey 50*) beat Lincolnshire 171-9 (Leo Diffey 4-38; Caleb Bradford 3-20) by 7 wickets.

Following the long round trip to Cumbria, another warm and sunny morning greeted the U14s at Driffield Town for their ECB Royal London U14 cup game against Lincolnshire; where the squad were looking to build on the previous day's performance. Sam Spenceley made it two losses out of two for the coin toss, with Lincs electing to bat first on what looked to be another good batting deck. The Lincs openers got off to a positive start before both opening bowlers dragged it back and began to get on top once again with some disciplined bowling from both George Crowther (10-2-38-0) and Isaac Coates (7-2-19-0). Leo Diffey came on first change and made the vital breakthrough, removing the dangerous Sylvester for 32 caught behind by Isaac Light before having Dring out mistiming a hook to a spectacular diving catch over his shoulder by Will Nicholson. An outstanding spell of spin bowling from Caleb Bradford (10-3-20-3), demonstrating the ability to drift and spin the ball whilst taking regular wickets, kept pegging back Lincs before their skipper Matthew Berry added some impetus into the innings with an aggressive innings of 41, before Will Chapman (8-1-32-1) had him bowled. Leo Diffey was brought back and picked up another two wickets, ending his spell with figures of 10-1-38-4 to leave Lincs on 171-9 off their 50 overs.

Yorkshire openers Lachlan Doidge and Zak Jahangir walked out to the middle hoping to get the team off to a positive start. However, an excellent yorker first up to Jahangir saw him depart for 0 with Will Chapman following a few overs later to a similar ball LBW for 4. Will Nicholson joined Lachlan and looked in no danger before top edging a full toss to deep backward square for 18, enter Leo Diffey who followed up his 4fer with an aggressive knock of 50 not out off only 36 balls, ably assisting Lachlan Doidge who played a faultless innings - showing the ability to both rotate the strike and hit some sublime shots over mid off and through the covers, ending on 88* off only 71 balls. Yorkshire won with 23.5 overs to spare and showed the talent in the squad with the previous days run makers Spenceley and Cree not getting in to bat. A professional performance from the squad with a trip to Durham in two weeks in the next ECB fixture.

Scorecard: https://yorkcb.play-cricket.com/website/results/3736514