A full round-up of the week’s Huntingdonshire county action

County Round-up

HUNTINGDONSHIRE were off the pace in their East of England U19 Championship match against Essex at St Ives CC, losing by 72 runs.

The visitors included members of their elite academy squad, and elected to bat first after winning the toss reaching 216 all out.

The spin bowling of captain Jon Carpenter and James Sykes kept Essex in check, and Dan Malem and Harry Chappell backed them up with a couple of wickets each.

Hunts lost two quick wickets at the start of their reply, before Carpenter (27) and Chris Budd (44) set about a rebuild job. Carpenter’s departure after a stand of 40 brought in Simon Cafferkey (10) who added 42 with Budd before the final Hunts wicket went down on 144.

The County U15 XI beat Cambridge away after working hard to restrict the home side to 250 all out, with Jack Skidmore and Daniel George taking three wickets apiece.

After two early wickets fell in the reply, Elliott Cafferkey (54) and Joss Bowers (55) repaired the damage and Marcus Howard (36) set up Joe Donnelly (46*) to lead Hunts to a win at 254-9 in the final over.

The U15s were less successful against a strong Berkshire side at Finchampstead in the U15 County Cup. Batting first, they were dismissed for 193 with only Rob Sayer showing any real form. Berkshire then rattled off the runs for the loss of just one wicket with 14 overs to spare.

The County O50 team’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the National O50 competition took a blow with a seven-wicket defeat to Suffolk at Waresley.

Batting first, Huntingdonshire’s total of 199-9 looked vulnerable and could not be defended by their bowling attack. The Hunts total was built around Bob Milne (86) and Gary Scotcher (38), with 22 extras.

Suffolk raced away at a good pace and, though Hunts took three wickets, half centuries from three batsmen won the match.

Hunts O50 were at Flitwick, Bedfordshire, yesterday (Tuesday) hoping for a win to keep alive their interest in the competition.

Hunts U13 missed their two opening batsmen as they were beaten by Essex at Dean. Essex ran up 239-5 from 40 overs, but Hunts could not get close at 115-9.

Hunts U10 handed Suffolk a huge 114-run defeat, totalling 189-8 and then bowling out a shell-shocked Suffolk for just 75 runs.