Belfast Under 14's finished in third place in this year's Ford Lord's Taverners Inner Cities Cup, played this week at Arundel in West Sussex, where they joined seven other major UK cities who had qualified for the National Finals of this prestigious tournament, which was won this year by Swansea who beat Leeds by 1 wicket in a very close final.

Belfast, who had defeated London (North) and London (South) in preliminary round matches to qualify for this year's national finals, found themselves in a group of four with Leeds, Bristol, and Birmingham.They opened with disappointing 6 wicket defeat by a very strong Leeds side at the famous Arundel Castle ground. They then had comfortable wins over Bristol and Birmingham to finish in second place in their group.

Belfast then met the runners up in the other group, Leicester, in the play-off for 3rd and 4th place and a good batting performance saw them victorious by 27 runs.

At the closing ceremony Belfast's Paddy Beverland received the award as Fielder of the Tournament.

Results:

Belfast 137 (P Beverland 40, B McGavock 28)
Leeds 139/4
Leeds won by 6 wickets

Bristol 109 (C Irvine 5-20, B McGavock 3-12)
Belfast 110/5 (C Irvine 25no, G Millar 24, T Luke 21no)
Belfast won by 5 wickets

Birmingham 76/8 (A Forbes 3-10, S Saxena 2-10)
Belfast 80/0 (P Beverland 43no, J Beattie 20no)
Belfast won by 10 wickets

3rd/4th place play-off
Belfast 151/8 (B McGavock 44)
Leicester 124/6 (B McGavock 3-28, S Saxena 2-24)
Belfast won by 27 runs

Belfast squad:
John Matchett (CIYMS; captain)
Thomas Anderson (Holywood)
Jack Beattie (CIYMS)
Paddy Beverland (CSNI)
Matt Campbell (Carrickfergus)
Andrew Forbes (Carrickfergus)
Craig Irvine (North Down)
Andrew Knape (Instonians)
Thomas Luke (Instonians)
Ben McGavock (CSNI)
Peter McKibbin (North Down)
Gareth Millar (CIYMS)
Sahil Saxena (Instonians)