Roger Bell

Holders Edinburgh won the Triangular Tournament at Prestwick CC on Monday and Tuesday with comfortable wins over  both Belfast and Glasgow Under 14's.
Edinburgh won their first match v Glasgow on Monday morning by 5 wickets, which left Belfast having to win against Edinburgh in the afternoon to prevent them returning to the capital with the trophy. Having been put in to bat on a slow wicket , Matthew Daly and Matthew Humphreys started well, taking 21 runs off the first 6 overs, before Humphreys fell for 11.

An almost single handed effort from Waringstown's  Daly, who hit 29 including four boundaries, helped Belfast along to 50 for 2 after 12 overs. Wickets then began to tumble and a series of unconvincing shots from the Belfast batsmen saw a dramatic collapse in which the last 8 wickets fell in the space of 7 overs for the addition of 26 runs. Belfast were all out for only 76, having used only 19.4 of their 30 overs.

A run out and a wicket apiece for Humphreys and Ethan Hanna reduced Glasgow to 23 for 3, but that was as good as it got for Belfast as Murray and Gill added 49 runs in 9 overs to take them to within 5 runs of victory. Instonians' James Rose removed both batsmen in successive deliveries to give Belfast some consolation, but Edinburgh got home by 5 wickets in 16.1 overs.

On Tuesday Belfast played Glasgow with only pride at stake, and although they put in a much better performance, they were again well beaten. Glasgow won the toss and batted first, and scored a formidable 193 for 4 in their 30 overs, with skipper Cairns retiring on 53. Opening bowler Michael Waite picked up a couple of wickets, with Adam Kennedy and a run out accounting for the other two to fall.

It soon became evident that a much younger and smaller Belfast side was not going to threaten this target. However, they batted much better, and managed to get through their 30 over allocation, finishing on 110 for 9. A 40 run partnership for the 6th wicket between Ballymena's Josh Drain (14) and skipper Ben Beattie (20) was the highlight of the Belfast innings.

Due to other tournaments taking place, Belfast fielded an Under 13 side which include two 12 year olds in this year's Under 14 tournament. The opposition were bigger and stronger, apart from some of the batting on the first day, a very talented group gave a reasonable account of themselves, and have learned a lot and gained some valuable experience from what was a well worthwhile and very enjoyable couple of days.

The Management team would like to thank Peter McMorran and Norman Shannon for their support, which helps ensure Belfast's participation in this Tournament is possible.

Tour Party:

• Ben Beattie (Instonians) Captain
• Patrick Boyd (Bangor)
• Mathew Daly (Waringstown)
• Cameron Doak (Lisburn)
• Josh Drain (Ballymena)
• Ethan Hanna (Saintfield)
• Alex Hewitt (Waringstown)
• Matthew Humphreys (Instonians)
• Adam Kennedy (Instonians)
• James Lambert (Instonians)
• James Rose (Instonians)
• Michael Waite (Waringstown)

Manager - Roger Bell
Coach - Uel Graham