The Northern Cricket Union (NCU) has announced a squad to participate in the Under 16 Cricket Festival from August 13th-15th, in Belfast.

Following on from successful tours to festivals at St Alban's (U17) and Taunton (U11/U14) in the past two seasons, the NCU are hosting their own inaugural event, with Campbell College Belfast as base.

Campbell College has agreed to host players and officials, with CSNI (Stormont) and CIYMS (Belmont) hosting the games over the three days. Teams from Yorkshire Schools Cricket Association, Cornwall Cricket Board and St Joseph's College will join the NCU in a round robin tournament.

NCU Under 16 Squad

• Luke Allison
• Ben Beattie
• Matthew Daly
• Michael Glass
• Ethan Hanna
• Matthew Humphreys
• Archie Johnston
• James Lambert
• Sam McLarnon
• Reece Malone
• Hugh Minford
• Michael Waite
• Ewan Wilson
• Adam Wylie

Coaches: Eugene Moleon and Simon Johnston

Fixtures

Monday 13th August - 11am Start
NCU v Cornwall Cricket Board - Stormont
St. Joseph's College, Ipswich v Yorkshire Schools Cricket Association - Belmont
 
Tuesday 14th August - 11am Start
NCU v St. Joseph's College, Ipswich - Belmont
Cornwall Cricket Board v Yorkshire Schools Cricket Association - Stormont

Wednesday 15th August - 11am Start
Cornwall Cricket Board v St. Joseph's College, Ipswich - Stormont
NCU v Yorkshire Schools Cricket Association - Belmont
 
Uel Graham, NCU Cricket Operations and Administration Manager, says, 'The vast majority of this squad have been involved in recent Interpro series where U17s won and U15s finished second and this festival and its preparation are seen as significant steps in their development both collectively and individually'.

Robert Robinson MBE, Headmaster of Campbell College said, 'we are delighted that the NCU has decided to hold its first ever residential festival at Campbell College this summer and look forward to welcoming the three teams from England to our campus. We are grateful for the strong partnership we enjoy with both the NCU and Cricket Ireland and look forward to watching some superb talent on display in East Belfast'.

Chairman of the NCU Alan Waite speaking about the forthcoming festival said, 'the NCU will warmly welcome our visitors from Cornwall, Yorkshire Schools Cricket Association and St Joseph's College, Ipswich to our inaugural cricket festival. Our young cricketers, coaches and administrators have been hugely impressed by participating in similar festivals in England and Scotland over the past four years. With the support of Campbell College, to whom we are grateful for hosting the players and officials and also some grant funding from Belfast City Council, NCU staff have worked expediently to co-ordinate this exciting new chapter as part of our commitment to youth development within our region'.
 
The NCU Under 16 squad have played two warm up fixtures: defeating Jersey Under 15's, by 17 runs, with Reece Malone top scoring with 49, in a total of 127 for 7; and losing by 8 wickets to the Cricket Masters Academy. The NCU scored 225 for 4 declared in 25 overs with Michael Glass and Archie Johnston scoring undefeated half centuries. The Cricket Masters won the game, with Parth scoring 128 and Guraj 47 not out.
 
The NCU would like to thank CIYMS CC and Donacloney CC for making sure the squad got appropriate match practice before the festival.

The Northern Cricket Union will be providing umpires for all of the matches during the festival.
 
The festival Twitter account @NCU_News will be used for festival information, including the prospects of play if the weather is very wet, and the Cricket Europe team will be covering the festival.