The under 14s Country Cup was held over the past week, with the local South East side performing well and finding success competing against the best of regional South Australia in what was described by coach Craig Hicks as a “hot intense week of cricket”.
On the first day of the carnival the side came up against the Yorke Peninsula.
The South East found themselves batting first to score an imposing 6 for 176, thanks to a big score of 59 not out from Ryan Lucas and contributions of 21 from Jagger Geary and Harry Baker and 20 from Harry Hicks.
South East dominated with the ball restricting Yorke Peninsula to 8 for 76, a huge 100 run win to kick off the week.
Ryan Lindner and Even Clarke were the highlight with the ball taking two wickets each.
On the second day South East fielded first against the Eyre Peninsula, with some good bowling from Harry Hicks (3 for 13) and Jagger Geary (2 for 22) restricting Eyre Peninsula to 7/138.
The South East chased down the total with one over to spare, with a total of 6/139.
Harry Hicks performed well with bat backing up his good bowling performance to make 43.
Teej Lawlor was also excellent with bat in hand making a crucial 37.
Hicks described the run chase as a “highlight”.
On day three South East continued their winning form and booked themselves a spot in the grand final with a win over Barossa and Light.
Batting first they set a huge total of 8 for 181 for the Barossa to chase.
The stars with the bat were Harry Hicks who brought up his first half century of the week, and Jagger Geary who provided a fantastic 42.
Harry Baker also contributed a handy 22.
Wickets were evenly shared between bowlers as they bowled Barossa out for 100.
Harry Hicks, Max Johnson, Evan Clarke and Miller Bradley all took two wickets each in the South East side’s third win in three games.
South East faced off against Fleurieu and Districts in a tense final that went down to the wire.
Bowling first in 36 degree heat the team struggled to find wickets only taking two from the 40 overs.
Fleurieu and Districts posted a total of 2 for 151 with the bowlers and fielders doing a “massive job to keep the runs down, even though they were not taking regular wickets”, according to Coach Hicks.
The South East found themselves in a tough run chase, with the game going down to the very last over with South East chasing down the runs with four balls to spare to become champions after Kade Mulraney played a perfect straight drive for four.
Important innings with the bat were Ryan Lucas’s 36 not out, Harry Hicks 34 and Ryder Lindner’s 20.
The South East proved to be the best side of the country cup taking home a fantastic carnival victory against some of the best under 14s players in South Australia.
Hicks was full of praise for his side.
“The 12 boys in the team all had lots of fun, learned and performed at a very high standard and the top competition brought the best out in all of them,” he said.
