APPERLEY Girls are into the last four of the ECB Under-15 Club T20 – and still dreaming of a big day out at Lord’s – thanks to a memorable six-run home victory against Newport.
The village side rattled up 162-5 from their 20 overs after losing the toss, opener Bella Herring dominating with a fine 63 from 54 (eight fours) while she shared a second wicket stand of 67 with Megan Ahearne (32).
Lucy Bull and Millie Downey both finished unbeaten on 13, giving the end of the innings plenty of momentum.
Newport, though, made a tremendous effort to reach the imposing target and came up only just short after Mariam Sahabdeen (67) and Sophie Williams (48) shared an excellent opening stand of 124.
Bella brought Apperley back into proceedings by running out Sophie while Seren Radcliffe soon after claimed the crucial wicket of Mariam.
Sophie Rayer then weighed in with a wicket as Apperley managed to close out the win and book a national semi-final against Hartlepool or Porthill Park at Neston CC, in Cheshire, on August 16.
The victorious side, along with the winners of the other semi-final between the London and south-east group qualifiers, will then go forward to the final at Lord’s on September 2 in this eight-a-side hardball competition.
Golden Hill Under-13s, meanwhile, lost out by ten runs in their group final away to Hursley Park, of Winchester.
The home side were bowled out for 66, Tilly Bending producing memorable figures of 5-14 from her three overs.
And Golden Hill then came up just short, Jasmine Johnstone unbeaten on 14 while captain Ella Hobson was next top scorer, on ten.
HATHERLEY & Reddings lost their South & West ECB U15 Club T20 regional semi-final to Swindon, going down by nine wickets after being restricted to 87-8, but rallied to trump Taunton St Andrews by 21 runs in the third place play-off.
Openers Henry Driver-Dickerson (39) and Noah Bennett (37) gave the Gloucestershire side the perfect start before captain James Burton (32) took his side to a total of 164-7.
Saints were then pegged back to a reply of 143-5, Toby Downham and Nirvaan Jain producing tight opening spells. Noah Tutty, George Collingwood and Shiv Agarwal weighed in with wickets and there were also two late strikes for Bennett.