Cumbria U13 Boys narrowly lost out in the national inter-county finals to Yorkshire, making them the second best team in the country.
On Saturday 27th April 2013 Cumbria U13 boys travelled to Lilleshall to contest the finals of the National inter county competition. Thirty teams from England and Wales began this competition last October and our boys had got to the last four to be contested over the weekend.
Our opponents in the final were Surrey, Yorkshire and South East Wales. We took 6 squad players for the weekend: from Carlisle – Keane Appleton and Adam Goad, from Wigton – George Kemp, Adam Gill and James Wilkinson and from Windscale – Ross Singleton. First to come was Surrey beginning at 5.30pm having travelled from Cumbria that day. James got us off to a flying start with a convincing 3 – 0 victory paving the way for the rest of the team to seal a victory over Surrey with a 5 – 0 whitewash. This was an outstanding performance and each and every one of the boys stepped up to the plate to put Cumbria in the last two of the competition against county heavy weight Yorkshire on Sunday morning.
We had beaten Yorkshire in the previous round at Carlisle so we went back to our hotel that evening quietly confident. 10am Sunday 28th April and Keane put us 1 – 0 up with a good win, not losing a game however at the same time Adam Goad was having a titanic battle against William King. Adam was struck twice by his opponent during the match but he continued to battle on but in the end going down 3- 2. Score one all. George and Ross were on next, unfortunately George lost 3 – 0 to a young lad who was up for the occasion and punished any of Georges loose shots. Score 2 – 1 to Yorks. Ross’s opponent was Sam Todd the England ranked number 3 seed at under 13. Ross lost 3 – 0 but he took the game too Sam and although he may be disappointed to lose, he should not be dismayed as he was a credit to the team. Score 3 – 1 Yorks. Adam Gill was last on and although he put up a gutsy performance in the last (losing 11/8) he also went down 3 – 0. Final score 4 – 1 to Yorkshire.
All in all it was a rollercoaster of a weekend and my sympathies go to the parents who must have played every shot throughout the two days. The boys were fantastic, coming a very creditable second in the competition.
