Narrow miss in Somerset U19s Club T20 Final

Bath CC’s U19s faced Taunton Deane U19’s yesterday at Lansdown CC in the final of the Somerset Cricket Foundation U19 Club T20 Finals. Bath had made it through to the final with a convincing seven wicket win over Bridgwater Red Sox U19s.

The match started at 2pm after Bath’s skipper, Spencer Gammon had won the toss and elected to bat. Once again after scoring 47 in the semi-final, Alex Moss made a positive start cover driving the first ball of the innings for four, but then fellow opening partner, Sam Simmons (7) was bowled in the third over. Moss (35) then took control with Fred Stappard (19) and then important contributions down the order from Spencer Gammon (21) and Luke Welsh (30) got Bath up to a defendable score of 140 when they were bowled out off the last ball of the innings.

Despite losing the wicket of opener Ralph Dunne (5) early, Benny Jessep and Jack Blackwell swiftly took Taunton’s score up to 30 inside the first three overs when the dangerous, Blackwell (11) was brilliantly caught behind by Stappard. At 30-2 the match was nicely in the balance, but Jessep (35) and Shafin Aktar (41) played important knocks before skipper, Max Smyth-Lees (32*) helped take his side to victory with just three balls to spare. Jacob Lewis picked up 2-27 with Spencer Gammon and Peter Biggs each picking up a wicket.

Josh Norgrove, Bath CC’s Community & Youth Coach, and U19 coach, said:

“From one to eleven, I cannot speak highly enough about how our lads performed in the final, and it was only very fine margins which meant we came off second best. With five senior 1st XI cricketers, the Taunton Deane side was very strong and to go down to the last three balls of the innings was a significant achievement. With three quarters of our side available to play next year, I am really looking forward to working with the squad over the winter to see if we can go one step further in 2027.”