Under-13 Festivals set for North West over next two weeks

The top 160 Under-13 boys and girls players in the country will converge on the North West over the next fortnight as two multi-day festivals are set to take place across the region.

The boys are first up with two Leinster, two NCU and two North West teams joined by a team from Munster with matches being hosted by Eglinton, Ballyspallen, Glendermott and Foyle College starting today.

Games will be 30 overs a side in the 8-team tournament organised by the North West Cricket Union in partnership with the other Provincial Unions.

Peter McCartney, NWCU General Manager, explained how the tournament has developed:

“It started last year with our U13 Boys Festival as a bit of a pilot to try and create that festival feel rather than just the usual traditional Interpro format. There are a lot more matches with a focus on talent development rather than winning tournaments. We also have social events for the kids away from cricket to try and make sure they really enjoy the few days. 

This year we’ve added in 3 new teams to provide more opportunities for more players across the Unions and hope to bring in other teams from overseas next year as well. We have also included a girls tournament for the first time with plans to expand this in 2024 too. 

It’s been great working with the other Unions on this and Kathryn Rough has done a huge amount of work behind the scenes to pull this all together. We have over 150 boys and girls taking part with grounds, transport, catering and accommodation all to organise but it should be a really good two weeks of cricket.”

Week One:

The North West Chiefs- 

Ben Campbell (capt); Ryan McClintock; Roy McGerrigle; Suyesh Kumar (wk); Olly Britton; Gareth O’Neill; Neelash Singh; Jacob Cloughton; Alfie Rogers; Adam Allen; Adam Dunn; Josh Marshall

North West Warriors-

Alfie Moan (capt); Harry Coyle; Sam Loughlin; Karl Murry; Max Mooney; Tom Spratt; Tyler Averill; Nathan Scott; Kyle Lamrock; Jacob Blair; Reuben Bond; Ryan Timoney.