SPANISH JUNIORS SHOW EARLY SEASON PROMISE
With the 2008 ECC Under 17 tournament in Dusseldorf just a few months away many of the youngsters under consideration are already staking claims for a place in the 13 strong squad.
Sporting Alfas hopefuls Christain Mills-Munoz and Jake Sunderland have been performing consistently well for the Spanish champions since the season began in February. In the first month of the season Mills-Munoz posted his best ever score of 96 against the Intellectuals and 2 weeks later showed his prowess with the ball when capturing bowling figures of 3 for 16 against Sutton & Orepresa CC in the Valencian Cup.
Jake Sunderland has also been on fire, securing his maiden half century in the match against the Intellectuals. As a bowler Jake as been the spearhead of the second team attack, frequently opening the bowling to the better batsmen with good effect, and with the experience of the visit to this years ECC School of Excellence under his belt he is a candidate to be one of the players of the tournament in Germany.
(Jake Sunderland bowling for Spain v Isle of Man)
Brad Seekings the Under 15 captain for Spain in the ECC Tournament last year was showing great form towards the end of last season when he notched his first century for Alfas. Currently recovering from injury he too could be one to watch in August.
Michael Garside of La Manga was another recipient of the ECC School of Excellence this year and he showed great composure with his match winning innings for Spain ( 61) against an Irish Union Under 15 side recently.
Joel Brook, a regular opener for Spain and La Manga is also showing a rich vein of form at the moment, he too recently hit a ton whilst guesting for Albox against the Intellectuals. This made Joel the youngest player in the club history of La Manga (15 years old) to have scored a century.
Tom Vine, another La Manga player also performed well in the Spain game against the Irish Union in Spain’s last match and he showed his consistency yet again when taking two wickets against Mojacar in the recent 20/20 final staged a few weeks ago.
For Mojacar Matt Smith has been performing well and reproducing the form that saw him score 50 not out in last years ECC tournament against the Isle of Man, and Ben Girling of Combined Colleges showed his qualities again in the Spain match against the Irish Union side.
The youngsters seem to be capitalising on the early start to the cricket season that Spain is blessed with and congratulations should go to the Junior Coach of Spain, Neil Brook and all involved with the Junior set up for all the progress that is being made. The squad being assembled threatens to be pushing for honours in the tournament the ECC is hosting in Germany for the Under 17’s this year.
ICC EUROPEAN UNDER 17 DIVISION 2 CHAPIONSHIP
GERMANY, AUGUST 9TH-15TH 2008
TEAMS
BELGUIM, FRANCE, GERMANY, GIBRALTAR, HELLAS
ISLE OF MAN, ISRAEL, ITALY SPAIN & SWITZERLAND.