In what seems to be the middle of the rainy season, 4 youth teams with their coaches (Simon Metcalfe, Robin Sperling and Jerry Bloemsma) found a sunny day to show how hard they had been practising. For most of the 44 children this was the first time they had ever played on grass. The tournament consisted of a round-robin of 8-over matches, followed by a semi-final and a final. The winner of the tournament will later play the winner of the Western/Budapest semi-final.

Match 1: Szanda CC beat Jankay Tibor 2 by 8 wickets (18 balls remaining)
With both teams being used to practice in their school gyms, it was difficult to get used to playing on grass, where the ball bounces in a strange way. Jankay Tibor 2 opened the tournament with one of the lowest scores of the day. The target of 26 runs never seemed to trouble Szanda CC, who passed the total with 3 overs remaining.

Match 2: Tiszakürt CC beat Jankay Tibor 1 by 26 runs
The big hitters of Tiszakürt CC were never troubled by the pitch or the bowlers. Hitting boundaries with ease, they set an impressive 59 without any loss. Jankay Tibor 1 never looked like chasing that total. With no player scoring more than 4 runs, they had to concede defeat.

Match 3: Tiszakürt CC beat Szanda CC by 7 wickets (5 balls remaining)
By this stage, this match already looked like the most likely final at the end of the day. In a separate match, Tiszakürt CC defeated Szanda CC a year ago and Szanda CC were going for revenge and scored their highest total o the day: 40 runs. Kuru József hit 2 consecutive sixes in the first over to put Tiszakürt CC clearly on top. Tajti Roland fought back with a triple-wicket maiden over. The partnership of Sperling Béla and Nagy Attila saw Tiszakürt win the match comfortably.

Match 4: Jankay Tibor 1 beat Jankay Tibor 2 by 22 runs
With classmates playing each other, both teams were looking for the win necessary to reach the semi-final. Jankay Tibor 1 seemed to be enjoying themselves on the pitch and with a real team effort, some big hits and great running scored 59 runs. Jankay Tibor 2 tried hard, but wickets fell regularly (including 4 run outs) and without any real partnership, it chase was never really on.

Since the tournament was behind schedule, the remaining matches would be 6-overs...

Match 5: Jankay Tibor 2 beat Tiszakürt CC by 3 runs
The still unbeaten team of Tiszakürt CC faced the winless Jankay Tibor 2 to secure their place in the final. Jankay Tibor 2 had other plans and with the help of Makoviczki Csaba’s undefeated 15, they set Tiszakürt CC a higher than expected target. That total stayed within reach for the whole innings, but in the end, they were only 3 runs short and had to accept their first ever defeat.

Match 6: Jankay Tibor 1 beat Szanda CC by 28 runs
With a semi-final place guaranteed for the winner, both teams had plenty to play for. Jankay Tibor 1 started to love playing on this pitch and with the help of Kesjár Ákos and Nemcsak Ágnes (both on 19 not out), they scored 59 again. With a required overrate of 10, Szanda CC never really replied. With no player scoring more than 2 runs, they were dominated by some great bowling.

Bowl-out
The teams from Jankay Tibor and Szanda CC remembered the dreaded bowl-out from the indoor tournament in February. This time there would be two a rapidly deteriorating pitch. First up were Szanda CC and Jankay Tibor 2 for a place in the semi-final. Szanda CC hit the wicket with the first ball to get a great start. Jankay Tibor 2 did get the scores level, but a second hit proved to be too much. Next came Jankay Tibor 1 and Tiszakürt CC for a place in the final. Tiszakürt CC thought they had won by hitting the wicket with their last ball, only for it to be ruled invalid for not bouncing. After 6 balls each, neither side had hit the wicket, so with a sudden death, Jankay Tibor 1 managed to get their 8th ball on target and progress to the final.

Semi-final: Szanda CC beat Tiszakürt CC by 6 runs
With the pitch getting worse and worse, it proved to be difficult to score runs. After 5 ducks and with only one meaningful partnership (Dávid Tamás and Magyar Fanni), Szanda CC were on their way out of the tournament. With Béla Sperling’s 4 for 11 (the best bowling figures of the tournament), Tiszakürt CC fancied their chances. But with dark clouds reaching Szolnok, the big hitters had lost their touch. They struggled to hit the ball and score runs and the required run-rate just kept going up. Their lowest total of the tournament meant they finished in 3rd place.

Final: Jankay Tibor 1 beat Szanda CC by 9 wickets (11 balls remaining)
A quick burst of rain meant that the start of the final had to be delayed by 15 minutes and played on a wet field. Trying to repeat the success of the semi-final, Szanda CC decided to bat first. With only one boundary, everybody was struggling to hit the ball on this difficult pitch and Szanda CC only managed to score 17 runs. Jankay Tibor 1 found it equally difficult to score runs, but it seemed that the bowlers had given up hope. The usual tight bowling attack of Szanda CC was missing and with 14 extras, Jankay Tibor 1 didn’t have a difficult task to find the last runs and win the tournament. As the other teams played worse and worse as the tournament continued, Jankay Tibor 1 only got better and are the deserved winners of the Eastern final.

The tournament was a great success, giving the children a memorable and enjoyable day and to encourage them to continue. As Simon’s father said; “I had an enjoyable day watching the matches and it’s great to see Hungarian children play cricket.”

Hungarian youth cricket is really expanding quickly. We have played 21 matches this year already and judging by the enthusiasm of the children and the coaches there will be many more. I would like to say thanks to everybody who was there for the work they have put in.

If there’s anybody who likes the idea of coaching children or who would like their children to learn cricket, please contact the HCA and we’ll help you any way we can.