On Thursday 25^th June the Colts travelled to Downpatrick cricket club to face Down High School in the final of the plate. On a clear day Captain Scott Campbell won the toss and elected to bowl. Having beaten Carrick, Dalriada and B.R.A. on the way to the final the team was going with a lot of confidence.

Down H.S. made a great start and were going well until the Inst spinners came in with S. Campbell making the breakthrough dismissing their opener for 31. Rory Handforth kept up his record of taking at least one wicket in every round finishing with figures of 3 – 25. Michael Poskitt claimed the next two wickets with fine catches from Hamzah Khan and Paul Douglas. Down finished strongly scoring 20 runs in the last two overs reaching a total of 155 – 6 off their 25 overs.

The Inst. innings was moving at a steady pace until S. Campbell was dismissed for 13 in the 9^th over. H. Khan came in next and along with P. Douglas played well and made a partnership of 56 with P. Douglas passing his half century. Hamzah Khan made 18 more before being bowled and then Chris Scott was sent in with instructions to keep Paul Douglas on strike. Chris made 10 leaving Bell to support Douglas. Paul was going for the big shots Inst. required and was unlucky to see the ball hit his bat and go into the stumps leaving Inst. on 144 – requiring 11 runs to win off 9 balls. B. Graham and Robin Bell ran hard to pick up many twos, needing 4 runs to draw off the last ball. Bradley Graham struck the last ball well but could only manage 2 runs leaving Inst. 3 runs short of victory.

It was a very good effort from the team and full congratulations go to Down High School for their victory. With a lot of the Under 14 players representing the Colts this season there is a lot of hope and promise for next season's Colts side.

Daniel Hatcher