County hopes dashed at final hurdle
Youth round-up
Linton Park missed out in the National Cup under-15 county final, losing to hosts Broadstairs by four wickets.
Park were up against a strong side who last season won the under-13 national title.
Tobey Castle and Toby Joseph put on 33 in six overs after Linton chose to bat, but excellent bowling contained the innings and they were out for 69.
Linton put up a battling display in the field with Broadstairs 51-5 after 12 overs, but the Thanet team held their nerve.
Abishek Pushpavinothan took 2-15, with Harrison Fermor, Tobey Castle, Mardey Castle and Max Butler also taking wickets.
Linton under-13s followed their county final success by retaining the Medway League Cup, beating Gravesend by 41 runs at The Mote.
Skipper Butler (31 retired) and Pushpavinothan (18) put on 51 for the first wicket, with Mardey Castle (23 not out) and Tom Rowe (15 not out) adding 36 in the last three overs for a total of 122-3.
Butler took 6-10 in three overs of well-flighted leg-spin as Gravesend were out for 81.
Marden are the new leaders in the A-Star Weald of Kent under-11 League after a hattrick for Freddie Mundell.
His efforts secured an 83-run victory over second-placed Sissinghurst.
In the under-13 league, Cranbrook made 177 in 20 overs against Marden with Salim Ahmadzai smashing 44 not out and receiving support from Archie Fairfax-Ross (31 retired) and Nathan Brown (32 retired).
They won by 30 runs after Marden closed on 147- 6, Felix Plant and Rowan Galler retiring with 30s.
Bearsted closed on 109- 6 in a seven-wicket defeat by Sissinghurst, with Max Petty unbeaten on 30.
In the under-16 league, Leeds & Broomfield were indebted to 47 from Jonny Russell in a total of 113- 6 against Teston.
Teston struggled in reply, closing on 87-7, Louis Skinner making 24.
Sam Stevens took 2-6 and Sam Harris 2-11 as Leeds won by 26 runs.
Staplehurst won a low-scoring game against Bearsted.
They were up against it after being skittled for 69, Bill Betts (41 off 28 balls) the only player to offer resistance, while Tom Mullins (5-12) and Harry Slevin (3-18) did the damage for Bearsted.
Harry Watts (2-3) made early inroads as Bearsted collapsed to 50 all out against excellent bowling and fielding, Staplehurst winning by 19 runs.