Royton festival delight

CRICKET:

ROYTON CC under-13s won the CLL’s annual eight-a-side festival at Littleborough's Hare Hill ground on Bank Holiday Monday.

The tournament also featured teams from Clifton, Rochdale, Walsden, Radcliffe, Unsworth and hosts Littleborough, playing quickfire cricket in eight-overs-per-side matches.

Royton made a bad start by narrowly losing their first group game to Rochdale before recovering to win the next two matches to qualify for a semi-final against Littleborough.

The hosts batted first and posted a competitive 70 runs from eight overs.

But some big hitting from Jack Snape, Aaron Tesz and Adam Boardman, who each retired not out, saw the Paddock youngsters get the runs required in just six and half overs.

Next up for Royton was the final and a rematch with the strong Rochdale team.

Batting first, Royton’s William Sandiford-Mitchell, Snape, Tesz and Adam Boardman all retired not out as a massive 86 runs came from the Royton bats.

Some early blows got the Rochdale reply off to a decent start, but the required run rate continued to grow and wickets fell before captain William Sandiford-Mitchell took a hat-trick to wrap up victory for the Paddock boys.