HMS Seahawk extended their unbeaten run in the Royal Navy Knockout Cricket Competition to 3 seasons after beating HMS Excellent in this year’s final which took place at Burnaby Road, Portsmouth on Wed 19 Jul.
They previously won it in 2015, 2016 and this year’s win makes RN Cricket history being the first team ever to win 3 finals in a row.
Some notable details from the game were as follows:-Seahawk won the coin toss and opted to bat first in what is a 35 over match.
Petty Officer (PO) Andy Bonnett & Air Engineering Technician (AET) Luke Clarke got the team off to a brilliant start, Andy went on to make an unbeaten 105 which eventually gained him the Man of the Match Award.
Luke made 41 before being given out LBW. Seahawk’s Captain, Leading Aircrewman (LACMN) Carl Woolnough made a quick fire 48 which included several huge 6s and PO ACMN Jamie Strachen ended up 13 not out.
Seahawk batted the full 35 overs finishing on 234 for 4 in what is a mammoth target for any team to reach in 35 overs.
Seahawk then went into the field after teas, again starting extremely well with LACMN Carl Woolnough and LAET Martin Gooderham taking some early wickets to leave HMS Excellent 55 for 5 off of 14 overs.
The first change of bowlers saw AET Luke Clarke come on, and he set to rip through the rest of Excellent’s batting order, finishing off with outstanding bowling figures of 5 wickets off of 5 overs for only 13 runs.
Excellent lost their final wickets and ended up 94 all out, Seahawk winning by a staggering 140 runs!
Team Coaches POACMN ‘Ed’ Butcher & PO Andy Bonnett were quoted in saying “This really is an outstanding achievement for any sports team in the military to achieve, and to be part of it has us both lost for words.”
Long serving Team Manager CPOACMN JJ Walker (retired) has been involved in 8 of Seahawk’s Navy Cup Finals over the last 16 years said ‘this is by far the most emphatic, and satisfying final Seahawk has won, and to set a new RN record along the way has just topped things off, could we go on and win 4, why not?!’.
