Boyle and Canterbury U17s pleased with National title win

Interview and story by Wareham Sports Media

The Canterbury Under 17s started 2020 off on a high by Claiming their fourth National Men’s Under 17’s title with a record of three wins, one loss and one draw.

Wareham Sports Media had a chat with winning Canterbury captain and opener Matthew Boyle to see what went on in Camp and how much it meant as his side won their first Under 17’s Title since the 2015/26 Competition.

How much does it mean to you to not only win the Under 17’s title, not only as a player but as a captain?

“Well personally it was my Third National Tournament for Canterbury, and in the Other Two we came Sixth and Fourth I believe, so to win it was an awesome achievement and as Captain just made the win better because the boys I was playing alongside.”

You got to play for Canterbury Under 19’s prior to the Under 17’s tournament, What learning did you take out of the 19’s tournament that you wanted to implement on the Under 17’s?

“Well I didn’t try to overthink things it was really more for the guys that hadn’t played at Lincoln before, and just letting them know about the grounds and lovely conditions we had!

“If anything it was more to do with fielding positioning, I was very lucky with the team I captained because of their high knowledge of the game but also their cricket brains in general they knew what to do with little guidance.”

How did you and the team re-focus after the two rest days, and was it difficult to get back going after a day off?

“Well as we weren’t staying together we all just went home and did our own things, so when we got to our warm up the day after we knew we had another job to do that day and just to take piece by piece or ball by ball.”

Apart from winning the tournament what was the moment of the tournament in your team’s campaign?

“To be honest I couldn’t single one out, we had so many outstanding performances with Bat and Ball I couldn’t single one out.”

You guys wrapped up the title on the second to last day. Was there any celebration then or wait until the final day was done and dusted?

“No real celebrations on that second to last day more just saved to the last day but even so the boys were very chill about it which was cool!”
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What did the coaches say after you had won it any special messages to the team?

“Both coaches Freddy and Bus were very happy obviously and congratulated us all individually but not anything really too crazy.”