National Counties name squad for European Championship

Berkshire captain Dan Lincoln will again lead the National Counties XI when they represent England in the Dream 11 European Cricket Championship in Spain next month.

Lincoln, who led Berkshire to a fourth successive National Counties Trophy title last month, was captain when National Counties won the European Championship two years ago and again when they were runners-up to Netherlands last year.

National Counties will head back to the Cartama Oval near Malaga for four matches in Group E starting with Switzerland and Malta on October 9 and Cyprus and Romania on October 10.

There will be 30 other countries competing in the 10 overs-a-side tournament with only Netherlands, as defending champions, guaranteed a place in Champions Week which starts on October 16 and culminates in the final on October 20. Netherlands will be joined by the six group winners in Champions Week.

Berkshire coach Tom Lambert will again be in charge of the National Counties XI and he has named a strong squad that includes first-class players past and present in Oxfordshire’s Sussex batter Harrison Ward, Dorset’s former Somerset batter Sam Young, Oxfordshire’s former Sussex batter and left-arm spinner Tom Hinley and Berkshire all-rounder Toby Greatwood, who will leave Middlesex at the end of the domestic season.

Lincoln, Ward and Berkshire all-rounder Andy Rishton are the only survivors from last year’s European Championship squad with the new faces including slow left-armer Conner Haddow, who helped Buckinghamshire win the Durant Cricket National Counties Championship earlier this week, Wales NC batter Cameron Hemp – the son of former Glamorgan captain David – and the Cumbria pair of all-rounder Freddie Fallows and slow left-armer Matt Siddall.

National Counties XI: Dan Lincoln (Berkshire – captain), Harrison Ward (Oxfordshire), Sam Young (Dorset), Freddie Fallows (Cumbria), Tom Hinley (Oxfordshire), David Scott (Dorset), Andy Rishton (Berkshire), Tommy Sturgess (Cornwall), Cam Hemp (Wales NC), Matt Siddall (Cumbria), Richard Edwards (Wales NC), Conner Haddow (Buckinghamshire), Toby Greatwood (Berkshire).

Coach: Tom Lambert. Manager: Richard Logan