YORK CC's under 13 side have been crowned North of England champions for the first time and qualified for National Finals Day on August 16.

Head coach Mike Burn rates his squad as the 'best' he has seen in 10 years working with the age group.

His players beat Scottish champions Grange CC in the North of England final at Clifton Park last week after beating Nottinghamshire champions Caythorpe CC in the semifinal and Derbyshire County champions Denby CC, two weeks earlier, in the regional finals.

They are now only two wins away from being crowned national champions.

Walmley CC (Warwickshire), Cirencester CC (Gloucestershire), and Broadstairs CC (Kent) are the teams standing in their way at the National Finals Day at Rugby School.

Burn said: "This is a huge achievement as nearly 200 teams entered from our area. I have had a number of good sides but this is definitely the best squad I have worked with at this age level.

"It's been a long time coming," he added. "Sometimes we get a bit of a complex because we only have one 'County' player in our side. Well, the other sides may have two or three 'quality' players - but they still don't have the depth we have. Even the coach of Grange said 'nobody bats as deep as you do'."

York beat semifinal opponents Caythorpe by 93 runs.

Invited to bat, York scored 148-4 in their 20 overs, with captain Harvey Gration and Dan Raubitschek both retiring on 30 and Ben Barnett 21 not out.

Caythorpe struggled against York's bowlers and Jack Davies took 3-6 in his 3 overs supported by Ben Barnett who took 1-4 also in 3 overs. Gration and Elliott Watson kept up the tempo with 3-10 and 2-15, respectively, and together with another tight couple of overs from Corby Doeg (1-9) completed the 'demolition' of Caythorpe for 55 all out.

Final opponents The Grange CC, from Edinburgh, had defeated Cheshire champions Alderley Edge in their semifinal.

York batted first again after losing the toss and began steadily with Gration and Watson reaching 56 without loss after 10 overs and then 58 before the loss of Gration for 29. Watson followed soon after to leave the side on 60 for 2 and with some rebuilding to do.

Raubitschek and Barnett, after the loss of Toby Search for 1, began the revival before a mini-collapse left the side on 89-5 with 3 overs to go.

Wicket-keeper Max Darbandi hit 19 off 10 balls and, with support from Barnett, took the York total to 120-7.

York knew they would need to bowl and field well to defend that total against a Grange side that had won the North of England title in 2015.

After 10 overs, the score was 49-4 and the match was in the balance.

Grange batsman, Cairns and Ede, led the fight back, attacking anything off line to put the pressure back on York at 108-5 with two overs remaining.

An excellent penultimate over from Corby Doeg restricted Grange to just 4 runs and Barnett kept it tight in the final over to secure victory.

York finished the season as the undefeated division one champions, beat Walton CC by nine wickets in the Plate Final Winners' Cup, and beat Acomb by 10 wickets to win the District League Championship Cup.