News

Grieshbaber sets sights on county contract

24 August 2012

Gloucestershire youth player Patrick Grieshaber has capped off an impressive summer by guiding Bath CC to the national under 15 club championship.

The ‘keeper/batsmen, 15, scored a half century in the final against Lindum CC as his side strolled to an eight wicket win inside 14 overs.

His winner’s medal will sit proudly alongside a growing number of honours that includes the wicketkeeper of the tournament prize from last month’s prestigious ESCA Bunbury Festival.

Patrick, who began his career with Marshfield CC, was also picked out as one to watch by tournament organiser David English and was pictured on Sky Sports’ Cricket Am show following his performances for the South and West.

He said: “I wasn’t expecting to win the wicketkeeping prize at all as I only kept twice but it was great to be chosen.

“I haven’t seen Cricket AM yet but my friends saw it and they said that it showed me going up to collect the award.”

The Bunbury Festival, now in its 26^th year, features under 15 teams representing the Midlands, North, London and East and the South and West regions. The 2012 event was based at Repton School in Derbyshire and featured two days of 50 over cricket and aT20 competition at Derbyshire CCC.

Patrick said: “It was a really good week. The standard of cricket was amazing and to play alongside some of the best young cricketers in the country was fantastic. It was up there with some of the toughest cricket I have played.

“It was also a good week off the field. We had a good laugh and the festival organiser David English was an absolute legend.”

Since the festival’s inception 59 former participants have gone on to represent England at senior level. The latest of these - Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow - dropped in on this year’s tournament to hand out caps to the players.

And despite setting his sights on shorter term success Patrick - who lives in Thickwood on the Glos/Wilts border - also has the coveted three lions in his sights.

He said: “I just want to keep working hard and improving but my aim is to get into the England development programme. I also want to try and earn a county contract with Gloucestershire but all I am concentrating on is scoring runs and trying to get recognised through my performances.”

Patrick is a member of Gloucestershire’s Emerging Players Programme and has played for the county since the age of 13 having previously represented Wiltshire.

Gloucestershire Cricket Board performance coordinator Adam Jones said: “Patrick’s success at the Bunbury Festival was a richly-deserved reward for the hard work he has put in.

“He is a player who has shown outstanding talent for a number of years. All his hard work is paying off and we hope he will have a bright future in the first-class game.”

For more information, contact:
Luke Sellers, GCB Communications Officer
communications@glosccc.co.uk or 07584 705646

Photo by Liz Bracey

• Previous
• Next