England retain O70s World Cup

England retained the O70s World Cup they won in 2024 with a 15 run win over Australia at the magnificent Hagley Oval in Christchurch New Zealand.England were put in and Jim Phillips and Chris Evans added 183 in 30 overs for the first wicket. England made 288/3 and in reply Australia were always behind the rate and finished 15 runs short despite a 115 unbeaten partnership in 13 overs between Gary Budden and Greg Stagg.The tournament started on the 18th of February and featured  England, USA, India, Canada, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and a Rest of the World team.Each team played each other in a round robin format with the top two going through to the final.Australia won every game in the group stage and the only group match England lost was to Australia.Unfortunately, the rain did affect some of the games including the penultimate round of group games when New Zealand needed to beat England to have a chance of reaching the finalNZ were 51 for five off 23 overs when the rain came and the match was abandonedThe hosts finished 3rd on the same number of points as England but with a much inferior run rate Canada and the USA both won 3 group matches India with one win and Sri Lanka with no wins found the going quite tough All the results can be found here:https://www.imco70cwc.kiwi/       Silver Stumps now has a small website which you can find at https://www.silverstumps.com/ - it features all the episodes and a little bit about Grant and Trevor, the co-hosts of the podcast.    If you've got feedback or observations about the podcast or ideas for future guests please drop us an email to [email protected] or press ‘send us a text’ at the bottom of these notes - please include your name and contact details as otherwise we don't know who the message is from. Send us a texSend us Fan MailSilver Stumps is the podcast aimed at Over 60s and Over 70s Cricketers. Hosted by Grant Timms and Trevor Lee it aims to be entertaining, informative and topical as Grant and Trevor combine a mix of guests with their own take on what's happening in the thriving world of over 60s and 70s cricket.