Cricketers reach national final at Edgbaston

On Monday 12thSeptember, a group of under 14 cricketers played in the national Chance to Compete cricket finals at Edgbaston. The experience was a fantastic one for the entire group with the opportunity to play at an international sports venue.

Despite some understandable pre-match anxiety, the team performed extremely well in their semi-final beating Sir John Colfox School comfortably. Great batting from Jordan Gillmore, Freddie Adams and Charlie Tucker enabled the team to post 97 runs and this proved to be far too many for the opposition who were kept quiet by a disciplined bowling performance from all of the team.

We played The Joseph Whitaker School in the final and batted first again. Jordan Gillmore started the innings by hitting the first ball of the game for six and then followed up with a four and another six off the next two balls. 16 runs off the first three balls! However, Jordan was brilliantly caught by the opposition keeper off the next ball and we lost a lot of impetus over the next two overs. Charlie Tucker hit a massive six into the stand to get us going again and William Bainbridge smashed a quick 20 to see us to 79 off our overs.

It was just below par and the opposition punished our loose bowling early on despite an excellent opening over from Adam Aitken. We struggled to contain them and they ended up winning with one over to spare. They were deserved winners and played well. Our students took defeat gracefully and accepted the silver medals in the end of day presentations.

Their behaviour throughout the two days that we were away was impeccable. The hotel staff commended them on their manners and the tournament organisers came over at the end to praise them for how they had played and behaved. Considering we have played a limited amount of cricket compared to the majority of schools entering this national competition, this really is a noteworthy achievement. Please chat to the students about the experience. They received personalised cricket clothing and met ex-England international, James Taylor.

The team was as follows.

· Jordan Gillmore