Excellent time had by all

A North Kirklees Year 7 cricket festival, jointly organised and supported by both Spen Valley and St John Fishers School Sport Partnerships took place at Leeds Road playing fields on Friday 21^st May. The competition was a hard ball based 8 aside event, which was aimed as a transition form between Kwik Cricket and the standard version of the game and was to provide the winner the opportunity to progress to a West Yorkshire final.  School teams from Spen Valley, Thornhill, Westborough, Batley Boys, Gomersal Middle, Heckmondwike Grammar, West End Middle and Castle Hall were split into two groups of four and were to play each other on a round robin basis in that group. Group winners were then to meet in a final play off with matches also catered in for both second places, third places and fourth places to play each other in a fourth game.  On what was by far the best day of our summer so far, true cricket weather, the competition served up a great festival of cricket, full of skill, enthusiasm, commitment and entertainment. Group A’s opening games saw Castle Hall defeat Spen Valley by just 3 runs and West End defeat Westborough. Castle Hall recorded a second victory in their second game and Spen Valley registered their first win against West End in their second. All interestingly poised and tight therefore going into round three, which, as the games unfolded was to become even tighter. Spen Valley’s victory over Westborough saw them on 4 points but a one run victory by West End over Castle Hall meant these two schools also finished on 4 points. Net run rate was to decide the group winners and the 75 scored by Spen Valley in their last game proved decisive as they finished on +30, Castle Hall on +21 and West End on +14. Group B was much clearer as Gomersal Middle and Heckmondwike, with 2 wins each, met in round 3. A 17 run victory by Heckmondwike resulted in them progressing to the final to meet Spen Valley.  With both schools being called onto make one last effort Spen Valley batted first but failed to build a defendable score due mainly to some excellent bowling and fielding by the Heckmondwike team, who for the first time on the day took all 8 wickets. They then duly knocked off their requirement in the first 3 overs due to some ferocious hitting. In the play off for second placed teams Gomersal defeated Castle Hall by 7 runs. Thornhill defeated West End by 20 runs in the third placed team play off and Batley Boys beat Westborough by 12 runs in the remaining fixture.  The excellent event was further enhanced by the 8 young leaders who umpired the competition exceptionally professionally throughout the day. These were Jack Baldwin and Jack Brazier of Castle Hall, Josh Smith and Wasim Chaudhary of Westborough and Alex Gaunt, Asim Mahmood, Matthew Johnstone and Will Chambers (umpires coats courtesy of Heckmondwike Science Lab!!-great touch boys) of Heckmondwike Grammar School.