Yorkshire Inclusive Cricket Finals
The day was upon us,13th July 2017 the day where the hopes and dreams of the inclusive cricket team became a reality or were dashed. The squad was buoyant…laughter, jokes, the odd song. It was looking good for a successful day ahead. We had a new face in the management area as Natalie Fee kindly stepped in to take on the role of first aider, refreshment executive, team psychologist, number 1 fan and director of cricket, she knew the pressure was on and she was ready for it!
The squad was as follows:
Ben Cameron-Skoof
Thomas Hill
Sky Ali
Kieran Athraby
Jay Richardson
Charlie Harrison
Leah Carr
Jack Gray (C)
The competition was split into 2 leagues of 3 with the top team from each league playing in the gold medal match, 2nd place teams in the bronze medal match and the 3rd place teams battling it out for the wooden spoon.
Game 1
I’m never one to judge a book by it’s cover, however some of the opponents we were to face when we played our first game v Handsworth Academy wouldn’t have looked out of place in our Wednesday staff briefing let alone a KS3 cricket tournament…they were massive! Unperturbed by the appearance of our opponents, our band of warriors stepped out to into the field. My fears, unfortunately, came to fruition as some huge batting performances gave Handsworth a mammoth score of 281. In truth we never looked like threatening and completed our overs scoring 184. Not the flying start we’d hoped for but we were at the Yorkshire finals…these types of opponents were to be expected.
Game 2
It is with a heavy heart that I report a similar story for our 2nd game game versus William Henry School. They won the toss and elected to bat, despite some much improved bowling, they were still able to chalk up 274 after their allocated batting overs. Could we defy the odds and turn it around? Jay Richardson and Ben Cameron-Skoof were inspired with bat in hand and were able to give us a glimmer of hope by hitting some impressive boundaries. Unfortunately the target was too great and we finished with 239. It was certainly not through lack of effort that we finished the group stages 3rd, our opposition were simply just better than us on the day.
Game 3 – The Wooden Spoon Invitational Trophy WHAT A GAME! The sharpness of the fielding was only matched by the sharpness of the batting. Catches, wickets, 4’s, 6’s, quick singles and more were on show as Kingsmill Academy were just as determined as West to avoid defeat in the final game.With Sirius winning the toss, captain Jack Gray elected to bat…first coin toss victory of the day a change in fortune perhaps? A huge team effort got us our best performance of the day knocking up 250 runs. Kingsmill played some swashbuckling cricket, they seemed to hit a 6 then lose a wicket! This cavalier style certainly made for an exciting finish as they closed in on our total. Final ball…247 plays 250. A boundary of any sort would win it for Kingsmill. The ball came in…boom! up up up SHORT! it landed just inside and with some sensational fielding from captain and leader Jack Gray they were restricted to a single. Final score Sirius West 250 v 248 Kingsmill. What a way to finish!
A huge thank you to Natalie Fee for assisting in the smooth running of the day, it is very much appreciated and to sports leader Harry Pougher who umpired and scored brilliantly all day. Even had a kip en route back to Sirius he’d worked that hard!
