Cricket – Year 5 mixed:

Our cricket squad trains together regularly and covers all year groups, from year 3 right through to year 6.
From this squad our teams are selected for each competition.

Teams are selected on their ability regardless of year group, our year 6 girls team, for example, included two year 5 players.

Back in May, our year 5 mixed team (4 boys and 4 girls) took on Holy Trinity and Water in their group heat.
The heat was rearranged to indoors at Fearns’ sports hall due to the heavy rain.
St Pauls won both games, to qualify for the Rossendale schools grand finals.

The finals will take place on Friday 12th June, at Bacup cricket ground, where we have been drawn against Broadway in the semi-finals.
Letters will be sent out confirming our team.

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Year 6 mixed cricket:

This is one of the most competitive competitions in the Rossendale school sports calendar, with 22 schools taking part from across the area.
There is a change to the after school competition taking place this year, with a full day of heat groups taking place at Bacup cricket ground, during the school day.

After a nail-biting last bowl defeat to Thorn in our first match, we settled down to play some good cricket and went on to win our next 5 matches.

Finishing as heat runners-up we made it through to the Rossendale schools Year 6 mixed cricket finals, to be played on Monday 15th June at Bacup cricket ground, where we have been drawn against St James the Less.

At last years’ competition finals, there was some great cricket on show, with some fine individual performances across all the schools taking part. If you are a fan of cricket, this is definitely a competition parents will want to watch!
Swing, spin and fast bowling, with some fine batters on display, there will be no easy games.
With a place in the Lancashire County finals for the winners, the competition will be fierce.

This competition is crying out for a Rossendale “Town team,” with many of the top players from Rossendale schools playing, it is a fantastic advert for competitive school sport.

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Girls Cricket

Rossendale schools year 6 girls cricket competition

Heat Stage.

In our heat we were drawn against Thorn and Tonacliffe, two very good sporting schools, with only the group winners going through to the knock out final stages.
To make our task harder still, we suffered an injury on the day to one of our players, leaving her unable to take part.
At just 5 minutes notice, Jordan stepped up to take part.
With limited practice and making her debut in competitive sport, Jordan shone.
Bowled, batted and running well between the wickets, she slotted into the team without a problem.
Keeping the bowling tight then attacking with the bat, we won our first match against Thorn by 22 runs.

Thorn had beaten Tonacliffe by just 2 runs in their first match, so we knew it would be a battle.
Taking some good catches and once again batting well, we managed to win through, beating Tonacliffe by 15 runs.
We were through to the knockout final stages!

Knockout Finals.

Drawn against a very strong Balladen team in our semi-final, we knew this match would be very close.
With Freya back in the team after her injury, we were at full strength.
We opened the batting, losing just 2 wickets, but made some good runs between the wickets. Alexis was exceptional.
Despite this, Balladen’s bowling attack held us to just 17 runs.
Our bowlers kept their batters quiet, taking a couple of wickets. In the final two overs, our strongest bowlers faced their strongest batters.
Hit for a six then a four, Balladen went on the attack, but with the next bowl, Paris delivered a stunning yorker, bang on the wicket!
The result would be very close.
When the result was announced, we had won by just 2 runs!
It was so close I asked for the scores to be checked, only for it to be confirmed that we had won the match and were now into the grand final.

The Final
Our opponents in the final were a very strong team from Stubbins (winners of the netball tournament only a week earlier).
St Pauls were put into bat first and from the first bowl we set about their bowling attack in good style.
Some excellent running between the wickets got us going, boundaries came and some excellent fielding by Stubbins prevented more.
We were now driving the ball to the boundaries, moving fielders around.
We finished with a total of 54 runs.

It was essential that our bowling was consistent and it was. Dropped catches came and went, our bowlers kept a good line and it was a nail-biting final over as Stubbins batters went for it.
We held out and when the final results were announced, we had won the final by 26 runs!

A fabulous effort by all our team, rich reward for all their efforts in training, the Rossendale schools year 6 girls cricket title and a place in the Lancashire County finals, representing Rossendale is still to come.
Our team captain Ellie collected the trophy, the end to a brilliant competition for us.
The result was more impressive in that our team was made up of two year 5 girls and three girls were playing in their first schools cricket competition!