It’s a very busy time of year for sports at St. Paul’s! Below is a round up of all our recent sporting events
Animal Olympics – Year 1
We had great fun at the ‘Animal Olympics’ over at Marl Pits.
Our team of Year 1’s got stuck in to their events with lots of energy and really went for it.
Our favourite was the up, under and round event, where we scored a staggering 200 points!
When we totalled up our points at the end of the eight events, our ‘Lions’ had scored a breath taking 867 points!
Many thanks to Neil from Water primary school and Mr Bibby of Rossendale school sports partnership for a fabulous afternoon of sport.
A special mention for our guide, Jake from Water primary.
Our team of ‘Lions’ were Noah, Kylah, Zeeshan, Nathan, Connie, Lottie, Scott, Lola, Jack Gr. and Logan.
Well done gang for a fantastic effort!
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Year 5 mixed cricket finals
Our year 5 team, featuring Ella Holt from year 3 set about their semi final against Broadway, with great effort and strong bowling.
After a battling display we managed to win through to the grand final, where we were to face once again, our old friends Thorn.
In a tense and exciting battle we batted first, Thorn were quick on the attack taking catches with some good bowling.
We came on strong and the girls bowled especially well, it was going to be close.
After a couple of difficult chances to catch were dropped, we heard we were going into the final over of the whole competition, with a narrow lead of single figures.
After fending off a couple of deliveries, Thorn’s batters ran well between the wickets to level the match. With a short delivery, on the last but one bowl, Thorn swept the ball to the boundary for four runs to edge us out.
Another fantastic competition from Mr Gallagher and Mr Bibby, much excitement and with most of the matches having just single figures deciding them, it bodes well for future competitions.
What made this competition even more exciting, was that both Thorn and St Pauls included year 3 & 4 children in their teams, for both to contest the grand final was a great advert for competitive Rossendale school sport and shows that developing our children’s techniques and skills is working well.
Congratulations to all our year 5 mixed team players, thank you for your fabulous efforts, what a credit to our school you all are.
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Year 6 mixed cricket finals
We had a really tough draw for our quarter final match up, facing one of the best school teams in the competition, St James the Less.
I’m sad to say we didn’t really turn up on the day, hesitant running between the wickets and the positive attacking batting that we had shown in the heats, deserted us when we really needed it most.
We were missing three of our regular players, but fielded fine replacements who battled hard and did all that was asked of them.
Facing an impossible task of defending a lead of runs in just single figures, we gave it our best effort, taking a catch on our opening bowl, to gain some credit.
But the damage had already been done and full credit to the excellent fielding of the St James’ team, who ran out comfortable winners.
A valuable lesson to be learned here is that the level of play we establish in practice, must be applied in competition if we are to be competitive and give opposing teams at least a good run for their money.
There are no easy matches in this competition and St James’ went on to win the competition.
Girls cricket
Lancashire County Finals – Girls year 6 competition, representing Rossendale.
We lost one of our team for the county finals and brought in two replacements, Jordan from year 5 and Ella from year 3.
We started our group games without any worries, as we attacked the batting of our first opponents. Ella making her debut at County level, was outstanding, bowling a full over giving away just two runs. The rest of our team attacked the batting and covered the field well.
In batting we launched several deliveries for fours and sixes, Paris was spotted by the competition organisers after facing just three deliveries, with three impressive boundaries. We had won our first match and were on our way.
In our second match, controversy struck. After some impressive boundaries in their batting, our opponents came firing in at our batters, but were met with strong resistance, as our girls stood strong and knocked boundaries of their own.
After one or two bowls each over, our opponents switched their bowling to under arm, not permitted at county level.
Each under arm bowl, according to the rules, is classed as a “no ball” and two runs are awarded to the batting team, unless more than two runs are scored of that delivery.
Each “no ball” is also classed as a free hit, a batter cannot be out from a no ball.
We lost wickets to no balls and were not credited with any runs for each no ball.
Objections were made after each of our next two matches, but the rules were tightened up only after the group stages had finished, which saw us eliminated from the competition. I’m assured that this will be addressed in future county finals competitions.
A disappointing end to our competition, but our girls did us proud and enjoyed the day regardless. A great experience for them.
Many thanks to Sophia’s dad for helping us out with transport on the day.
Onwards and upwards girls, next year we go again!
Year 4 mixed cricket
This competition is an indoor competition, using tennis balls and is a first taste of competitive cricket for the children.
Heats were held at Fearns’ sports hall and went well for us, as we battled through our two games unbeaten, to qualify for the semi final stage.
After winning our first game we came up against an also unbeaten Thorn side for a place in the grand finals.
We batted very well, running great between the wickets and scoring some impressive boundaries, conceding only a few catches (which takes away five runs for each).
When it came to our fielding, we put down an incredible nine catches, which would have taken 45 runs off Thorn.
As it stood, at the final count we lost by just a handful of runs in the final over, to go out of the competition.
Thorn went on to win the whole competition.
Lesson to be learned, some great bowling from our team, which again included year 3 Ella, but all that good bowling is for nothing if we don’t take our chances in the field.
Valuable experience for our young team who battled well throughout and almost got us to the grand final.
Many thanks to our parents for their help with transport and the great support they gave us.
Year 6 mixed invitation tournament
For our final cricket tournament of the school year, we were invited to take part in a round robin competition, at Rawtenstall cricket ground.
Our opponents were St Mary’s Rawtenstall, St James (Rossendale champions) and Balladen.
We decided to take a team of year 5 players to this event, to give them competitive experience.
Our opponents were mostly year 6 players.
The sun shone as we enjoyed the seasons climax, after some very tough battles throughout the school year.
In our first match against Balladen, it was a close game, with Balladen batting first.
We took some great catches (at last!) and our bowling was strong. We held them to a reasonable total.
Our batting was very strong as we attacked their bowlers, helped by some difficult dropped catches in the field and a batting over from our new captain Lance, in which he hit 21 runs, we were off and running with a win.
Our second match was against Rossendale champions, St James’.
As we had our year 5 players up against a full strength year 6 side, we decided to go for our shots and attack their bowlers.
We had limited success with the bat as some quality catches from St James’ fielders, taking 8 wickets, reduced our total to just 10.
I was impressed with our resistance and we continued to go for our shots, despite the onslaught.
Our bowling was very good, we showed great awareness in the field as their batters attacked Sophia in the field, who held firm, putting down a few difficult chances to catch. I was very impressed with the bowling of Lance and Jack, who went on the attack, forcing St James’ batters to block rather than thump them out of the ground. St James’ ran very well between the wickets and the result was never really in doubt.
Just prior to our final game, the impressive Ainsley had to leave, with a last minute replacement needed, Mark from year 2 was thrown in at the deep end, for our final match against St Marys. Fielding first, we set about their batters, in a terrific battle we held a few catches and with some good fielding, limited their score to just 35 runs. St Mary’s very sportingly did not object to Mark bowling under arm.
Our batting was impressive, again going for our shots, Patrick and Lance were strong, pulling their bowlers for some boundaries. Although Mark was caught in the field three times, along with Sophia once, Mark managed to hit every bowl he faced (from a year 6 bowler!) Sophia cracked a terrific boundary from one of their fast bowlers.
The final count up was close we finished on 38 runs to win the match by just 3 runs and finish competition runners-up!
A fabulous effort in what was again, a very enjoyable tournament, a great way to end the season.
I can confirm that Mr Stanton from Balladen was made to do cartwheels by his team!
Thanks again to Mr Gallagher and the staff at Rawtenstall cricket club for some top fun and a great afternoon of competitive sport.
