Bywell and Roberttown Schools reach Drax Cup West Yorkshire finals

Bywell Junior School, representing Sri Lanka, won the Dewsbury and Batley qualifying tornament and go forward to the West Yorkshire finals of the Drax Cup to be held at Pudsey St Lawrence CC.

Batley CC proved excellent hosts for the ninth annual Kwik Cricket tournament, which was enjoyed by around 60 pupils from seven competing schools.

Bywell were joined by Eastborough, Thornhill, Hyrstmount, Holy Spirit and two teams from Carlton, with schools competing as international teams, in a round robin tournament.

From the first round of tightly contested group games it was clear that the event would be close as all the schools possessed quality in both their male and female cricketers.

As the competition developed, Holy Spirit (Australia), Thornhill (West Indies) and Bywell (Sri Lanka) emerged as front runners.

Holy Spirit narrowly lost out to both Thornhill and Bywell, who then met in the deciding match.

Thornhill, who had previously posted large totals, batted first but were kept in check by some tight Bywell bowling and as wickets fell in the last three overs, their final total was going to be difficult to defend.

Thornhill’s bowling and sharp fielding kept them in the game, which was still was in the balance going into the last two overs.

Bywell’s final two batsmen of Harry Inwood and Hussain Khan produced a couple of hefty blows to ensure they progressed to the West Yorkshire finals at Pudsey St Lawrence.

The teams were congratulated for their fair play, enthusiasm and commitment which provided many children with their first opportunity to play competitive cricket.

The St John Fisher Schools Partnership thanked Batley CC, along with Hamza Khalil, Hamza Rawat, Huzaifah Kasuji, Abdullah Tariq, Daanyal Ahmed, Saif Arshad, Muhammad Raja, Habib Iqbal, Asim Khan, Hamza Nazir and Haris Hussain, Year 10 Sports leaders from Batley Business and Enterprise College, for volunteering to support the event.

Roberttown Primary became Spen Valley Schools Partnership champions and join Bywell at the West Yorkshire finals for the chance to secure a place at Headingley.

Roberttown made a nett score of 148 as they defeated Howard Park (125) in their competition at Cleckheaton CC last Monday.

The two faced each other having topped their groups at the end of a league format, with all schools playing four matches.

More than 600 schools across Yorkshire and Teesside registered for the 2015 Drax Cup, with Roberttown and Bywell securing their places at the West Area final, held at Pudsey St Lawrence this week.

The four area winners will compete at the Drax Cup Finals, to be played at Headingley on Friday July 10, prior to Yorkshire Vikings v Durham Jets in the NatWest T20 Blast game.