Appleby Grammar U13 Girls Reach National Finals

On Wednesday 5^th of May 2010 a girl's cricket team from Appleby Grammar School made the long trip to the home of cricket to take part in the National Finals of the Lady Taverner's U-13 Indoor Cricket Tournament.

The route to the finals was a long one in many ways, the first step was at the Eden Girls Inter-Cricket competition at Penrith Leisure Centre back in March. Appleby Grammar overcame strong opposition in the form of Ullswater Community College, Queen Elizabeth Grammar (Penrith) and Kirkby Stephen Grammar, beating the latter by just a single run in a nail bitingly exciting final. In a form of the game where extras can make a big difference (wides and no balls counting 2 runs and followed by a free hit) Appleby held their nerve and bowled accurately not with not one wide being bowled in the final.

Appleby had just a week to prepare for the County Finals at Carlise's Sands Centre but put that week to good use with lots of hard work, particularly on their fielding and running between the wickets and boosted by the return of two key players who had missed the Eden competition having been on a School trip to France. Appleby won their group with relative ease but had to raise their game in tense semi-final against a talented Millom team and again against a well drilled Furness Academy side in the final.

And so it was on to the Headingly Indoor School in Leeds for the North of England Regional Finals. After being warmed up by England's Danielle Hazell it was on to the competitive matches and Appleby Grammar took the slight change of format from Inter-Cricket to Lady Taverners Indoor Cricket in their stride with wins against the county champion schools from Cheshire, Durham and Yorkshire before being face with Ormskirk School from Lancashire who had also won three out of three, both sides knew it was a must win game and Appleby showed their best form so far with some razor sharp fielding with two direct hit run outs and another following some fancy footwork to flick the ball onto the stumps, this coupled with a fantastic reaction catch at mid-wicket paved the way for an Appleby win and put them into pole position for the title.

A win in the final round would've confirmed the title, but nerves and tiredness set in and Appleby lost their final game to leave themselves, their victors St. Aidan's and Ormskirk all level on points having each recorded 4 wins out of 5, the tension was palpable as the total runs scored by each of these three teams was calculated and Appleby Grammer were announced as champions by virtue of scoring 36 more runs than their nearest rivals.

The newly crowned North of England Champions arrived at Lords Cricket Ground having travelled down from Cumbria the previous day. After another thorough warm up from the organisers, play was under way and Appleby were asked to bat by Shenfield School from Essex, losing a wicket first ball and trying to cope with their first experience of 'sledging' Appleby were shaken as they posted a below par total, but showed good character and bowled tightly to make Shenfield work for their win.

Colstons School from Bristol were the next opponents for Appleby and the eventual tournament winners recorded a comprehensive victory over an uncharacteristically sloppy Appleby bowling and fielding performance. In contrast to the opening match the game was played in good spirit as Colstons let their cricketing skills do the talking.

Lunch followed and glorious weather allowed the girls to eat outside and watch some of England's World Cup winners including Caroline Atkins and Isa Guha in action on the Nursery Pitch before being taken on a brief (but very informative) guided tour of the Lord's Media Centre and Lords Museum to see the Ashes.

In the afternoon a more relaxed Appleby returned to winning ways against Cathedral School, representing Wales and put in the sort of all-round performance we had become accustomed to beating strong opposition in the form of Anthony Gell School from Derbyshire who were representing the Midlands.

Colstons School were the runaway (and very worthy) winners having won all four of their matches with Appleby Grammar in a very creditable joint second having recorded two wins out of four, a fantastic achievement for Appleby Grammar, an experience that those involved will never forget and an example of what can be achieved in the future.