Claverley hit form to grab victory
Claverley’s young cricketers proved to be a smash hit as they won the Year 6 Shropshire Primary Schools Kwik Cricket County final.
On a day when the sun shone and the sixes rained down at Wellington Cricket Club, Claverley overcame St Laurence in the shoot-out for glory.
The qualifying rounds for this year’s tournament had been hit by the weather, but the longest day saw 120 children taking part in bright sunshine at Wellington CC.
Organiser Jim Roberts said: “For the entire day the tournament was played very competitively in the best of spirit.
“There was some ferocious hitting by the batsman with 142 sixes struck coupled with some excellent bowling and fine fielding.”
In the final, St Laurence batted first and scored consistently throughout their innings to finish on 247-2.
In reply, Claverley got away to a flying start by scoring 51 runs for the loss of no wickets in the first four overs which included three sixes and five fours.
But in the final four overs some very good bowling restricted the batting side to just 10 runs with Claverley completing their innings on 261-1.
Roberts added: “This was a great comeback by St Laurence but not quite enough as Claverley came out on top by 14 runs.”
The tournament itself was split into three pools for four schools with the winners of each group being joined in the semi-finals by the best runner-up.
Last year’s champions Worfield dominated Pool One winning all their games to finish up with a maximum 12 points with victories over Muxton, Minsterley and Meole Brace.
Eventual champions Claverley had more problems in Pool Two where they beat St Laurence and Oxon but found themselves on the wrong end of a 12-run defeat to Newport in their other game. But they still won the Pool with a better run average than St Laurence who also progressed to the final.
Pool Three saw the closest action with Trinity Ford, Moreton Say and Greenfields from Shrewsbury all ending up on nine points with two wins and one defeat from their three games. Trinity Ford edged through thanks to their higher run average.
In the semi-finals, Claverley comfortably beat Trinity Ford, while the match between St Laurence and Worfield was a much tighter affair with the Ludlow side just prevailing. Worfield won the third-place play-off game.
Roberts added: “Well done to all the teams who took part on the day, thanks to everyone who helped organise the event and all who turned up to support and to Wellington CC for doing a great job hosting.”
