Harlands Victorious As Flintoff Attends Asda Kwik Cricket Final

On Friday 13th the National Final at Headingley Carnegie, the Asda Kwik Cricket National final took place. Rain forced the proceedings indoors, but it did not stop it being a very memorable day for all involved, with England star all-rounder Andrew Flintoff making an appearance, presenting the award, and meeting the kids. The eventual winners and new ASDA national champions are Harlands Primary School from Sussex. The day saw the 16 best year 6 sides in the country coming together to fight it out for the right to become national champions. As the largest cricket tournament for this age group, it could be the spring board for some future England stars, and is a great initiative for grassroots cricket in England. Each team had to make it through district, county and regional finals to get here, which is no mean feat considering that nearly 130,000 players have been involved, spread across 40 counties. Starting more than a month ago playing small district finals, to even make it to this stage is a fantastic achievement, but they were all still gunning for 1st prize. Flintoff said “By reaching this stage you have all proved yourselves to be among the best young cricketers in the country for your age”, before telling them to go and “have fun.”The 16 sides were split in to 4 groups of 4, with each region throughout the country represented. Some had travelled most of the country to get there, such was the scale of the event. The groups are detailed below with the region they were representing:-GROUP A 1. SOUTH WEST (A) Chandag Junior Scool, Somerset2. WEST MIDLANDS (A) St Peter’s Primary, Shropshire3. EAST (A) Halesworth Middle, Suffolk 4. NORTH WALES Ysgol Owen Jones, Flint GROUP B 1. SOUTH Uplands Primary, Berkshire2. WEST MIDLANDS (B) St Edward’s Middle, Staffs3. SCOTLAND Ladyloan Primary, Arbroath4. SOUTH WALES Sageston Primary, PembrokeshireGROUP C 1. NORTH WEST Scotforth C of E, Lancashire2. SOUTH EAST Harlands Primary, Sussex3. EAST MIDLANDS Abbey Primary, Leicestershire4. NORTH EAST Archbishop C of E, YorkshireGROUP D 1. EAST (B) Dallow Primary, Bedfordshire2. SOUTH WEST (B) St Michael’s Middle, Dorset3. NORTH Valley gardens Middle, Northumberland4. NORTHERN IRELAND Donemana Primary, StrabaneGroup AThe first group saw South West and Somerset Champions Chandag start against St Peter’s Primary from Shropshire and the West Midlands. Good bowling saw St Peter’s victorious with 196- 3 compared to Chandag’s 188-8. Halesworth Middle School, Suffolk and East Champions then beat North Wales Champs Ysgol Owen jones 219-2, to 213-4.Chandag’s next game saw them succumb to Halesworth with 196-5 compared to 209-1. St Peter’s Primary School then defeated the North Wales champions with 194-7 compared to 185-4 from Ysgol Owen Jones. That left Chandag to play Owen Jones who they defeated with 222-2 compared to 219-3. Halesworth then confirmed themselves as semi finalists and strong contenders for the cup with a nail biting win over St Peter’s, with 204-0 compared to 202-3. Group BBerkshire and South Champions Uplands began strongly against St Edward’s Middle School from West Midlands, scoring 224-2 to win comfortably against 205-5. South Wales Champions then defeated Scottish Champions Ladyloan Primary with 208-2 compared to 190-8. Uplands played Ladyloan next and scored 208-1. This proved too many for the Scots who finished on 191-6. St Edward’s Middle then beat Sageston with 222-4 compared to 202-3.Despite looking good for a semi final spot, Uplands were surprisingly overcome by the South Welsh who put in a great performance to beat the strong Berkshire unit. The match was a thriller, with Sageston eventually ending on 222-2 to win by one run. This meant that when St Edward’s middle beat Ladyloan with a massive 244-4 compared to 225-2, they instead qualified for the Semi Final.Group CSussex and South East Champions Harlands School showed ominous early from as they comfortably defeated North West and Lancashire Champions Scotforth St Pauls 258-0 compared to 165-8. The other game was Leicestershire and East Midlands Champions Abbey Primary against North East and Yorkshire champs, Archbishop C of E Primary. Archbishop’s 222-2 was too much for the 201-5 that was scored against them. Abbey Primary were up next to play Scotforth and got their first win on the board with an impressive 223-2 compared to Scotforth’s 210-2. Harlands then continued strongly with 235-3 compared to Archbishop C of E’s 202-6.The keenly awaited Yorkshire Lancashire derby saw victory for the Lancashire side, scoring 206-0 compared to Scotforth’s 175-5.Harlands confirmed its semi final spot defeating Abbey Primary 225-3 compared to 198-6.Group DBedfordshire and East Regional qualifiers Dallow started against South West qualifiers St Michael’s Middle school from Dorset, but Dorset’s representatives proved too strong, scoring 220-2 compared to 211-2.North and Northumberland Champs Valley Gardens Middle won their first game against Northern Ireland’s best side Donemana, 225-2 to 207-6. Valley Gardens continued strongly to beat Dallow, 219-4 compared to 208-3. St Michael’s then scored 220-2 to see of Donemana. Donemana however, having travelled across from Ireland, recorded a well deserved win against Dallow, scoring 215-2 to 212-3 in a great match.Valley Gardens confirmed their Semi Final spot when St Michael’s scored 210-4 and they scored 216-2.Semi FinalsHalesworth Middle School from Suffolk was first up to play St Edward’s Middle School from Staffordshire. Harlands from Sussex were drawn to play the impressive Valley Gardens from Northumberland. In two good games, Halesworth and Harlands qualified for the National Final, a massive accomplishment for these year 6 children and Harlands were the eventual winners. Congratulations on a fantastic achievement.All the schools represented themselves very well, and the buzz created when they all met and chatted with Andrew Flintoff was fantastic. 7 ASDA stores turned up to dish out food and drink to the kids and support ASDA’s drive to get kids healthy and active. ASDA Kwik CricketA modified format of cricket focusing on the game’s core skills and rules, Kwik Cricket has involved nearly one million children in its structured county, regional and national competitions since it’s inception in 1988.In 2007 alone, the ASDA Kwik Cricket competition is set to involve in excess of 125,000 teams including over 1800 district festivals. Kwik Cricket has been designed by the ECB to take young cricketers all the way from the playground to the Test arena to create future generations of England stars. David Collier, ECB chief executive, said: “Enthusing following and participation among young people is a core objective of the ECB Strategic Plan 2005 – 2009 and Kwik Cricket accomplishes this aim magnificently. “This year the competition is more popular than ever with over 125,000 children in 12,000 schools taking part in 1,800 local festivals across England and Wales. We are delighted to have ASDA as sponsors of this competition - their presence at the festivals and finals with fresh fruit and water for the children delivers a very positive message about the benefits of an active lifestyle and healthy living.”