Under 15s Cricket Nationals Success
Published by St Lawrence College on Wednesday 6th of September 2023
Huge congratulations to our U15 girls cricket team who finished fourth in the country this summer in the School Sport Magazine National Cricket Competition. Having this success came from months and years of training throughout various winter training programmes and summer seasons.
Training started upon the girls’ return in September 2022 where many of the students trained on a weekly basis in small groups with Mr Simmons and Mr Jones. Early morning sessions before school, evening training sessions and Sports Excellence cricket matches in September allowed many of the girls to continue develop their skillsets post season.
The squad came together to continue training after the October half term and practiced to compete in the U15 Schools Super 8’s which allowed our girls to compete against other schools, helping to the squad. Although the girls did not reach the regional stage of the competition we were not far away and we continued to work on the relevant areas in preparation for the outdoor season.
The summer season started off very well beating King’s Canterbury, Kent College, Sutton Valence and Ashford School in regular fixtures and we continued to make good strides in the National Competition by beating Bromley High School, Brighton College and then Cranleigh in the fourth round of the competition. This meant that we had to beat Surbiton High School in the Quarter Finals of the National Competition to qualify for the National Finals on Monday 4th September. A great batting performance from us saw the opposition needing 150 runs to win from their 20 overs.
The best bowling performance of the season got us into a winning position from an early stage and we bowled Surbiton High School out for 101 meaning that we were now in the last four schools in the country! Gresham’s School, Canford School and Repton School were the other schools along with us to fit it out to be crowned National Champions. We drew Repton School in our Semi Final and were put into bat after Repton won the coin toss. We found ourselves 62-1 at the half way stage and looked to push on to set a total, however some good bowling from Repton meant that at the end of our innings we finished on 117-8.We gave everything in the field and with the ball, but three excellent batting performances from the Repton girls got them over the line and into the Final.
In the other Semi Final Gresham’s School beat Canford to reach the Final which left us Canford School in the 3rd/4th playoff. Canford won the coin toss and elected to bat and got off to a flier. We bowled well, however with short boundaries and a fast outfield we finished bowling our 20 overs and were left with needing 161 to win.
This was the largest total that we had been set to chase in the competition, so our girls needed to give everything to win at an average of just over eight runs an over. An second excellent innings from Mali Nicholls (49 v Repton and now 57 v Canford) got us into a good position but with wickets falling and good bowling from Canford, it was going to go down to the last few overs. We finished on 148a all out and although finished just 12 runs short of Canford’s total batted exceptionally well.
It was certainly a year to remember and will remain fond memories for many years to come with players, coaches and parents. It was also a fitting finish to the end of Mr Simmons’ reign as Head of Cricket and he would like to thank everyone involved who has helped drive the cricket forward at St Lawrence College during his tenure. Cricket remains in a very healthy place and I have no doubt that this years success will only bring more hunger for next year’s competition.
U15 Squad:Mairead McGrath, Sophia White, Sophie Godwin, Lara Pywell, Rihana Gurung, Georgina Davis, Mali Nicholls, Victoria Storrie, Lilia Humphries, Gracie Lawton, Millie Foster, Umaiza Malik Mr Seth Simmons Director of Sport
