St Bede's High School are crowned Blackburn and Darwen Schools Under 15s cricket champions

Played with a hard ball with players wearing proper cricket equipment - something many of them were experiencing for the first time - the Saints clinched the title

School Games Organiser, Andrew Mercer, hoped the experience of using the equipment for the first time would encourage more pupils to pursue the sport.

“It was great to see some lads who probably haven’t played with a hard ball and worn proper cricket equipment before having a taste of real cricket,” said Mercer. “Hopefully the experience might inspire more young people to go along to their local cricket clubs and get involved.”

The competition included teams of Year Nine and Year 10 pupils who took part in two qualifying rounds with the top two from each progressing to the finals day.

In the first qualifier Darwen Vale, QEGS and Westholme all played each other in a round robin format.

The competition took the T20 format with teams batting for 20 overs each, with each team using at least five bowlers.

QEGS and Westholme proved to be the two strongest teams on the day to book their place in the semi finals.

The second qualifier included St Wilfrid’s, Witton, Blackburn Central and St Bede’s who each played two games and it was St Bede’s and St Wilfrid’s who progressed to the knockout stages.

In typical British fashion, finals day had to be rearranged on two occasions due to the summer weather and although it finally went ahead it came at a cost as Westholme were unable to attend the new date.

So instead of two semi finals and a final, the three remaining teams played each other in a round robin format at QEGS playing fields in Lammack.

The first game saw St Bede’s take on QEGS.

Batting first, QEGS started solidly but slowly as St Bede’s bowled with good control. The hosts managed to bat out their allocated overs to post a competitive total.

In reply, St Bede’s lost a couple of early wickets on what was a difficult track to bat on, but a couple of middle order partnerships saw them over the line.

Game two saw St Bede’s take on St Wilfrid’s knowing if they won they would be crowned champions.

St Bede’s batted first and once against lost early wickets to the bowling of Owen Elwood, but Harry Caton kept his wicket intact and hit regular boundaries until he had to eventual retire having scored 35 or over (37 not out).

The rest of his team mates batted around him and St Bede’s finished on an above par 96.

St Wilfrid’s response started in disastrous fashion as Jacob Proctor took two wickets with the first two balls to leave them on 0-2.

But they dug in and stopped the fall of wickets but it also meant the runs dried up and St Bede’s ended up winning comfortably.

The final match between QEGS and St Wilfrid’s which was now a ‘dead-rubber’ was played as a friendly 10 overs-a-side game.

Mercer added: “A huge congratulations to St Bede’s on being crowned the champions.

“I would also like to thank Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School for allowing us to use their wonderful facilities in what were testing conditions for a groundsman.”