A TOTAL of 14 squads took part in the inaugural Blackburn and Darwen Year 5/6 Dodgeball Festival, hosted by St Bede’s RC High School.

Dodgeball is a game in which players on two teams try to throw balls at each other while avoiding being hit themselves.

There are many variations of the game, but generally the main objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls below head height, catching a ball thrown by a member of the opposing team, or forcing them to move outside the court boundaries when a ball is thrown at them.

As well as being a really enjoyable game it also develops throwing, catching and dodging skills.

The 14 teams where split into two pools and played a round robin format against the other six teams on two courts with young leaders from St Bede’s officiating.

Dodgeball is a fast and furious game, so matches were only minutes long.

After the round robin stage the eight teams that progressed to the quarter-finals were St James Lower Darwen, Shadsworth, St Thomas’, St Barnabas and St Paul’s, Audley, St James’ Blackburn, Lower Darwen and The Redeemer.

The first quarter-final saw St James Lower Darwen edge past Audley 6-5.

St James’ Blackburn booked their place in the last four with an 8-0 success over Shadsworth, while St Thomas’ edged past Lower Darwen 6-4.

The final quarter-final was another one-sided affair as St Barnabas and St Paul’s beat The Redeemer 8-0.

The first semi-final was a battle for the St James’ school, with the Lower Darwen side beating their Blackburn counterparts 6-2.

In the second semi-final St Barnabas and St Paul’s secured a place in the final as they defeated St Thomas’ 4-0.

The bronze play-off match saw St Thomas’ and St James’ Blackburn go head-to-head, with St Thomas’ coming out on top 4-2.

So after 63 games and nearly two hours of non-stop action we were down to the final two teams.

It was an exciting and tense final but St James’ Lower Darwen proved slightly too strong for a spirited St Barnabas and St Paul’s team coming out as champions thanks to a score of 5 to 3.

Andrew Mercer, school games organiser, said the first tournament had been a success and it was important to put something slightly different into the sporting calendar for local schools.

“We decided to put Dodgeball into our competition calendar as it is something slightly different and less traditional,” he said.

“We asked school to bring children who don’t generally get the chance to represent their school in traditional sports.

“It was great to see so many different schools in attendance and so many happy smiley faces of children enjoying physical activity and competition.”

Mr Mercer was also keen to thank the host school for their efforts, and confirmed the tournament will be back next year.

He said: “I would like to thank St Bede’s for allowing us to use their facilities and to the six Young Leaders from St Bede’s who refereed, timed and recorded the results for all 64 games.

“Dodgeball will definitely be on the calendar again in 2016.”