Growth of girls cricket continues to build in Sussex schools

This winter we have seen a record number of schools involved in the tournaments, with 26 schools playing at under 13 level and 28 schools at under 15 level, this has been a huge increase than in previous years and shows that more schools are getting involved in girls cricket.

Overall there were a total of 14 rounds played and for the first time this year semi finals were played with the winners and runners up in the East going through to the County final which was held at The BrightonandHoveJobs.com County Ground, Indoor school at Hove.

The under 13 County final involved, Bede’s Prep, Oakmeeds and Tanbridge House, and the final could not have been any closer. Each school played each other once and with all schools winning a game and them all winning each game by just one run. So the winner had to be decided by the team that had scored the most runs in the matches, which resulted in Oakmeeds being crowned Champions by just 8 runs.

It was also the first time Oakmeeds School, from Burgess Hill have entered the Lady Taverners Indoor competition and will now go through to the regional final in Surrey to play schools in the South East region on Friday 4th April, where they have a chance to reach the National final at Lord’s in May.

The under 15 final was between National champions from the last two years, Brighton College, Oakmeeds and Oathall Community College. Again, like the under 13s this was another extremely close final with all teams winning a game, so again it had to go down to which team had scored the most runs and with only 9 runs in it Oathall Community College we crowned County Champions.

Oathall Community College from Haywards Heath will face schools in the South East region in Surrey on Thursday 3rd April, where they also have a chance to reach the National final at Lord’s.

Sussex Women & Girls Development Officer, Charlotte Burton said, “It is great to see more schools getting involved in girls’ cricket and competitions, especially new schools coming in and doing so well. Girls’ cricket continues to grow in Sussex each year and the success that the Sussex Women & girls county teams have had over the years has had a huge impact on girls’ cricket in Sussex. Eight years ago we only had two schools involved in the Indoor competition so to have 56 schools involved is a fantastic achievement and we hope to see it continue to grow.”