14 July 2025
Cricketers Repeat as Midlands Champions Whilst Winning their Fifth Trophy of the Year!
Thursday 10th July saw the U13 Cricket team retain their Midlands Cricket championship and win an unprecedented fifth trophy of the season!
Following an 8.00am get away from school and significant delays on the way to Solihull, the team arrived at the venue with literally minutes to spare before their opening game! Hoping their lack of preparation wouldn’t hinder them they were thrown into the first game against an extremely talented Staffordshire team.
The format for this year’s final was ‘pairs cricket’ where 2 batters faced 2 overs each before retiring trying to score as many runs as they could. However, there was the the added jeopardy of 5 runs being added to the fielding team for each wicket they take. Each of the six teams played the others once to produce a final league table with tied teams being separated by net runs scored (basically goal difference in football). This rule became extremely important at the end of the day!
Game 1 – WIN NGHS 87 (4 wickets) – 83 (1 wicket) Painsley Catholic College representing Staffordshire.
From the very first ball it was clear this was going to be a close game with the girls knowing they could lose at MOST one game all day to be in with a chance of retaining their title from last year. Bowling first, the girls were fielding athletically to restrict the runs and searching for wickets. However, they only managed to take one wicket which would prove crucial in the final reckoning!
The NGHS batters started slowly against some strong and consistent bowling with runs being hard to come by. Crucially, they were starting to lose some wickets and these all added to the opposition total. The run rate steadily increased as the overs diminished and by the end 4’s and 6’s were starting to flow. Both teams knew it was going to be close and after a brief calculation the umpire declared NGHS the winner by the score of 83 runs to 71.
BUT WAIT… the opposition protested the score, claiming 2 of their wickets hadn’t been include and demanded a re-count based on inaccurate scoring! The senior umpire for the day was brought in and with the tension mounting there was an agonising wait for the official score to be announced. The final score was eventually declared as Newport 87 – Painsley 83 with the one wicket that NGHS took proving crucial and preventing the opposition from winning by 1 run!
An extremely hard fought and somewhat controversial win that would prove absolutely crucial come the end of the day!
Game 2 – WIN NGHS 81 (2 Wickets) – 70 (4 Wickets) Woodlands Middle School representing Bedfordshire.
In their second game, NGHS played a team that had travelled all the way from Bedford. Bowling first again, the NGHS players were tight and suffocating with their fielding and restricting the opposition to 70 runs for the loss of 2 wickets.
Coming in to bat, Woodlands showed they were no pushovers and immediately started pressuring the Newport hitters and took 4 wickets! Knowing they were behind on the required runs it again came down to the later batters to try and rescue the game. Only through some big hitting for 6’s and 4’s did they eventually overhaul the Woodlands total in the final over! Two wins out of two heading into game 3 and so far, so good.
Game 3 – WIN NGHS 109 (0 Wickets) – 53 (5 Wickets) Wombourne High representing Worcestershire.
After the extreme drama of the first two games, the team were relieved to have a more routine victory against a very game and sporting Wombourne outfit. Batting first this time, the girls were ruthless in their hitting and running amassing a spectacular total of 109 from just 8 overs!
When batting, the opposition just couldn’t get going and regularly lost wickets to the lethal NGHS bowling with some great catches and run out’s as well. Finishing on 51 for 5 wickets, Wombourne were well beaten by a devastating Newport performance. More importantly, the lopsided victory significantly helped their run rate as they headed into lunch with three wins out of three and a repeat as Midlands Champions very much on the cards!
Game 4 – LOSE NGHS 62 (3 wickets) – 69 (1 wicket) King Edwards Five Ways Grammar School representing Warwickshire and Birmingham.
Suitably refreshed following the lunch break NGHS knew they had another very tough game against the Champions of Birmingham and Warwickshire (easily the area with the most schools and biggest population). With the temperature rising and the thermometer nudging 30 degrees the action on the pitch was just as hot!
King Edwards had won 2 and drawn 1 of their games so they knew that a win against NGHS would put them in the driving seat to win the whole tournament. Bowling first, the King Edwards batters steadily accumulated runs but were unable to get completely on top of the Newport bowlers and would have been slightly disappointed with their total. However, they only last one wicket and this was to prove crucial.
Coming in to bat, the bowling was very tight and despite a change up in the batting order, Newport couldn’t really get going against some ferociously fast deliveries. Moving into the middle overs and with the bowling becoming a little less intimidating, the girls managed to put significant runs on the board such that the result was in the balance heading towards the end. Into the final over and having heroically hauled themselves back into contention it came down to the final ball to decide the winner. Needing 3 runs off the last delivery the King Edwards bowler produced an absolute ripper of a delivery to take out the stumps and give them the victory! A superb game of cricket and it was a shame that someone had to lose!
After a topsy-turvy day of cricket, the overall title came down to the last match for all of the teams. NGHS were playing the champions of Herefordshire who hadn’t won a game all day whilst the two other title contenders faced each other in a crucial match.
Game 5 – WIN NGHS 132 (1 wicket) – 42 (6 wickets) Lady Hawkins School representing Herefordshire.
The team knew that the only way they could still win the title was to win their final match and do so by as many runs as possible. They also needed, Painsley to have a narrow win and hope that the run rate went in Newport’s favour.
With this in mind, the team set about their task with gusto and batted first with boundaries and runs coming quickly. At the end of their 8 overs they had scored a mighty 132 runs for the loss of just 1 wicket! Lady Hawkins couldn’t make any inroads into the NGHS bowling and they finished with a score of 42 for the loss of 6 crucial wickets. The result certainly gave them a chance in the final reckoning.
FINAL CALCULATION AND DECLARATION OF WINNERS
With the NGHS win, Painsley duly beat King Edwards but it was a close result with only a few runs separating the teams. The final Table had NGHS and Painsley tied with 13 points each with 4 wins and 1 loss each. This mean’t it went to the dreaded countback with the West Midlands Championship being decided by net runs scored for each team (scores runs take away runs conceded).
After what seemed an like an agonising wait, the organisers called all the teams together to announce the winners. It was indeed between Painsley and NGHS for the title and the girls were thrilled beyond belief to learn they had won by a net run rate of just 4 RUNS!
After a whole day of cricket, 15 excellent matches and 1,200 ball being balled overall, the title came down to just 4 runs. It could not have been closer.
After a whole day of cricket, 15 excellent matches and over 1,200 balls being bowled, the title of Midlands Champion came down to just 4 runs - it could not have been any closer and was decided by the final ball of the final game!