Schools bowled over by cricket tourney

SIX Rotherham area primary schools will compete for a place in the South Yorkshire area final of the 2012 Drax Cup, the biggest cricket competition for under 9s in the country, next week.

The Rother Valley School Sports Partnership festival at Wickersley Old Village CC on Tuesday features the winners of a series of cluster events held at cricket clubs this week involving more that 30 local schools. Teams from Aston Springwood, Herringthorpe Junior, Anston Park, Todwick and Flanderwell face each other together with one from the Maltby area in a fixture to be completed.

The winner of next week's event will go through to the regional final to be held at Abbeydale Sports Ground, Sheffield on 2 July.

Brinsworth Whitehill Primary School from Rotherham are already in the South Yorkshire area final after taking first place in festival involving schools in the Rawmarsh School Sports Partnership.

Yorkshire Club Captain Andrew Gale together with England women's bowler and 2011 Women's Cricketer of the Year Katherine Brunt are ambassadors for the Drax Cup.

Teams play in a series of round robin events to produce four area winners, one from each region of Yorkshire.

These four teams play the Drax Cup 2012 Finals at Headingley Carnegie Stadium on July 8 prior to Yorkshire v Derbyshire in the Friends Provident Twenty20 Cup.

The competition is sponsored by Drax Power Limited and organised by The Yorkshire County Cricket Club in conjunction with Yorkshire Cricket Board and Yorkshire Schools' Cricket Association.