U11 Hardball Finals Report

The ESCA/Bunbury Under 11 Hardball Cricket 2011
Finals Day, Repton School, Tuesday 12th July 2012

Approximately 400 Schools entered the ESCA/Bunbury Under 11
Hardball Cricket Competition in 2011.

Magnificent work was done locally, in the counties and in the regions by
stalwart ESCA personnel to provide us with our eight national finalists.
We owe the ESCA team all over the country so much.

This year's finalists were :
Sedbergh School, Cumbria
Rokeby School, Surrey
Packwood Haugh School, Shrewsbury
Millfield Prep School, Somerset
Jesse Gray Primary School, Notts.
Ashville College, Yorkshire
The Dragon School, Oxford
Orwell Park School, Suffolk

The Finals Day was held for the first time at Repton School in Derbyshire.
It was a pleasantly warm day and although there was some distance between
the pitches excellent organisation by the School's Head of Sport, Ian Pollock,
some reorganisation of the timetable, and clear signage ,allowed a large number
of parents and supporters to move freely around the site and the whole day
ran  well to time.

The finalists competed in two Leagues, each named after redoubtable ESCA
administrators, the Cooper League and the Hemingway League. Each school played
three matches in their respective League.
The Cooper League was very straight-forward as Rokeby School won all of their matches,
but in the Hemingway League Sedbergh and Orwell Park Schools both won two matches.
Recourse to the Rule book gave the nod to Sedbergh as they had won the match between
these two teams

So, the final round of matches could be organised with each school playing against the
equivalent placed school in their partner League. Thus,
Rokeby [272-3]  beat  Sedbergh [209-11]
Millfield Prep [275-5]  beat  Orwell Park  [274-4]
Packwood Haugh [253-5]  beat  Jesse Gray Primary [222-5]
The Dragon School [262-5]  beat  Ashville College [245-5]

Presentations were made on the respective pitches by the ESCA Chairman, Chris Hassell,
and the ESCA General Secretary, Ken Lake. All eight teams received certificates as Regional
Winners and there were medals for the most successful teams of Finals Day  -  Millfield Prep
[bronze], Sedbergh [silver] and Rokeby [gold].

Many favourable comments were received from the attending schools and their parents.