A Haringey girls’ cricket team made up entirely of North London players has made it through to the London Youth Games final at Lord’s.
The borough team, from school year eight and under, came out on top of Group Six to qualify at the Harrow Leisure Centre earlier this month. The Lord’s final is on Sunday 1st March.
They beat Brent and Lambeth in an impressive all-round team display and in the latter game returned the quite remarkable 10-wicket win result: Haringey 170/0, Lambeth 2 all out. There was one North Middlesex player in the squad but she was unable to play on the day.
Team manager Martin Issitt told the Broadway Ham & High: “The girls are delighted, I’m delighted as well. They’ve practised and trained pretty well for the whole thing and they acquitted themselves really well.” Issitt also noted his side’s lack of nerves: “Sometimes when we’ve come here they’ve been a little bit anxious for the first ball, but they actually got up and running and batted first,” he said. “Most of them have played in this tournament before.”
Indoor Cricket is one of 31 sports in the 2015 Balfour Beatty London Youth Games. The London Youth Games is Europe’s largest annual youth sports event and is driving the legacy for increased participation in competitive sport and volunteering for young Londoners.
(Photo courtesy of the Ham & High series of newspapers)