The Kwik Cricket Competition was set up by Shireland Collegiate Academy and the opportunity to take part was offered to the local schools within the Smethwick Cluster of schools. Victoria Park Academy registered for the competition along with Cape Primary and George Betts.
It was slightly disappointing that there wasn’t a bigger uptake but nonetheless, our team of budding cricketers turned up prepared to play a decent game of cricket! The team trained for two weeks prior to the competition but, they weren’t allowed to use a bat during any of the sessions. Fielding and bowling took priority because if you are unable to field properly, you won’t be able to get the other team out and it definitely paid off! As it happened, there wasn’t a great need to practise with the bat anyway because they bowled and fielded very well and reduced the run chase rate.
In the first match VPA played Cape Primary and were able to reduce them to 219 runs while our team scored a respectable 235 runs. In our next match against George Betts we reduced them to a mere 210 runs and we were able to post a score of 295. What was so good about the final score was the fact that the teams started with 200 runs and if they lost a wicket by being bowled, caught, stumped, run out or by having their wickets hit, the team would lose 5 runs for each one they lost. Our team did, in fact, lose 4 wickets in each innings so you can see by the scores that the fielding was really outstanding!
Well done to all members of the team and we look forward to seeing you with your silverware!
