St Olave’s hosted our inaugural ‘Super 8’ cricket tournament last week. School teams came from across Yorkshire and the North to play, and we were blessed with picture-perfect weather.

The schools in attendance, all very excited to show off their skills, were: The Grammar School at Leeds, Bradford Grammar, Terrington Hall, Ampleforth, Yarm School and RGS Newcastle.

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The tournament was run on a league basis, followed by two knockout semi-finals and a final at the end of the day. Each school had their own personalized coloured cricket shirt to play in for the day, supplied by BLK and all the matches were played with a pink ball, adding even more colour to the occasion.

The group matches were all very closely contended and both groups went to down the final round of games to determine who would qualify. Olave’s and RGS Newcastle ended up topping their respective groups, which meant that second place Bradford Grammar played RGS Newcastle in the first semi-final, and Ampleforth played St Olave’s in the second.

Both semi-finals were closely fought and very high scoring, with RGS Newcastle and St Olave’s came out on top setting up an exciting final.

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In the final St Olave’s batted first after losing the toss and for the first time in the day underperformed with the bat, only managing 46 for 6 in their 7 overs. RGS approached their innings cautiously accumulating their runs and St Olave’s picked up few quick wickets keeping them very much still in the game. However, the strength in depth of the RGS side allowed them to knock off the runs with 3 wickets left and 1.2 overs remaining.

Player of the Tournament was Nathan Bygart from RGS Newcastle. Nathan was top run scorer on the day, including an impressive innings of 92 not out in just 7 overs against Yarm. Nathan won a tour of the B3 bat factory and a custom handmade cricket bat, sponsored by B3 Cricket.

Gareth Sharp, Head of Cricket at St Olave’s and tournament organiser, said: “The tournament was a great success and was thoroughly enjoyed by all those who took part. As a school we are really looking forward to hosting the tournament again in 2015, welcoming more schools to enjoy the atmosphere, as a well as promoting enjoyable, creative and exciting junior cricket.”

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Super8s cricket started in Canberra, Australia in 2005, and is based on the generic T20 format. It is a high-scoring, fast-paced and thrilling version of the game, well suited to day-long festivals and tournaments.