Friday the 30^th of November saw a nervous but eager bunch of talented cricketers board the bus at Burnie Primary at 7.45 to head to Launceston for the Woolworths Cricket Blast School Cup State Final.

The team was comprised of Emig French, Samuel Plapp, Cooper Pilgrim, Lachlan Jones, Kane Walsh, Ella Scolyer, Max Hay and Brodie Dick with emergencies Maguiar Burns, Aayush Timalsina and Lachlan Burgess.  Unfortunately Jonti Dolting was unable to participate due to a fractured radius. 

The Woolworths Cricket Blast School Cup is a very fast and entertaining style of cricket of 8 overs per side.  Every player bowling 1 over each and batters batting in pairs for two overs, if a batter is out they continue to bat for their 2 overs however the fielding team is awarded 5 runs.  There are also free hits for no balls and wides and designated scoring zones in which the runs scored are doubled.

Our first game was against St Finn Barr’s. The team batted and fielded very well and we all stuck to our game plans. In the end the runs scored of the bat were very even however we took about 10 more wickets which enabled us to progress to the semi-final against Corpus Christi.

The semi-final was definitely a step up in standard. We batted first and found it challenging to score as freely as we were able to in the first game however all batsmen persevered and with some terrific late hitting we scored a competitive total.  Corpus Christi started their innings very well and I think they passed our score however our players showed great resilience and determination which resulted in us taking 8 wickets in the last 12 balls which gave us 40 runs enabling Burnie to record a 15 run win!!

The Grand Final was against Launceston Grammar. Again we batted first and made a very quick start. Despite their bowlers getting on top in the later part of our innings we batted very sensibly and only lost 2 wickets.  Three quick wickets early in our bowling innings saw us get off to a very good start however they had some very talented big hitting batsmen who managed to push their score past ours.

I would like to congratulate our students on a terrific achievement, being 2^nd in the state is an outstanding effort.  Whilst our skills were of a high standard it was their behaviour and their attitude of support and encouragement towards one another, their sportsmanship and humility when winning that made it a pleasure to coach this group.