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NEWS: Canonbury are first Kids League champs
April 18, 2007
Victorious Canonbury Primary School
with British Land president, Sir John Ritblat.
By defeating Brackenbury School, Hammersmith and Fulham, by just 7 runs, Canonbury became the first-ever British school team to win a US-style “Little League.”
For many years the popularity of baseball in America has been underpinned by nationwide “little leagues,” in which junior schools compete with each other in a whole term of fixtures, supported by teachers, parents and community leaders.
Capital Kids Cricket imported the formula to Britain for the first time with an experimental
pilot scheme last year and its success led to 50 primary schools entering the inaugural league, sponsored by property giant British Land, which got under way in February this year with separate leagues at centres throughout central London.
At the Lord’s grand final, in which eight winning schools competed for the honour of becoming overall champions, Canonbury beat Myatt Gardens School, Lewisham, by 57 runs and Grasmere School, Hackney, by 43 runs on route to their victorious show-down with Brackenbury.
And to add to the Islington school’s day of triumph, its 10-year-old skipper, Kevin Butler, was one of four London youngsters to be presented with Tomorrow’s Superstar trophies by former England batsman and MCC’s Head of Cricket, John Stephenson.
“After the emergence of Ravi Bopara, a Capital Kids Cricket discovery at his Newham, East London, primary school ten years ago, as one of the few success stories in England’s failure to win through to the World Cup semi-finals, we asked our coaches to look out for the four London primary school children – two boys and two girls – most likely to follow Ravi into England teams a decade from now,” said
CKC co-founder, William Greaves.
The other three winners were Bardha Halimi, of Barrow Hill School, Westminster, Jacob Studdard, of Edmund Waller School, Lewisham, and Phoebe Franklyn, of St. Peter’s School, Greenwich.
 Kevin Butler, one of four CKC Tomorrow’s Superstars,
with (l to r) MCC Head of Cricket, John Stephenson,
Lord’s Taverner Richard Kershaw and Sir John Ritblat
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