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Kids League Comes to a Memorable Finale

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Victorious Canonbury, with MCC chairman
Charles Fry

The British Land Kids Cricket League – created and organised by Capital Kids Cricket and now the biggest event of its kind in Britain – came to a spectacular conclusion at the MCC Indoor School at Lord’s on March 24. And not only did eight primary schools from all over inner London have the thrill of battling it out at “Headquarters” for the first major trophy of the Capital Kids 2009 season but they had the additional bonus of doing so under the admiring gaze of Derek Underwood, one of the greatest spinners ever to don an England shirt, and the entire National Women’s team fresh home from its World Cup triumph!
At the end of a day of dramatically closely contested matches, Canonbury School, Islington, lifted the British Land Trophy for the second time in three years, defeating Edmund Waller School, Lewisham, in the grand final.

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Sir John Ritblat, president
of British Land, with
Canonbury skipper
Jimmy Driver

And to add to his school’s trophy cabinet, Canonbury captain, Jimmy Driver, was one of four winners of Tomorrow’s Superstars awards, the players picked out to be the most likely to follow Capital Kids Cricket “old boy” Ravi Bopara, currently playing with England’s test and one-day teams in West Indies, into the national headlines ten years from now.This year no less than 128 state primary schools from throughout the 16 boroughs of inner London entered 16 preliminary leagues to determine the eight schools which would go through to contest the Lord’s final. The other six primary schools to fight their way through to the finals were Brackenbury (Hammersmith & Fulham), St. Joseph’s RC, Westminster, St John’s Angell Town C of E (Lambeth), Grasmere (Hackney), Eltham C of E (Greenwich) and Newport (Waltham Forest) and Jimmy’s three fellow Tomorrow’s Superstar winners also represented finalist schools - Bea Allan, of Edmund Waller, Kane Docherty, of St. Joseph’s and Cameron McGovern, of Grasmere.

The winners received the British Land Trophy from Charles Fry, chairman of MCC, and individual medals from Sir John Ritblat, president of British Land plc, while Tomorrow’s Superstars were presented with their trophies by Mark Heighton, a senior partner at City law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, award sponsors.

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The finalists with Derek Underwood

“We got Ravi started as a nine-year-old in his Newham primary school and we have another clutch of ‘old boys’ now beginning to make regular appearances at county level, including Billy Godleman at Middlesex and Maurice Chambers and Tony Palladino with Essex,” says Capital Kids’ general manager, John Sullivan. “But our main aim will always be to give London kids a chance to enjoy a wonderfully friendly game at whatever level they choose.”
“The standard of these nine- and ten-year-olds – both boys and girls – has to be seen to be believed and just would not have been possible before we came along to help them get started.
“And well done, Canonbury! They have been with us from the start, when the league was far smaller than it is today, and must have been disappointed to be narrowly beaten in the final last year – they are undoubtedly the team to beat from now on.”

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to watch a future teammate?

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The England team look in
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