(Main Photo CD High Girls)
It was an early start for Castle Douglas High School and Dalbeattie High School Girls Cricket teams on Monday 15th June as they set off at 7am for the National Secondary School Girls’ Competition in Stirling.
Both teams have been preparing for this tournament for several months and were excited that the day had finally arrived – the CDHS team was formed in February 2014 and the Dalbeattie team has only been running since April of this year after a taster session with National Women’s Coach, Kari Carswell in February.
Teams travelled from all over Scotland to take part in the tournament which took place at Stirling County Cricket Club where the ICC T20 World Qualifiers are being held this summer. The girls were lucky enough to see the trophy and have their picture taken with it. The tournament was split into two groups and each team in the group played against each other to identify a winner of each group who then played in the final at the end of the day.
The Castle Douglas girls showed how far they have come since the team started last year but were beaten by even more experienced George Watsons and Moray but delivered a terrific win against Holyrood beating them by a large margin.
Dalbeattie came so close to their first win in their very first game losing out by only two runs to St Leonards! The girls were unfortunately also beaten by Strathallan and Dollar Academy but all games were relatively close and the inexperienced Dalbeattie team should be immensely proud of their efforts. Hopefully the girls will have learnt a lot from watching other teams playing and from the experience of playing against quality players.
While the final took place all other teams played their equivalent from the opposite group – second place in Group A played second place in Group B etc. Both teams won these matches by considerable margins and ended the day on a high.
Following a short presentation ceremony the two teams from Galloway decided a grudge match between the two just had to be played before heading home. This was extremely entertaining and could have gone either way. However, in the end the Castle Douglas girls’ experience and team work gave them the edge and they won the local derby by 9 runs!
At the end of the day Player of the Tournament from Dalbeattie was jointly given to KERRY AITCHISON for her excellent debut as wicket keeper and to LOUISE McGINILY for her all round performance with the bat and ball. From CDHS player of the tournamnt went to CATRINA CLARK for her all round excellent performance with the bat and ball combined with her energetic and positive manner, runner up went to ALEX LIVINGSTONE for her consistent commitment in the field.
Galloway Cricket Club would like to thank the two schools for authorising this trip and for their continued support of the girls after school clubs; in particular, Mr Mein (Dalbeattie) and Mrs Brown (Castle Douglas) for accompanying the girls to the competition.
Any girls looking to get involved with cricket should contact the PE department at their school or Natalie from the club: 07872 909 010.
