Barnet girls have booked a date at the home of cricket after winning through to the Balfour Beatty London Youth Games Indoor Cricket Finals which take place on Sunday 3 March.
They earned their place after topping their group in the qualifiers at Harrow Leisure Centre on Saturday 9 February. Winners of the tournament in 2011, Barnet had to battle hard to secure their ticket to Lord’s.
After a victorious opener against fourth seeds Haringey, they lost out to Richmond 83-85 in a nail biting match. But a 68-65 win against Newham was enough to secure a top of the table finish on run rate.
Barnet Team Organiser Gemma Thompson said: “It was really exciting, all three games were really close and in the final we went against Newham who had won both of their two games so we didn’t really think we had a chance going by the scores of their previous games. But the girls did really well and we ended up winning by run rate and we’re going to Lord’s!
“The girls are so excited. In the last two years we’ve got to Lord’s with other teams - these girls have proven to be just as good, and that means an awful lot to us.”
With the finals at Lord’s now less than three weeks away there’s little time to celebrate though as training and improving remains a key priority.
“Getting to Lord’s itself is the biggest reward to them to be honest. We’ll probably try to get another practice in from now and the finals if we can!” Thompson added.
The Balfour Beatty London Youth Games is Europe’s largest annual youth sports event.
A record 104,463 young Londoners took part in the record-breaking 2012 London Youth Games. The 2013 London Youth Games will be the biggest in history featuring 85 competitions across 33 sports and 27 event days, culminating in finals week at the National Sports Centre Crystal Palace in July where the overall winning borough are awarded the Jubilee Trophy.
Contact Press Officer: Christopher Broadbent, London Youth Games