UK state school reaches final of Sobers tournament

Lancaster Royal Grammar School reached the final of the highly competitive international schools festival, the Sir Garfield Sobers tournament in Barbados, now in its 25th year. Only three UK schools have achieved this: Canford and Dulwich (who both won) and Repton (who “lost” when it rained, after some slightly dubious calculations). This is a very impressive achievement by this state grammar school.

They qualified for the semi-finals by winning five matches and losing one, with one rained off. In the semi-final against Queen?s of Trinidad, the West Indian side scored 168 in their 40 overs. Lancaster looked in deep trouble apart from their captain Mark Walling, with a tournament average of nearly 90, who scored 45. It was left to the last pair, Jonny Wells and Jack Brown, who hit 55 runs from the last five overs and won off the last ball.

In the final at Kensington Oval they faced local school Combermere. Captain Mark Walling again impressed with a fine 60 before being run out, taking Lancaster to 110 for one. But the lower order faded, until the hero of the semi-final, Jack Brown, scored an aggressive 24 from 25 balls, and Lancaster finished with a slightly disappointing 155 all out. This seemed competitive when Combermere found themselves at 101 for six. They were rescued by some fine hitting by their number eight which enabled the local side to win by seven wickets with three overs to spare.