MENSTON St Mary's RC School reached the National semi-finals in the Lords Taverners Cricket Colts Trophy after entertaining the Lancashire champions, Canon Slade School, at Guiseley CC on Monday, to decide the North of England title.

On a damp but drying wicket Canon Slade elected to bat and played with confidence during the early overs, although Rees survived a chance with the score on one.

By the 19th over both openers were still at the crease but the home side had restricted the score to 45 thanks once again to expertise in the field and accurate bowling.

Rees, however, continued to pose problems despite the fact that wickets began to regularly fall at the other end. With the score on 100 and Rees on a creditable 59 he was bowled with the first ball of Sibble's second spell.

This effectively signalled the end of Canon Slade's innings and they were all out for 109 in the 35th over. Chris Wheeler with 4- 25 off eight overs and Joseph Sayers with 2-2 off six overs were the main wicket takers.

An injury to captain Chris Wheeler deprived St Mary's of one off their openers, but James Davies and Joseph Sayers, two of the sides under age players, took on the task of setting up a firm foundation.

With the score on 50 Davies was the first casualty, bowled by Rees for 12. James Sibbles followed a few overs later having been deceived by the slowness of the wicket.

With only 14 more runs on the board St Mary's lost a further wicket, this time Rackham who was caught and bowled by Prendegast for nine. This left the onus on Sayers and Carter who both kept cool heads, with Sayers in particular in sparkling form, hitting an unbeaten 61, 36 of which were boundaries. It was Ben Carter who secured the winning runs, driving the unfortunate Greenhalgh for his third four in the 29th over.

St Mary's won by seven wickets and are now Northern Champions.

The next challenge is to play the winner of the Midlands Region, who are The Royal GS Worcester, on Friday, July 3, at Ilkley CC, 12.15pm start, for the right to play in the English Schools Final at Trent Bridge early in July.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.