The Friary School under the lights at Edgbaston Stadium, students watched an awesome cricket game in the T20 Vitality blast, and saw the home-side Birmingham Bears defeat Yorkshire Vikings.
On the journey to Birmingham the weather was not on our side, however the rain stayed away and we enjoyed a fun packed evening. On arrival the ladies’ game was in the last over and we saw Central Sparks, hit the winning runs in the last over of the game. After this ended the pupils had an hour before the next game to go and explore. They visited the club shop, the museums and treated themselves to food.
At the start of the match as the players entered the field 4 pupils, Lili Crompton, Isabel Davies, Sam Derrick and Ryan Peck had the responsible job of being flag bearers and waved giant flags as both teams entered the pitch. While waiting to go onto the field, Joe Root, who was back playing for Yorkshire walked past us and fist pumped the boys.
The game started dramatically with Yorkshire 15-1 of the first 2 overs. The next 2 batsmen put on a fine display and sent the ball over in our direction multiple times, including one where Jonny Bailey (Y7) fielded the ball and was captured on TV ! At the end of the first innings Yorkshire finished, 145 all out.
Birmingham Bears lost a wicket in the first over and their bad luck continued into the third over, when we were 16-2. However, quick scoring followed from the next batsmen, and soon our students were back up celebrating 6s and 4s. At the eleventh over the scores were exactly the same as Yorkshire at the same point in the game. However, Birmingham Bears continued to score quickly and scored the winning runs in the eighteenth over.
Hollie Wright, trip organiser, said: “The journey back included a few ‘You Bear’s’ chants and lots of conversation about the huge hits, accurate bowling and awesome fielding we witnessed. The students were fantastic all evening and they clearly had lots of fun. It was an enjoyable experience for all and we are hoping this inspired a few more students to play cricket and go and watch more games live.”
