St Bede鈥檚 claim inaugural crown

After winning the toss and electing to bowl, St Bede’s, which counts past and present Commonwealth Bank Bushrangers Brad Hodge and Jon Holland among its former students, restricted Scotch to 8-152 from its 20 overs.

St Bede’s then overhauled Scotch’s total in the final over during a superb run-chase.

Despite rolling his ankle and being forced to use a runner, Matt Williams was the key to the St Bede’s win, posting an instrumental 83 not out.

Melbourne Renegades coach Simon Helmot and players Alex Doolan and Jake Haberfield were among those in attendance, lending advice and awarding medals to the players.

In this new Cricket Victoria initiative, each secondary sports association’s winning school is offered a place in the Twenty20 tournament.

Schools are also offered the opportunity to take part in a mid-year training session at the MCG run by Cricket Victoria’s Game and Market Development and High Performance coaches.

The inaugural tournament saw a total of seven secondary schools compete in the round-robin competition, with games being played on Victorian Premier Cricket grounds including the Junction Oval and Toorak Park.

“This is the first year this competition has run and the schools seemed to have really enjoyed it,” Cricket Victoria’s School Coordinator Ryan Batchelder said.

“There were some good players and some high quality cricket played throughout the tournament.”

“The competition is something we hope to build on in the coming years.”