Last Thursday, our 7–9 Girls Cricket team competed in the inaugural Diocesan Super 8s tournament, finishing as runners-up.

Our team included two experienced Year 7 cricketers Eliza Douglas and Mia Shoobert, two Year 9s, Elyza Ryan and Lucia Ioppolo who played in last year’s CCC Knockout team, and a group of first-time players: Summer Hrvatin, Sophie Coughlan, Mikayla Kelly, Ella Robertson, Lara Paulissen (all Year 7) and Hannah Moore (Year 9). Over the past five weeks, the new players have worked hard to learn straight-arm bowling and batting skills, with Lara also transferring her soccer goalkeeping talents into some sharp wicketkeeping.

The Super 8s format involves 8 fielders, 8 batters and a 7-over innings. The girls were undefeated in the pool stage, and advanced to the final against St Mary’s. They won the toss and strong fielding kept them to a chaseable 1/52.

Our run chase began shakily, and despite a valiant effort, we fell just short at 2/49, finishing runners-up by three runs.

This was a fantastic effort from a young team, most of whom are in Year 7. The girls showed great teamwork spirit, and rapid improvement throughout the day.

A big thank you to Mr Lawson for driving the team to and from Dapto, Oliver Maher (Year 11) for umpiring and warm-up support, and to the parents and grandparents who came along to cheer the team on. The future of girls’ cricket at our school looks very bright!