Local School Reaches National Cricket Final

Brookside Junior School from Romford, Essex, will line up alongside 15 other Primary School teams for the Final of the 2002 Sport Relief Kwik Cricket competition at Nottingham's international Trent Bridge Cricket Ground on Friday 19 July (start, 10.15am). A once-in-a-lifetime prize will be on offer for the winners.

The victorious team will win a 30-minute coaching session with England Cricket captain, Nasser Hussain, and England Team coach, Duncan Fletcher - the captain and coach partnership credited with reviving the fortunes of the English national team.

The 16 finalists have all won their way to Trent Bridge from an entry list of over 5,000 Primary Schools from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The tournament, which began in March, is the UK's largest cricket competition and each team has progressed through local, county and regional finals to reach the national final.

Each school will bring a squad of 10 players, from which mixed teams of eight boys and girls will be chosen. Four groups of four teams each guarantee every side three matches during the day, with the group winners progressing to the semi-finals and then final.

Tim Lamb, ECB Chief Executive, said, "This is cricket's biggest UK-wide tournament with over 50,000 boys and girls taking part. To just get to the national finals is a great achievement so all the teams have already performed fantastically well. To win a coaching session with Nasser and Duncan, however, really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them - apart from the England national team, no other side has ever had the benefit of their expert combined cricket coaching knowledge. I wish them all the best."

The competition has been sponsored by the BBC's Sport Relief charity to boost its awareness in cricket and each team in the competition has had the chance to gain local sponsorship and raise money for the charity's worthy causes.

Sport Relief, a new joint fundraising venture from Comic Relief and BBC Sport raised more than £10 million following a star-studded night of TV on BBC ONE on July 13th thanks to the generosity of the UK public.

The tournament is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), cricket's governing body, in conjunction with the England Schools Cricket Association.