National champions illustrate Kwik Cricket's boost to the game

Christ Church School, Ealing - national champions (c) ECB

When the Kwik Cricket initiative was launched, one of the major aims was to open up the game to children who might otherwise not get an opportunity to play cricket in any form. Kwik Cricket was designed to be an introduction that would, hopefully, get children involved in the game and from there they could go on to play proper cricket later in life.

Without doubt it has worked, and a look at the team that has just won the National Schools Kwik Cricket competition run by the ECB and sponsored by BBC Sport shows what a success story it has been.

The tournament was won by Christ Church School from Ealing in West London. An affluent educational establishment with vast acres of playing field to encourage the playing of cricket and other sports? No. They boast only a small tarmac playground and no playing fields of their own. Children are bussed around Ealing daily with military precision and retrieved from various sporting sites.

From this unpromising base, cricket has been built up so the school won the schools indoor competition at Lord's in March and was selected to demonstrate Kwik Cricket during the lunch interval at an npower Test at Lord's in 2002. Two former pupils, David Holt and Chris Teploe, have been involved with the groundstaff scheme at Lord's.

So, they must have a dedicated former cricketer to run cricket at the school? The answer is no again. Not only is it a non-playing woman who runs cricket at Christ Church, but it is a Frenchwoman at that. Marie Holt, mother of David, is a qualified coach and umpire who has helped develop an impressive number of pupils from the school who play in the colts teams at Ealing, Brentham, Perivale and Wembley cricket clubs.

In the BBC Sport Kwik Cricket Tournament, Christ Church became Southern region champions, having beaten teams from Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight. Before that, they had won through the borough and then Middlesex competitions, and in total won 17 matches in three months as they made their way through the four competition phases.

The final itself took place on the Test match ground at Trent Bridge in July and was the culmination of an event involving over 5,500 schools and 56,000 children. In Nottingham there were 16 teams taking part, representing regions throughout England and Wales. There was also a team which had journeyed all the way from Inverness representing Scotland.

In the preliminary round, Christ Church beat West Midlands by 27 runs, Scotland by 129 runs and South Wales by a single run struck off the last ball. That took them into the semi-finals where the representatives of the South West region were dispatched by 64 runs.

In the final, they played against the North West in the shape of Greasby Junior School from the Wirral - and Christ Church triumphed by 19 runs.

It is betraying her French origins when Marie Holt is asked for her impression of the whole marvelous journey. "I wake up in time to go to school and I can still hardly believe it," she says. "What a summer. What can we possibly do for an encore?"

Alan Ferguson, whose son Jack was wicket-keeper in the victorious team, comments on what effect Kwik Cricket has had. "It really does work. All of the boys and girls introduced to cricket in this way are now regulars for their colts teams and two have also moved on to represent Middlesex while another may be about to join them. But of course, you have to have a head and teachers who really put themselves out to achieve this and we are so lucky in this regard."

The headmaster, Keith Florence, is equally proud of the team. "When I mention it to prospective parents, they are amazed," he said. "After all, being at the heart of Ealing, we don't even have our own playing fields and have to bus the children around on a daily basis to give them the opportunity. We do stress sport and fitness at Christ Church and generally do well, but having the national champions is something quite new for me. I rather like it!"