Top primary school cricket play-off on Thursday

The 2001 MILO Cup (boys') and MILO Shield (girls') cricket competitions will be decided on Thursday 13 December when the top primary/intermediate school teams from the North and South Islands play off for the national titles.

The MILO Cup finalists are:
Havelock North Intermediate, Havelock North
Rosedale Intermediate, Invercargill

The MILO Cup attracted 165 entries from intermediate and full-primary schools.

The MILO Shield finalists are:
Viscount Navigator School, Auckland
Woodend Primary School, North Canterbury

The MILO Shield attracted 84 entries.

The finalists have been found following a series of limited-overs knockout matches in regional zones.

The finals will be a 35-over game for the boys and a 25-over game for the girls to be played at Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North.

New Zealand Cricket National Development Manager, Alec Astle, said the support for the national primary school competitions had been tremendous and entries for 2002 so far suggested further increases.

The finalists have their travel and accommodation expenses paid for to participate in the finals. The winners also will receive $600 of cricket equipment and the runners-up will receive $300 of cricket equipment.

The competitions were launched in 2000 as part of MILO's sponsorship of the New Zealand Cricket development programme.

This season over 90 MILO Summer Squad cricket development officers were operating throughout New Zealand visiting primary schools and recruiting children into the MILO programmes. Currently there are 128 MILO Have-A-Go Cricket Centres catering for 4,209 youngsters and 32 MILO Kiwi Cricket Centres involving 817 a further youngsters. These centres are organised and run by over 1,000 parents and teachers trained as coaches.

"It is New Zealand Cricket's aim to have every child in the country able to try cricket, and to have the game played in every schoolground and backyard. The MILO Cup and MILO Shield are a showpiece of the programme," Astle said.