On Tuesday 25th June, the Year 5/6 Boy's cricket team, traveled to the home of Hampshire Cricket - The Utilita Bowl. 

After winning the Basingstoke competition, the boy's were pitted against the best schools from all of the other districts in Hampshire. In glorious sunshine and playing on the pitch that often graces the England cricket teams, the boy's were placed in a group alongside two other teams. Their first match saw them play against Abbotswood from Totton and in a very close match the boys lost by a narrow 14 run margin, against a team that boasted two Hampshire youth players. 

This meant the boy's needed a big win in their second match against Clatford, from Andover, to give themselves a chance of qualifying for the quarter finals as a best placed runner-up in their group. Batting first, there were some huge hits that led to St John's finishing on a total of 145, they then backed this up with excellent bowling that restricted Clatford to 66 runs. The huge 79 run win meant that St John's went through to the quarter finals in the afternoon as a best placed runner up from their group. 

Here they met Bentley school from Farnham and again an incredible batting performance saw them amass 130 runs. This was always going to be a big ask for Bentley and the boys bowled and fielded really well to restrict them in their chase to 86 runs, a 44 run win for St John's. 

Through to the semi-finals and it was time for a rematch with our first opponents of the day - Abbotswood. This was a very tight match, with great bowling and fielding performances restricting both teams to small scores. Abbotswood eventually ran out as winners by 25 runs and went through to the final. 

For St John's we had one more game - the 3rd/4th place play off against the team we had beaten in the final of the Basingstoke competition - St Mary's. Fielding first St Mary's manged to score 80 runs against some excellent bowling and fielding, which led to St John's taking six wickets. This gave St John's a 30 run head start to their chase and they were always in control, passing St Mary's score with a pair still to bat and eventually finishing on 117, a win of 37 runs, and secured a 3rd place finish. 

We are so proud of the team for playing so well and finishing as the third best team in the county. They all had an experience they will never forget representing the school on the Utilita pitch. Well done to all!