A TEAM of schoolgirls from Redbridge smashed their way to victory in the final of London Youth Games Cricket Cup at Lord’s at the weekend.

The team, made up of pupils from a number of schools throughout the borough, were crowned champions after defeating Greenwich in the final of the event.

The win meant the team had seen off the challenge of 30 boroughs, culminating in the prestigious final, which was held at Lord’s indoor school, the venue for training for the likes of England stars Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff.

After being set a target of 67 from their ten overs, the girls knocked the runs off with an over to spare to win the tournament.

There was a scare in the semi-finals though, as the girls just squeezed through after they tied with City of London, but they were awarded the win after losing one less wicket than their opponents.

Pauline Osborn, coach of Redbridge’s girls, said: “The team played outstanding cricket and I’m very proud of them.”

It was almost a double triumph for Redbridge as the boys’ team also made it through to the final, only to be defeated by a strong Tower Hamlets side.

After being set an imposing 111 runs for victory, Redbridge were skittled out for just 45, but they emerged with plenty of credit from the competition after a number of excellent performances.

The girls team consisted of local pupils Amy Richards (Our Lady of Lourdes school), Helena Ruffy (Woodford County High), Laura Woodhatch (Trinity Catholic High), Alyssia Dawson (Snaresbrook Primary), Katie Harrison (St Edmunds) and Natasha Dawson.

For the boys, Peter Kilpatrick (Forest), Waseem Qureshi (Beal), Andrew Macgregor (Chigwell), Matthew Reid-Evans (Bancroft), Peter McDermott (Forest), Samraj Sadra (Bancroft), Saf Imtiaz (Chigwell), Amir Hamza Ahmad (Norlington) and Conor Reid (Wanstead High) were all in action during the event.