St Andrew's takes top honours at MILO Cup
Tuesday 8 December 2009, 10:40PM
By New Zealand Sponsorship Agency
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In a thrilling final at the MILO Cup cricket tournament Canterbury regional finalists St Andrew’s Preparatory School won the title of national champions over Nelson’s Broadgreen Intermediate in Palmerston North yesterday.
The tournament was part of a two day cricket competition supported by Nestlé New Zealand, with eight national primary and intermediate school teams from around the country competing for the prestigious MILO Cup (boys) and MILO Shield (girls).
St Andrew’s won the toss and put Broadgreen into bat. Joel Harden and Josh Sanson produced 50 runs for the third wicket and the team managed to put 102 runs on the board. St Andrew’s were cautious in their reply but were able to reach their target with an over to spare.
St Andrew’s most valuable player Barney Sears says it was an amazing feeling to take out the title.
“It feels so good to have won the MILO Cup; we worked hard to get to the final. Many of the players pulled out star performances with a lot of good batting and bowling from everyone.”
The team were pleased with their achievement and overall performance throughout the tournament.
Alex Kelly, Manager of St Andrew’s, described the feeling of pride for the team’s result and believed they represented their school with distinction, both on and off the pitch.
In a significant brush with the past, St Andrew’s coach and former Canterbury representative James Shipley, was reminded of his cricketing history when he played against Dave Leonard, former Central Districts Stags player and now Coach of Broadgreen Intermediate. The two played against each other regularly during the 1980s and 1990s.
“There’s a lot of history there and it is very nice to have won this game. It is probably on top as far as wins go,” says Shipley.
Nelson coach Leonard explains, “It’s quite interesting, as we’ve had many battles against Canterbury Country over the years and it looks like our sons are doing the same thing for their schools at the moment.”
The MILO competitions, which started in 2000, see hundreds of schools and thousands of Kiwi kids enjoy cricket.
The main goal is to develop junior cricket in New Zealand by providing primary and intermediate boys and girls the opportunity to enter into the national competition.