THE John Kyrle year seven rounders team recently travelled to Luctonians RFC to play in their first ever senior tournament.

In the pool stages, the team started confidently with a nine to four victory over Lady Hawkins School.

Aylestone proved to be a greater threat with their big hitters keeping the John Kyrle fielders on their toes.

Fortunately, backstop Alice Hassan's quick reactions allowed her to make a great catch and Laura Benjamin's long throws kept the team in contention and the girls won by 11to six and a half.

In the final pool match, John Kyrle played Hereford Cathedral.

After losing the toss, John Kyrle were put into bat and very quickly fell prey to some excellent deep fielding skills by their opposition.

After John Kyrle's innings had finished, every Cathedral player displayed high levels of both power and accuracy when batting.

Lara Banks-Martin kept her cool on second base and Evelyn Barkers' bowling was very consistent, but sadly it wasn't enough to avoid a 13½ to three defeat.

Two wins out of three was enough, however, for the girls to reach the semi-final of the Plate competition where Hereford Academy were their opponents.

The match was closely fought; John Kyrle claimed the slimmest victory, seven to six.

John Kyrle encountered a very strong John Masefield side in the final. Sadly, John Kyrle's batting skills could not match the ferocity of their opponents and it was a well-deserved victory for John Masefield by seven to three despite, arguably, the catch of the day by backstop Alice Hassan off the final ball of the game.

The girls from John Kyrle can be very proud of their performance having showed continued progress throughout the tournament.