The Toronto East Division final and the CIMA Toronto Mayor’s School Cricket Boys High Schools Final are to be played this Friday (May 24, 2013) on Sunnybrook Park’s north ground. At 9am the two East group winners, David and Mary Thomson, and Woburn, will meet in the game to decide North Albion’s opponents in the Toronto final. The final is scheduled for 11 am.

The Toronto Boys High School champions will return to Sunnybrook Park on Saturday June 1, 2013 in the inaugural CIMA Greater Toronto Area Mayor’s Boys High Schools playoffs for the CIBC Trophy. Bur Oak became the first to qualify for these GTA playoffs as the champions in the City of Markham on May 8. This week Stephen Lewis won the Mississauga championship on Tuesday (May 21) and North Park captured the Flower City of Brampton crown on Wednesday (May 22).
In a school year where questions arose regarding the possibility that extra-curricular activities, such as sport, might not take place, it speaks volumes for the efforts of the main organizers, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Canada, the lead financial sponsor CIBC, the various school boards, school athletic associations, the individual schools, umpires, scorers and players that this expanded tournament looks set for a successful concluding festival on June 1, 2013.
Indeed, the great sprint to ensure cricket continued in schools throughout the GTA included players forming an indoor league. In recent weeks there has been competition between different schools cricket events, both indoors and outdoors, in what is a short outdoor school cricket season due to climatic factors and the demands of school examinations.
Beyond the schools there are intra-mural and extra-mural cricket events and championships within various colleges and universities in Ontario and in some other provinces. At the school level, the Alberta School Cricket Association enters another year of successful development of cricket in that province and a national schools cricket event involving teams from various provinces in T20 action is scheduled for next weekend (May 31, June 1 & 2) in Victoria, British Columbia.

Eddie Norfolk