Pierre Elliot Trudeau High School captured the City of Markham Boys High Schools 2014 CIBC Trophy on Thursday (May 22) sparked by an innings of 62 off 23 balls from Haseeb Ashfaq. This leading innings pushed Trudeau HS 91 for two wickets from ten overs against Burr Oak Secondary School. Trudeau then held Burr Oak to 54 for seven in ten overs, giving Trudeau a win in the City of Markham final by 37 runs.
PE Trudeau HS entered this year`s Markham phase of the CIMA Boys High School cricket tournament as York Regional Athletic Association 2013-2014 cricket champions as a result of beating Bill Crothers Secondary School in last October`s final.
A cold, foggy morning in the Greater Toronto transformed into a day with reasonable temperatures and sun that lacked rain. A day that provided the best weather, to date, of this year`s CIMA schools cricket tournament.
This City of Markham hosted event, organized by CIMA in conjunction with the York School Region School Board and York Region Athletic Association (YRAA), introduced a new school district to the tournament thanks to the participation of Sinclair Secondary School from Whitby, Ontario. Sinclair is a school within the jurisdiction of the Durham District School Board, a district that includes Ajax which hosted some of the matches in the 2011 ICC Trophy.
The day also saw some Canadian Tire banners around the ground for the first time. Perhaps on some near future occasion one might be able to buy a mini-cricket ball in supporting Canadian Tire’s charitable efforts to support sports for young people in addition to small and soft baseballs North American footballs, soccer balls and basketballs.
The Tourrnament Structure
There were ten participating schools. Following the pattern of the inaugural 2013 CIMA Markham/YRAA tournament there was a seeding approach to the championship based on performances in the 2013-2014 YRAA cricket championship. Within this seeding approach there were two groups of five teams. The highest seed in each group had a first round bye but then played the winners of a game between the two lowest seeded teams in the group. The second and third seeded teams in the group met in a game to decide which would advance to the group/sem-final stage.
Group 1 – The PET (Pierre Elliott Trudeau S.S.) Group
The common shorthand for students and others in the York Region school setup is to refer to Pierre Elliott Trudeau Secondary School (SS) as “PET”; there is a message congratulating PET on Thursday’s win on the official CIMA cricket tournament twitter feed. It is useful to be aware of such shorthand, but for the broader audience a more substantive school name brings a touch more meaning.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau SS were top group seed as current YRAA outdoor cricket champions. The first two group matches saw Milliken Mills High School play the York Region version of Stephen Lewis SS (there is also a Peel Region version of Stephen Lewis SS from Mississauga in the overall CIMA tournament), and Richmond Hill HS play Bayview SS.
Milliken Mills hit 56/5 from ten overs in the day’s opening game on the East ground at McCown Reservoir. The bowlers limited Stephen Lewis to 41/6 (10 ov) so Milliken Mills won by 15 runs. This win qualified Milliken Mills to meet Pierre Elliott Trudeau in a game to decide one of the group’s finalists.
Richmond Hill scored 66/3 (10 overs) which proved just enough runs after holding Bayview to 61/2 (10 overs). Richmond Hill won by five runs to qualify for a place in the group final.
Trudeau’s team limited Milliken Mills to 28/9 in ten overs, then romped to 34/2 after 5 overs for a comfortable victory.
Trudeau began the Group Final against Richmond Hill with a first-ball wicket on the west pitch and never looked back. The early pressure on the Richmond Hill continued to be applied, the innings closed on 32/4 after ten overs. Trudeau batted well to reach a winning 34/2 after five overs.
Trudeau had beaten Bill Crothers SS by six wickets in the YRAA Championship in October 2013 while Richmond Hill had placed fourth after losing the third-place playoff to Burr Oak SS by fivc runs.
Group 2 – The Bill Crothers SS Group
Middlefield Collegiate Institute (MCI in local schools parlance) gained the place against the group’s top seed Bill Crothers SS and hit 71/4 from ten overs. This proved a challenging total, Crothers battling away to reach 47/8 from ten overs, thus losing to Middlefield by 24 runs. It would seem Middlefield’s original qualifying game opponents had pulled out of the tournament.
Bur Oak greeted Durham Region participants Sinclair by thumping 77/3 from ten overs. Sinclair posted 35/6 in reply, so Bur Oak won by 42 runs.
Bur Oak bowled and fielded well in the group final against Middlefield, who struggled to 33/8 off the limit of ten overs. Bur Oak Secondary School moved to a winning 34/4 after 6.5 overs to reach the 2014 Markham CIBC Trophy final against Pierre Elliott Trudeau Secondary School.
Consolation Playoffs
Sinclair were happy to spring to life in the consolation round of matches with a nine wicket win against Bill Crothers. Crothers made 38/8 from 10 overs, Sinclair responded with 39/1 off 6.4 overs.
Bayview and Stephen Lewis produced a close game, Bayview’s 68/6 (10 overs) was just enough was Stephen Lewis posted a competitive 66/6 (10 overs). Bayview won by 2 runs.
Durham Region’s Sinclair SS won the Consolation Final thanks to a nine wicket win against York Region’s Bayview SS. Bayview made 39/7 from ten overs with Mohan Vashist capturing 3/17. Sinclair completed victory from the first ball of the fifth over when reaching 40/1.
Championship – Third and Fourth Place Playoff
Richmond Hill High School was limited to 43/7 from ten overs in the match to decide third place in the tournament championship against Middlefield Collegiate Insitute. Hafeez Khan then scored an unbeaten 23 as Middlefield posted with a winning 44 after six overs without losing a wicket.
The Championship Game
The dominant innings of the Championship game was played by Haseeb Ashfaq, as previously mentioned. He reached 50 from 17 balls and was 62 not out when Pierre Elliott Trudeau Secondary School’s innings closed after ten overs at 91 for two wickets. Opening bat Kush scored 15 before falling leg-before wicket to the first ball of the seventh over. Kush’s dismissal left Trudeau on 45/2.
Haseeb also picked up 3 wickets for 9 runs from his two overs in Bur Oak’s innings. Bur Oak battled away to reach 54 for seven wickets in reply to Trudeau’s impressive total. Opening bat Zoraiz top-scored with 23 for But Oak. He was caught off Haseeb’s bowling.
So Pierre Elliott Trudeau (PET) qualified as Markham Boys High Schools champion for the Greater Toronto Area playoffs that are scheduled for Brampton on May 31, 2014. The Brampton Boys High Schools CIMA/CIBC Trophy championship is scheduled for Tuesday May 27 with qualifying games at Batsman Park and Dixie-Sandalwood Park. The Brampton Boys Middle Schools deciding game is also on Tuesday’s schedule.
Asian Television Network (ATN) and the Markham Economist and Sun were present for significant portions of the day’s play, including the official ceremonies and at least the first group playoff decider between Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Richmond Hill.
Eddie Norfolk (EN)