The York Region Athletic Association’s varsity playoffs and consolation playoffs are due to take place during the school week beginning Monday, October 13th, 2014. Defending champions Pierre Elliott Trudeau won all three Zone B games so will have qualified for the championship playoffs, but the results of two round-robin stage Zone games will decide the other three championship contenders.
In run-scoring terms, Trudeau beat Maple High School 63/60 (Sept 23), then beat Richmond Hill High School 107/24 (Sept 29) and completed a winning trio of games with a 131/40 win against the YRAA’s Stephen Lewis Secondary School (Oct 1). The result of the game between Richmond Hill H.S. and Maple H.S., each had won 1 and lost 1 would decide second place in Zone B.
Middlefield Collegiate Institute scored 93/3 from 15 overs and bowled out Bill Crothers Secondary School for 42 at Fairtree Community Park, Markham on Thursday (Oct 2, 2014). This left Middlefield CI with a record of 2 wins and 1 loss in Zone A. The positions of the top three in Zone A depend upon the result of the game between Bur Oak Secondary School (won 2, lost 0) and Father McGivney (won 1, lost 1).
The two other results in the Zonal stage of the York Region Athletic Association’s varsity cricket championships saw Bur Oak beat Father McGivney 137/80 and Richmond Hill H.S. beat Maple H.S. 78/72. The results mean Bur Oak (W3/L0) and Middlefield (W2/L1) place first and second in Zone A with Father McGivney (W1, L2) placing third. Richmond Hill (W2, L1)places second in Zeon B behind Pierre Elliott Trudeau (W3, L0), leaving Maple (W1, L2) in third place.
Bill Crothers (W0 ,L3) place fourth in Zone A and Stephen Lewis (W0, L3) ends up fourth in Zone B.
The championship and consolation playoffs will follow the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.. .
One of the Middlefield spinners, who had a slowish six step run-up, managed to be no-balled for overstepping several times. He “bowled” one of the Bill Crothers batsmen with a no-ball. The resultant “free-hit” was also a “no-ball” that saw the batsman bowled. The next delivery was tickled down the leg-side and could have seen the batsman run-out, but after starting to run, he regained his ground before the wicket was broken.
The Bill Crothers team included an interesting mix with some players who have baseball experience and others whose family heritage comes from traditional cricketing countries and regions. One of the players was a young lady, who scored a couple of runs. This mix of youngsters helps bring people together. One of the baseball experienced left-handed batsmen scored some useful runs striking the ball to the leg-side.
Given some more cricketing experience and some coaching he, and others like him, might be able to develop into useful players in schools cricket. Some of the “cricketers” may benefit from trying out baseball; probably some have tried baseball to a greater or lesser extent. Hand-eye coordination can count for a lot.
Washrooms are being built to serve Fairtree Community Park, park which is mostly the cricket ground with a path beyond the boundaries that can be used as a running/jogging track. The surrounding trees and vegetation has been reduced to the west of the cricket ground where 32 exclusive king-sized ravine lot estate homes are to be built. The developer indicates the homes will cost in the “high $800,000” price range, which provides an indication of some aspects of the value of land and demand for housing on the Markham(York Region)/Scarborough(Toronto) borders. (EN)