St Mary’s (Tetbury) have been crowned 2018 Gloucestershire Kwik Cricket champions.

Elsewhere, Hanham Abbotts won the Open competition after narrowly beating Chalford Hill, while St Mary’s secured their first county title with a win over Mangotsfield C of E in the Girls final.

The two schools took home their respective trophies following a hard fought finals day at the picturesque Cheltenham College Ground. Twenty teams – 10 in each competition – battled it out, having qualified by winning one of the local Kwik Cricket festivals staged at cricket clubs across the county.

Finals day consisted of group stages with the winners in each group and the best runner up going through to contest the semi-finals.

In the Open competition Hanham Abbotts, Chalford Hill and Olveston won their respective groups with Barrs Court also reaching the last four as best runners-up.

The semi-finalists in the girls’ competition were St Mary’s, Mangotsfield, Lakefield and Primrose Hill.

The annual Kwik Cricket festival programme is organised by Gloucestershire the Cricket Board (GCB). It is part of a schools programme that currently involves more than 160 primaries.

GCB projects and programmes manager Chris Munden said: “Finals Day is always one of the highlights of the GCB Calendar and 2018 was no exception. To see more than 150 children battling it out on the famous College Ground is an amazing sight and shows that there is still a huge appetite for cricket in our schools.

“It was fantastic to see schools from right across the county taking part, including a number who were competing in the latter stages for the first time. Our congratulations go to our winners Hanham Abbotts and St Mary’s in particular but the whole day was played in a great spirit, with considerable skill on show.”