Haringey girls looking forward to Lord’s trip

Cricket squad chasing London Youth Games success

Haringey’s girls are relishing the chance of competing at Lord’s in the London Youth Games indoor cricket finals this weekend.

The squad, made up of players from the North London and North Middlesex clubs, overcame the odds as their qualifying event at Harrow Leisure Centre last month to book a quarter-final spot.

And team coach Martin Issitt wants them to go and enjoy the experience of playing at the home of cricket, saying: “We’re looking forward to giving it a go and the key is to just go forward and enjoy it, then you’re more likely to do well.

“We played two strong teams, Bexley and Havering, who were older and more experience than us and had county players from Kent and Essex, but we won both comfortably by doing all that we had talked about in practice.

“We were less experienced but we got stuck in, working as a team.”

Haringey now face Richmond for a place in the semi-finals and the chance to play for medals, but Issett added: “It will be challenging at Lord’s and we know some of Richmond’s players already from club and representative cricket.

“But we’re young and incredibly keen, with lots of energy, and have some promising cricketers.”