Photo Credit: Western Australia Cricket Association
The School Sports Australia 12 and Under Cricket Championships have just wrapped up in Darwin, with Western Australia sending two squads to compete.
Trials to select participants were held earlier in the year with 100 boys and 40 girls aiming to earn their place in the squads. From this, 13 girls and 13 boys were selected to take part in the Championships.
Multiple scratch matches and training sessions were held before heading off to Darwin which allowed the teams to get to know each other and improve their skills.
Round robin games were played for both teams over two days, with the boys dropping their first match against New South Wales but winning their next two against ACT and Queensland.
These results earnt them a spot in the finals, where they finished third for the tournament in a tied bronze medal match with Northern Territory.
The girls won their first round robin match over Northern Territory quite convincingly but were unable to produce wins over South Australia and Queensland.
Although they did not progress through to the finals, they still played during the final two days of competition and finished fifth.
Western Australia achieved their best ever result in the competition placing third overall.
Aside from competing, all participants visited the Darwin Military Museum during their trip to learn more about the history of the Northern Territory and had the chance to learn about life during World War II in a sensitive, respectful, and interactive way.
It was also great to see the WA teams form strong bonds with other state teams with Northern Territory girls cheering the WA girls on and forming a guard of honour at their matches, and the WA boys linking up with the NT and ACT squads.
Full results can be viewed here.
SSA WA GIRLS TEAM
| Penny Cheetham | Newman College |
| Jaanhvi Iyer | Perth Mordern School |
| Trisha Jain | Victoria Park Primary School |
| Rachel Kelly | Hocking Primary School |
| Kaija Nielsen | Inglewood Primary School |
| Kina Patel | Bletchley Park Primary School |
| Asha Pipe | Assumption Catholic Primary School |
| Harper Rudd | Sacred Heart Primary School |
| Harper Seaton | Shenton College |
| Amani Sharma | Kent Street Senior High School |
| Isla Tedeschi | Applecross Primary School |
| Abigail Tutt | Infant Jesus Catholic Primary School |
| Kitty Wilkinson | Duncraig Senior High School |
SSA WA BOYS TEAM
| Sachin Bhaskaran | Carine High School |
| Thomas Biju | Melville Senior High School |
| Tanveer Chauvan | Lasalle College |
| Shayan Dash | Rostrata Primary School |
| Luke Grantham | Saint Stephens School |
| Charlie Harvey | Lake Joondalup Baptist College |
| Thomas Hinchcliffe | Australind Senior High School |
| Jack Hodge | John XXII College |
| Chayse Moir | Holy Cross College |
| Ahmad Nadeem | Willetton Senior High School |
| Jay Pfoeffer | Our Lady of Mercy School |
| Tripatdeep Singh | Bertram Primary School |
| James Tyson | Guildford Grammar School |
Name of Author: Western Australia Cricket Association
WA Cricket, formerly known as the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA), is the governing body for cricket in Western Australia. Established on November 5, 1885, the WACA opened its iconic ground, the WACA Ground, in 1893.
