A team of 21 Kingston children came home from an inter-borough cricket tournament in Ewell with a coveted trophy.

The Twenty20 Borough School Cricket Competition took place comprised of ten matches across five weeks at Ewell Cricket club.

The Kingston team, comprised of pupils from ten state schools in the borough, beat competition from Richmond, Mole Valley, Elmbridge, Sutton and Wandsworth.

Teams were selected from dozens of Surrey schools with children training every week throughout the winter, including in the snow during the ‘beast from the East’.

Alec Hamilton, 11, from Latchmere school, who took part in the tournament, said: “Winning the first-ever State School Cricket Trophy shows just what Kingston kids are capable of.

“We’ve worked, hard, trained hard and played hard and we’re delighted to have represented the Borough and brought home the award for Kingston.”

The competition was launched by Darren Talbot, from Epsom, who runs the national Twenty20 Cricket Academy, to promote cricket in state schools.

Mr Talbot said: “Studies show on average state school children play 100 hours less cricket each year than privately-educated kids, so this tournament is a way to redress the balance and highlight the incredible cricketing talent in our local state schools.

“Kingston fought hard and were well-deserved winners but the standard of local talent in all the teams is extremely high.

“The dedication the children has shown is fantastic and the competition has got schools across the area fired up and interested in cricket again.”