KNAVESMIRE Primary School secured a place in the north area final of the Drax Cup with a five-run victory over Archbishop of York in the York West School Sports Partnership stage of the competition.

The teams faced each other at Acomb CC where Knavesmire’s 124 proved just enough as Archbishop fell short with 119.

They had reached the play-off having finished top in the group qualifiers involving eight schools in the partnership, which were all held at the ground in The Green over recent weeks.

Archbishop clinched top spot with a better run difference of 133, compared with 38 over St Wilfrid’s, after the teams both ended the group matches with six points. The other schools were St Barnabas, Carr Junior and Poppleton Road.

Knavesmire had to wait three weeks to find out who they would play having also enjoyed an unbeaten run of games in their qualifier. The team now has plenty of time to get more practice in with the north area final taking place at Dunnington CC on June 18.

More than 500 schools across Yorkshire and Teesside are registered for the Drax Cup. Teams play in a series of events to produce four area winners from the north, south, east and west.

The qualifying teams will play the 2015 Drax Cup Finals at Headingley on July 10 before Yorkshire Vikings take on Durham Jets in the NatWest T20 Blast.

The Drax Cup is sponsored by Drax and is organised by Yorkshire County Cricket Club along with the Yorkshire Cricket Board, the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation and the Yorkshire Schools’ Cricket Association.