Ashford School’s under-15 girls are national indoor cricket champions.

The team came through local, county and regional competitions to reach the national finals at Lord’s.

They won all four of their round-robin matches at the home of cricket to deliver the title.

“It was unbelievable, the girls were fantastic,” said the school’s head of cricket, Ashley Cook.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them to play at Lord’s and they were able to become national champions.

“We had quite a few county players in our set-up who know about Lord’s and the history and then some lesser-experienced girls, who lapped up the opportunity.

“Myself, coming from South Africa, it was one of my goals to go to Lord’s because it’s the most prestigious ground in the world. I was like a kid in a candy shop.

“I stressed that to the girls: this is where you want to be in life, this is where you want to go.

“When we did our tour of the Long Room and the commentary boxes, and everything, they were in awe - they were inspired by the whole thing.”

Ashford only introduced girls’ cricket six years ago, replacing rounders, and have made rapid progress to become national champions.

Anna Makin, one of the team’s youngest players, scored the winning runs at the death as Ashford met a target of 91 to beat St Helen & St Katharine School in their opening game.

A good team performance led to victory in game two, Ashford posting 91 in eight overs before restricting Repton School to 75.

The final two games were expected to be Ashford’s toughest, but they won both.

Abigail Areeson, whose main sport is netball, saw them home against Clifton College by scoring 10 runs off the final over.

Needing 76, Ashford were coasting before a flurry of wickets. Areeson held her nerve to win the match single-handedly.

Ashford hit their highest score of finals day in the decider against Ipswich School, with Maddie Richardson and Evie Ghaemian helping them to 93.

Isabella Gronow then produced an excellent opening spell of bowling, also taking the catch of the tournament - a brilliant one-handed effort - to put Ipswich on the back foot. It was one of two fine catches from Gronow.

Maegan Garness-Saunders was instrumental behind the stumps, having impressed throughout the tournament, as Ipswich were restricted to 85 in reply.

For enquiries about cricket at Ashford School, email Ashley Cook on cooka@ashfordschool.co.uk.