A SPORTS-MAD school have headed into the summer holidays celebrating a year of successes across the board.

St James C of E Junior School have shown their skills at tennis, cricket and football throughout the terms.

The school’s Year 3 and 4 mixed tennis team were among the best in Cumbria, winning the Furness finals and representing the area at the Cumbria School Games.

At the finals, they played fantastically well and topped their group before finishing as runners-up to a very strong team from Carlisle.

PE subject leader Amy Merritt was thrilled with their performance, and said: “The children have done themselves and the school proud.

“Not only have they played excellent tennis, their behaviour and sportsmanship throughout the whole process has been fantastic.”

On the cricket field, St James’ girls won the Furness cricket festival at Dalton.

They played three games in the group stage, winning two and progressing to the semi-finals as runners-up.

In the last four, they defeated Holy Family, who had beaten them in the group stages, and exacted revenge. In a close match, a six off the last ball of the match saw them progress.

St James went on to defeat Dane Ghyll in the final, after another close encounter.

Victory in Furness, saw St James take part in the county finals at Carlisle, where they took on Montreal, Beaconside and Robert Ferguson In the group stages and again won two of three matches.

That pitted them against St Bede’s in the semi-finals, and they put together their best batting display as a team, totalling 304. That was enough to see off their opponents, who hit 251.

The final was an all-Barrow affair against Dane Ghyll and, as in Furness, St James came out on top 297-277 to be crowned county champions.

On the football field, St James’ girls team reached two finals and won the last Barrow Schools tournament of the year.

A 3-2 win in the opening group game against Victoria Juniors, followed by a 3-0 victory over Cambridge School set up a quarter-final tie with Askam Village School. Askam took the lead and looked set to book a place against Sacred Heart in the semi-finals, but Molly Higgins equalised with seconds remaining to take the game into extra-time. Neither side could break the deadlock and the match was decided on penalties, with Ellie Husband’s deciding spot-kick sending St James through.

A 5-0 triumph over Sacred Heart set up a final against Victoria Juniors. Higgins came up trumps again, scoring the only goal in another close encounter to help St James lift the trophy.

Year 5 teacher Liam Reid, who is also assistant head of youth with the Barrow AFC Performance Centre, is excited by the hard work being carried out in the area promote the girls game.

He said: “The Barrow School’s football organisers have done a fantastic job this year in promoting the girls game, especially when we as a town are far behind neighbouring counties, such as Lancashire.

“To see so many schools promoting the girls game is fantastic.

“The next step is to secure and nurture the interest that these girls are having by showing them the game outside of school.

“A number of organisations, clubs and individuals are working hard in the town to help these players, and I know in the near future we are going to see more individuals from the Furness Peninsula proving themselves at professional clubs, and hopefully on the national stage.”