The County Inter-Cricket Finals took place at Durham CCC's Riverside ground this week with Stanley School of Technology and Greencroft Comprehensive taking the honours.

On Tuesday the secondary school district winners from around the region, who all won qualifiers in May, gathered for the county finals to play-off against each other with almost 200 children from ten boys teams and eight girls teams battling it out to be crowned 2004 champions.

After playing and winning three games against High Tunstall from Hartlepool, Carmel of Darlington and Whitburn of Sunderland, Stanley faced Framwellgate Moor in the final and triumphed by 70 runs to 30 to win the boys trophy.

The girls honour went to Greencroft after they overcame opposition in the form of Farringdon, Teesdale, St Hilds before beating Whitburn in the final.

Development officer Graeme Weeks of the Durham Cricket Board, who created the competition, said: "The standard of play was a very good standard.

"We had 180 kids, the weather was great, there were plenty of activities for the kids - it was a very good day for everyone."

The finals day, sponsored by the Universal Building Society, was the culmination of ten festivals over two months that have seen almost 1,000 children experience inter-cricket, a game developed by the English Cricket Board to smooth the transition for secondary school children into normal cricket.

Weeks said: "Inter-cricket sits right bang in the centre of softball-cricket and hardball cricket. The game bridges the gap between the two games with hardball being the traditional game and softball for younger children.

"In inter-cricket the children are padded up, they have wooden bats and the ball is a little harder than the softball but not too hard plus there's a few tactical rules.

"These days, for reason such as time constraints, funding, safety issues, schools no longer play the traditional hard ball cricket. At 11 and 12-years-old, a crucial time for attracting kids to the game, children are still afraid of the ball.

"The idea of the scheme is to put cricket back on the map at secondary schools. We have thousands of children playing quick-cricket at primary schools."

The matches gave the children chance to play on the biggest stage in the region and Durham CCC captain Jon Lewis was on hand to distribute the winners prizes.

He said: "It is always nice to see children enjoying playing cricket and programmes such as this really help the professional team.

"Stephen Harmison was a product of the development programme and hopefully there could be a few more like him playing tomorrow."

Weeks added: "It is encouraging to see more children participating this year in the inter-cricket festivals.

"Thanks to help from Universal Building Society we can help take cricket to more children across the region."