‘The Lancaster School, a specialist sports and arts college in Leicester, has launched a charity online cricket tournament in a bid to raise £400 for local heart charity, Heart Link.

StickCricket.com, the world’s most popular online cricket game, has donated a customised cricket game and prizes for the online cricket tournament to be held this week.

Pupils from years 7, 8 and 9 (aged 11 to 14) will pay £1 to enter the tournament, and attempt to hit the highest total from five overs of cricket at StickCricket.com. The pupils will be able to play with a very special team made up of their own teachers, who have each donated £5 to be named among the batsmen.

William Pears, a Year 8 pupil at The Lancaster School said, “I think the charity online cricket tournament is a great idea. Lots of my friends at Lancaster enjoy playing Stick Cricket. It should be a really fun and exciting way to raise some cash for a great charity like Heart Link.”

Tournament organiser and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) teacher at The Lancaster School, Darren John expects the tournament to raise around £400 for charity.

Darren said, “The lads and staff are always very supportive of charity. A similar tournament raised £400 for the Pakistani earthquake appeal. We have tried to make charity fun by combining the popular Stick Cricket game with raising money for a good cause.”

The winner will be announced during a school assembly, held between the 23rd – 27th April. The tournament’s champion will win £30, with the two runners up receiving £15 to spend at the StickCricket.com online shop.

Chris Berry, Director of Stick Sports said, “Well done to all the budding Stick Cricketers at The Lancaster School who will hit out and get out, and raise hundreds of pounds for charity. It’s great that StickCricket.com is being used within education to teach the kids the importance of charity.”

Darren John continued, “Heart Link is a charity which is very important to me personally. The charity purchased the machine that detected my daughter’s heart condition before she received open-heart surgery at Glenfield hospital last year. Heart Link also gave my family a lot of emotional support during a very difficult time.”

Heart Link’s John Rigby said, “We are very grateful to The Lancaster School’s staff and pupils and StickCricket.com for organising such a fun and successful event. This money will help Heart Link to continue its work at Leicester’s Glenfield Hospital supporting parents and children with congenital heart conditions.”

The week-long tournament will be held in ICT lessons at The Lancaster School from Monday 26th to Friday 30th March.