Ferring Primary School have retained the Angmering Ashes.

They won the annual kwik cricket tournament for primary schools, staged by Angmering Manor CC, after beating off competition from nine other teams.

Ferring defeated West Park in the final at Angmering Community School on Saturday. They were presented with a wooden urn, containing the remains of an equipment hut burnt down by vandals, after a morning of thrilling cricket.

Park failed to get the two runs they required off the last ball to hand victory to Ferring.

The victorious team collected the trophy for the second successive year.

Gill Western, games co-ordinator at Ferring, said: "It was a fantastic morning, it was run superbly and flowed well. Everything was laid on, from the umpires to the equipment.

"We haven't really competed at cricket until the last three years but it is going well. We are quite a sporty school anyway.

"I would like to thank the organisers and Jeff Schofield, who has coached our side for free at Goring.

"His son Oliver was a real hero for us. He played with a broken left arm and took a catch. Tom Johnson also did well, he was our youngest player aged eight."

Daniel Buttifant, 11, took three wickets and was a member of the victorious squad of ten.

He said: "Winning was great, we are not nuts about cricket but quite a few people like it."

Arundel C.E., East Preston, Georgian Gardens, English Martyrs, Flora MacDonald, St Philip's, St Wilfrid's and Summerlea also entered teams.

The standard of cricket was high and there were some impressive individual performances too.

Richard Lander, of Georgian Gardens, took a hat-trick and Joe Mulvey and Dale Tucker, of Summerlea, shared the highest score award after scoring 26 off 12 balls.

The 'spirit of youth cricket' accolade went to Arundel who played with skill and a sense of fun.

Organiser Brian Fuller was one of 30 members from Angmering CC who helped organise the event. He said: "The Angmering Ashes is a positive that grew from what seemed like a disaster at the time. It is all about the spirit of youth cricket.

"It's the taking part that counted, there were no losers, the boys all got certificates and played the same number of games. It is unique and we were oversubscribed."

The trophies were presented by John Davies of the Arundel Castle Cricket Foundation, who praised the youngsters for their skill and tremendous attitude.