William Penn B are the Horsham area primary school stoolball champions for 2026 after winning all four of their games at Leechpool School this morning. In a field of nine teams they showed themselves as a small school who could mix it in big company.
The first phase of the tournament saw teams split into three round-robin groups of three, placings from which would inform the decisive second-phase groups. Kingslea A made light work of Group A to qualify for the top table and Leechpool were similarly ddecisive in Group B. William Penn B had tougher passage from Group C just shading their encounter with Shelley A by seven runs.
In the second phase lower group All Saints A cruised to top spot and seventh place overall. Shelley’s A and B teams progressed to a middle group crunch match between each other and, for once, alphabetical logic prevailed to see Shelley A finish fourth overall.
The upper group was interesting fare. Kingslea A put themselves in pole position after a first match 165-137 win over Leechpool but in the match of the tournament against William Penn B hairs were split on the way to the Coolhamites winning by a wafer-thin three runs. Leechpool could have sent the top group into countback chaos by beating William Penn in the final match but again the villagers held their nerve to win by eight runs and thereby take the title.
RESULTS
PITCH 1/GROUP A Will Penn A 4pts All Saints B 7pts Kingslea A 10pts | PITCH 2/GROUP B Leechpool 10pts Shelley B 7pts Kingslea B 4pts | PITCH 3/GROUP C Shelley A 7pts Will Penn B 10pts All Saints A 4pts |
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PHASE 1 | |||
Will Penn A 115 v 158 All Saints B | Leechpool 143 v 96 Shelley B | Shelley A 129 v 136 Will Penn B |
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Will Penn A 102 v 204 Kingslea A | Leechpool 151 v 98 Kingslea B | Will Penn B 178 v 100 All Saints A |
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Kingslea A 180 v 104 All Saints B | Shelley B 124 v 100 Kingslea B | All Saints A 139 v 149 Shelley |
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PHASE 2 | |||
PITCH 1/UPPER GROUP | PITCH 2/MIDDLE GROUP | PITCH 3/LOWER GROUP |
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1st Group A v 1st Group B Kingslea A 165 v 137 Leechpool | 2nd Group A v 2nd Group B All Saints B 98 v 123 Shelley B | 3rd Group A v 3rd Group B Will Penn A 158 v 176 Kingslea B |
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1st Group A v 1st Group C Kingslea A 145 v 148 Will Penn B | 2nd Group A v 2nd Group C All Saints B 131 v 150 Shelley A | 3rd Group A v 3rd Group C Will Penn A 129 v 182 All Saints A |
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1st Group C v 1st Group B Will Penn B 148 v 136 Leechpool | 2nd Group C v 2nd Group B Shelley A 155 v 91 Shelley B | 3rd Group C v 3rd Group B All Saints A 167 v 133 Kingslea B |
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1st William Penn B 10pts 2nd Kingslea A 7pts 3rd Leechpool 4pts | 4th Shelley A 10pts 5th Shelley B 7pts 6th All Saints B 4pts | 7th All Saints A 10pts 8th Kingslea B 7pts 9th William Penn A 4pts |
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