A flurry of pupils from across West Lancashire are celebrating after securing places at the largest youth sporting event in Lancashire following victory in five district-wide competitions.

The schools battled it out in cricket, rounders, tri golf, super eight athletics and inclusive football against other West Lancashire schools and will now represent the district at the SPAR Lancashire School Games county finals where they will compete against teams from 14 other Lancashire districts in a bid to be crowned county champions.

Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Engineering College took on Burscough Priory Science College, St Bede’s Catholic High School and Lathom High School in a under 13s inclusive football tournament held at Ormskirk School, coming out on top and clinching a place at the county finals.

The year seven super eight athletics competition saw all seven West Lancashire secondary schools battle it out at Edge Hill for a highly-coveted spot at the games, with Ormskirk School clinching the places for both the girls’ and boys’ events.

Meanwhile, Ormskirk School also took home gold in rounders after competing against six other schools, and Burscough St John’s CE Primary School took on four other schools in the district’s tri golf tournament held at Tarleton Academy, snatching gold after a win.

The success did not stop there for team West Lancashire, with eight schools meeting at Burscough Cricket Club for the district’s mixed cricket competition. The final was contested between Richard Durning’s Endowed Primary School and Aughton St Michael’s Church of England Primary School, with Richard Durning’s Endowed Primary School coming out on top and going on to represent the district at the county finals.

Chris Hart, school games organiser for West Lancashire, who arranged the events, said: “Huge congratulations to each of our winning schools for securing these highly-coveted places at the SPAR Lancashire School Games. The level of play has been exceptionally high this year so well done to everyone – I’ll be cheering you on from the side lines.”

Organised by Active Lancashire, the SPAR Lancashire School Games comprises a series of inclusive sporting events that provides competitive and participative opportunities for all school children across the county. Children across Lancashire will continue to battle it out in a range of sports to gain a place at the SPAR Lancashire School Games county finals which will be held at Blackpool’s Stanley Park on July 3.

More than 3,500 children from schools across Lancashire’s 15 districts are now battling it out for a place at the county finals in 16 sports including gymnastics, football, athletics, mixed cricket and touch rugby. New additions to the SPAR Lancashire School Games line-up have also been introduced for 2018, including quick sticks and quad kids.

The SPAR Lancashire School Games is the biggest school games programme of its kind and is implemented by the county’s school games organisers.

This year will mark the twelfth year the county’s school games programme has been sponsored by James Hall & Company Ltd, the SPAR distributors for the north of England. Over £128m of National Lottery and Government funding has been invested into the school games programme.