THERE was nothing artificial about the cricket even if the playing surface was of the man made variety.

The annual Craig Heaton Memorial Cricket Tournament looked like it might be another victim of a wet and windy summer.

But after a series of ‘rain stop play’ at Lowerhouse Cricket Club, the Burnley schools tournament switched to the all-weather turf at Shuttleworth College.

The event has been running for 16 years in honour of promising young cricketer Craig Heaton who died suddenly from a brain haemorrhage.

But this was the first time in its history it had to be switched from grass.

And in another first, it was Unity College who emerged as the winners.

The tournament was played to Kwik Cricket rules with each team starting on 200 runs with batsmen batting in pairs for two overs – with runs deducted every time they lost a wicket.

In the first match, Unity College scored 230 runs off their alloted overs with Shuttleworth College scoring 219 in reply.

The second game between Shuttleworth and Blessed Trinity was a lot closer.

In a match dominated by the bowlers, Shuttleworth dipped under the 200 starting mark and finished with a 190 total.

And Blessed Trinity in response finished just above it with a score of 202.

So that meant a winners-take-all clash between Unity and Shuttleworth – who as St Theodores dominated the event in recent years.

However, there was to be no stopping Unity this time around.

Batting first they chalked up 224 runs with Jack Herbert unbeaten on nine and Brandon Watson (5no) the pick of the batsman.

But it was some fine bowling that restricted Blessed Trinity to 195.

Ged Scott finished with 2 for 7 while Danny Turner also impressed with the ball, finishing his spell with 2 for 3.

Derek Carter, who helped organised the event, said: “At one stage we didn’t think we would be able to run it.

“Two or three times we had to call it off because of the weather so we ended up playing at Shuttleworth College.

“This event has been going for some years now but this is the first time we have played on an artificial surface.

“But it all turned out well in the end and all the teams involved really enjoyed it.”