Video: Sun shines brightest on Holmfirth following deserved Headingley win

In glorious sunshine at the pristine Headingley Carnegie, the Huddersfield school – which began the Under-13s competition alongside 122 other schools – defeated Driffield by nine wickets in the semi-final and then Easingwold by seven wickets in the final.

It was a triumph for team unity as all 12 players Holmfirth used in the two matches contributed to them winning the 20th staging of this prestigious event.

They lost the toss in the final but set about Easingwold's openers quickly, Will Sykes catching Matt Fisher – who made a half-century in the York school's win over Kettlethorpe in the semi-final – off the bowling of Louis Brook in the third over.

Mark Jackson soon followed courtesy of a superb piece of fielding from Greg Moorhouse.

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Easingwold required more obdurate resistance and it was provided by their third-wicket partnership of Rowan Capper and Simon Morley who put on a stand of 52 before Thomas Mighall bowled Morley for 33 and then removed Tom Bullough with the next ball. Capper made an unbeaten 22 as Easingwold posted 94-5.

After losing opener Greg Cooke for nought, Brook and Benn Thornton steadied the Holmfirth response with a stand of 38 before Jacob Lacey had Brook caught by Fisher for 17.

But Holmfirth were ahead of the run rate and despite eventually losing Lacey for 28, they were steered to victory by George Oakley (22no) and Thomas Charlesworth (15no) with 13 balls to spare.

"We're over the moon," said Holmfirth's coach Ryan Blezard. "The semi-final was an excellent bowling performance and we've relied on our middle order to see us home in the final."

Tom Garnham, Easingwold's coach, said: "The lads have done fantastically well to get to Headingley. They're committed lads and maybe they were a little unlucky in the final, but full credit to Holmfirth."

Kettlethorpe burst out of the blocks in the third-place play-off with Driffield, openers Jared Warner and Toby Oldroyd putting on 57 before the latter was caught lbw by Jay Singh.

Singh's intervention did not halt Kettlethorpe's progress as Josh Hudson-Evans accelerated the pace with a half-century, one of his sixes clearing the heads of the vuvuzela blowers in the West Stand. Warner (50) and Hudson-Evans (53) put on 87 as Kettlethorpe posted 141-1.

Driffield were never up with the run rate and fell 35 runs short, captain George Drury contributing 28, with Singh adding 31.

The morning semi-finals were played under leaden skies.

Opener Fisher brought up his half-century with the last ball to guide Easingwold to 96-2 against Kettlethorpe. Jackson contributed 24 while Jamie Allsop took a wicket.

In a thrilling run chase, Wakefield school Kettlethorpe fell one run short on 95-8.

Fisher completed a fine all-round performance by taking two wickets and Jackson claimed two of his three wickets in the final over to stall Kettlethorpe's attempts. Capper also claimed two wickets.

Luke Blackburn top-scored for Kettlethorpe with 29 while Beck Frostick was unbeaten on 23 at the end of what proved to be a tense final over.

Kettlethorpe coach Gareth Mellor said: "It was hard on the lads to fall short but we showed what we could do batting-wise in the runner-up final."

Holmfirth's Brook proved Driffield's tormentor in a more one-sided semi-final, taking 4-12 including a hat-trick to remove Driffield's final three batsmen. Oakley, Thornton, Charlesworth, Mighall and Jake Morley each took a wicket.

Driffield's target of 59 was chased down in 11.5 overs. Greg Cooke was unbeaten on 32 and Oakley finished on 20 not out, with Matthew Southwell taking the only wicket.