Staff and pupils at St Mary's College in Crosby are celebrating sporting success in cricket and rugby.

The MCC - the world's most famous cricket club - has announced that it will play an annual fixture against St Mary's in recognition of the standard of cricket now played at the school.

The inaugural match will take place at the Northern Cricket Club in Crosby on Tuesday June 1st 2010.

As an added bonus the MCC side will be skippered on the day by Phil Cooper, a former pupil at the school and the Northern's current Club Captain.

Meanwhile, a record number of young rugby players at St Mary's have been selected for their county rugby squads this season.

Of the 16 called up by the county selectors, three will play for Lancashire

- Danny Frost at under 18 level and Jonathan Bonner and Gavin Griffiths in the under 16 squad.

The remaining 13 will represent Merseyside.  They include under 13s Rhys Courtney, Tom Cannon and Connor Dever and under 14s Owen Griffiths and Ben Swift.

The under 15 St Mary's contingent includes Chris Bartolo, Chris Clarke and Reece Hogarth and the under 16 Merseyside squad will be graced by Alex Fairhurst, Oscar Fearns, Jonathan Martin, George Lightfoot and Sean Marren.

St Mary's Principal, Mike Kennedy, commented: "I am delighted at this double sporting success.  The county's selectors have shown how much rugby talent there is at St Mary's and to be chosen to play against the MCC is one of the highest accolades in school cricket."