Much to the delight of Mr Howorth, it is finally Cricket season! The nets have been booked out since last Monday, and the boys have definitely been putting in the practice, which has clearly paid off! With fixtures agains Churchers College, Halliford School, Radley and RGS High Wycombe, the boys have certainly been bowled in at the deep end!
Cricket
1st XI:
The 1st XI had a busy first week of cricket this term, which saw them play four matches, winning two of them. On the first Wednesday of term, Shiplake travelled to Gordon’s School for the first match of the season. Shiplake won the toss, bowled and despite two wickets for Callum Creighton, ended up being set 145 for victory. It looked to be a competitive total, but Matt Dalrymple (59), Ollie Brown (56 not out) and Rufus Stone with 19 not out on debut, saw Shiplake home with ten overs to spare.
On Saturday, the 1st XI travelled to Churcher’s College in Petersfield to play on a very green and bowling friendly wicket. An excellent performance with the ball saw Shiplake bowl out Churcher’s for 75, with James Roxburgh-Smith the star of the show taking four for 11, including a hat trick. However, conditions were very tricky to bat in and Shiplake came up 14 runs short, despite Lewis Bishop’s batting 24 not out.
Sunday saw the HMC T20 group stage at Radley College. Shiplake played Radley and after inserting Radley to bat, reduced them to 19 for two, thanks to wickets from Bishop and Creighton. However, two excellent innings saw them finish 181 for six off their 20 overs. Shiplake started well but lost wickets at regular intervals, which meant Shiplake’s chase never got going and despite 25 from Freddie Bowcock and 24 from Captain Joe Tucker, the 1st XI lost by 89 runs.
The boys’ second game of the day saw them play RGS High Wycombe and an excellent bowling performance saw Shiplake restrict RGS to 108 for seven off 20 overs. Creighton (three for 15), Roxburgh-Smith (two for 12) and Bowcock (two for 29) among the wickets. The 1st XI then batted superbly with openers Matt Dalrymple (71 not out) and Ollie Brown (33 not out) seeing Shiplake to victory in just 12 overs for the loss of no wickets. An excellent way to finish the first week of the season.
Two more games ahead this week, with Reading Blue Coat at home on Wednesday before we travel to Lord Wandsworth on Saturday.
U14B vs Churcher’s College
Shiplake started the game very brightly and were able to take three wickets in the first two overs. Confidence was high as the team looked to capitalise on such a strong start. Unfortunately, the incoming Churcher’s batsmen put on a strong display, putting on a partnership of 83 that only came to an end thanks to an excellent catch from Haaris Hanif. Churcher’s continued to put the pressure on and ended the innings with a score of 161-6.
Shiplake knew they had a challenge on their hands, as the required run rate was very high. The team struggled against an effective bowling attack and even though they batted through to the 20th over, they were only able to amass 33 runs meaning that the first game of the season ended in a loss by 128 runs.
U15B v Churchers College
U15B arrived at Churchers’ pitch to find a healthily overgrown outfield, which gave the team plenty to think about tactically in the pre-match warm-up. After being put in to bat it was obvious that despite the ball not being able to roll to the boundary due to the length of the grass, the fact that it was often lost from eyesight could play into the hands of the Shiplake batsmen. Luke Roxburgh-Smith, Max Way, Ben Ferguson and Freddie Diver all batted well, often hitting over the boundary and running well to finish on 145.
In response, Shiplake bowled fairly consistently, although the players will be looking to tighten up on the extras given to Churchers in future matches. Radford, Richards, Yeoman and Diver all bowled well and took wickets but Churches had one batsman who hit 92 of the 131 runs scored and managed to stay in for the entire innings. Despite three sixes in the final over, even he could not prevent a Shiplake victory in what was a great start to the season.
2nd XI v Halliford School
The 2nd XI were greeted by some uncharacteristic blue sky and sunshine for the first game of the eagerly anticipated cricket season on Saturday. The opponents were Halliford School and the venue was front field.
New second team captain Justin Van Vuuren won the toss and decided to bat first on a green and slightly spongy wicket.
Batting was difficult in the first few overs of the game, some accurate bowling and a wet outfield made scoring very hard. Halfway through their innings, after 10 overs, Shiplake were up 40 – 0 with Captain Van Vuuren and debutant Jack Powell at the crease. The innings changed with the introduction of the Halliford spin bowler Wooltorton, who quickly had Van Vuuren stumped for 21 as he tried to increase the scoring rate. Powell then retired with a headache (29 runs) and the Shiplake innings were at the crossroads. With a very strong batting line up, Shiplake were aiming for a minimum of 125. However, the spin of Wooltorton was to cause huge problems as Atkin, Toby Gorringe and Tom Coates all fell to give the visiting spinner a hat trick of victims. Some intelligent batting at the end of the innings by Darius Braun and Oscar Rait pushed the Shiplake score to 101 for 8 off of their 20 overs.
Halliford made a solid start to their innings, scoring 20 during the first five overs with some solid bowling by the opening pair of Olly Dorrell and Ben Atkin. The 6th over was to change the game as Ben Atkin ripped through the top order of the Halliford batting line up bowling all 3 of his victims and nearly collecting the second hat trick of the game! From then on Shiplake were always on top of their opponents with wickets falling regularly. Accurate bowling spells by Max Haynes and Tom Ibbitson saw both bowlers collect wickets along with a wicket for Ben Westbrook-Burr. With Halliford looking like they may bat out their overs, Oscar Rait found his accuracy to finish with bowling figures of 3 for 11 to finish off the opposition.
A fantastic start for the second team who played the match with tremendous team spirit. We move onto the match with Reading Blue Coat on Wednesday with real confidence.
