Tennis
On a very sunny Wednesday afternoon, four of Shiplake’s best tennis players competed in a tournament with Leighton Park, Oratory and Bluecoats. Each player played against their equivalent rank from each team and despite confidence being high when seeing some young Bluecoat opposition arrive, it soon became clear that what they lacked in size they more than made up with in talent and they ended up overall winners. Despite some excellent tennis from Shiplake’s Suilven Wagner-Piggott, Connor Cummings and Luke Wilkinson, it was James Martin who came through to top his ranking group to post Shiplake’s only score on the board. The tournament was a great occasion that will now become an annual event and we look forward to competing again next year.
Cricket
1st XI:
Last Saturday’s match against Bloxham School was abandoned after the first innings due to rain. In better conditions on Wednesday, the team played a timed match against South Oxfordshire amateurs. After posting an unassailable total of 182, the opposition declared and set about trying to bowl out Shiplake. Strong resistance from the middle order held on with 3 wickets in hand to force a draw, accumulating 132 runs in the process.
2nd XI:
The Shiplake 2nd XI travelled to Bloxham School and the fixture just about survived the poor weather conditions. Bloxham batted first and posted an impressive total of 144, which was too much for Shiplake’s batsmen to chase down and they succumbed to a 43 run defeat.
After bowling out Kingham Hill School for just 59 runs on Wednesday afternoon, the 2nd XI easily reached their target to record a 7 wicket victory.
U15A:
The U15A hosted Bloxham on Saturday 10th May and almost succeeded in a very much rain affected fixture. After winning the toss and electing to bowl, captain Miles Bridgeman was keen to put the visitors under early pressure. Henry Atkinson and Christian Miller did exactly this by not giving many runs away. Finn Arbuckle, Hassan Rubbani and Matt Dalrymple took wickets and Bloxham were restricted to 110-6 from their 20 overs. In response Shiplake batted positively and purposefully to get close to the target, before rain interrupted and eventually ended the game with Shiplake cruising to victory on 74-1 from just 11 overs. Matthew Dalrymple (30*) and Miles Bridgeman (32*) both looked in great form before the rain arrived.The result was a draw but the team should reflect on this as a win as they outplayed Bloxham in every aspect of the game.
On Wednesday, the team travelled to Forest School in Winnersh keen to make up for Saturday’s disappointing result and were quickly setting the standard. Miles won the toss again and after tight opening bowling spells, Forest were struggling on 41-1 from 10 overs. They offered a little more resistance in the second half of the innings to close on 90-3 but it wasn’t enough to worry Shiplake. Shiplake raced to victory in 12 overs, with Freddie Davis the match winner with 40* from just 17 balls including 4 huge sixes back over the bowlers head. Another strong performance but everyone will need to play their part as the squad face Pangbourne on Saturday
U15B
The U15B’s match against Bloxham finished in a draw with Shiplake on 93-3 in reply to Blxoham’s 157 before play was stopped. On Wednesday, the boys faced up against Forest School. Forest batted first and hit 129 off 20 overs. Their best batsman, extras, scored 82. In reply Shiplake batted well, but ended up just short, on 113-7. Rees 25, Yan 19 and Whittingham 14 not out top scored.
U14A:
After a 36 run defeat against Bloxham School on Saturday, the U14A faced up against Abingdon School. In a 25 over match, Shiplake won the toss and elected to bat first. Many of the team chipped in but number.3 Oliver Brown dominated the innings with a fine 71. He was ruthless with any poor bowling, showing a range of shots all around the wicket, including some superb straight and extra cover drives for four. The longest partnerships of 41 and 38 were made with Oliver Simpson and Justin Janse Van Vuuren respectively. Shiplake finished on 130-9 from their allotted overs.
Shiplake started well in the field with some tight bowling, restricting Abingdon to 21-1 off the first five overs, although Abingdon’s opening batsmen demonstrated how to run a quick single. Wayward bowling and inconsistent field setting allowed Abingdon to then score 62 off the next 6 overs, putting them in a very strong position to win the match. With the introduction of Oliver Simpson with his off-spin and Ben Westbrook-Burr finding some flight and length with his left arm round, regular wickets fell and the game became more evenly balanced. After 19 overs Abingdon needed only 12 more runs for victory with 2 wickets in hand. Further tight bowling from Justin Janse Van Vuuren and superb fielding from James Smith on the leg side boundary, which included a run out, kept the pressure on Abingdon. With 3 overs to go, Abingdon needed just 7 runs for victory but only had 1 wicket in hand. The first ball of Janse Van Vuuren’s next over was hit to Jacob Bowley who took the catch, resulting in an exciting win by 6 runs for Shiplake. Simpson took 4 wickets for 18 runs off his 5 overs and Westbrook-Burr took 3 for 29 off his. Mr Dix’s side definitely snatched victory from the jaws of defeat for their first win of the season!
U14B:
The U14B’s struggled this week and suffered two defeats. On Saturday they played Bloxham School and lost by 6 wickets, while on Wednesday they could only amass 67 runs in reply to Abingdon School’s 140.
U13A
On Tuesday, Shiplake played the Oratory in an eagerly anticipated local derby. After electing to bat first, Shiplake posted 131-6 from their 20 overs. This was a menacing target with Oratory requiring over a run per ball in reply. This proved a bridge too far as they fell 20 runs short on 111-5, giving Shiplake a victory to savour.
