Sports Report - Dalrymple Scores 200 Not Out

This week’s sports report must begin in reverse order thanks to the exploits of Year 8 pupil Matthew Dalrymple. In this week’s fixtures, Matt scored an incredible 200 runs without losing his wicket. This achievement is even more impressive given that in one of the matches, he was playing for the U15As, two age groups above his year.

In last Saturday’s match against Reading School, the U15A team continued their billing as the form cricket team with another convincing win. Playing at home on an excellent pitch and under blue skies, stand-in captain Finn Arbuckle chose to bat first in the 25 over contest. This proved to be a fine decision with Shiplake posting 188-2 from their innings. Dalrymple batted throughout the innings for a fine 88 whilst Freddie Davis smashed six 6s in his 31-ball 54.

William Gresswell joined Dalrymple towards the end of the innings to score a measured 38 not out. In response, Reading struggled to match the required run rate and ended up falling short by 42 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. All of the bowlers contributed with Matthew and Freddie picking up 4 wickets towards the end of the innings.

On Tuesday, Dalrymple returned to his usual U13As side for their final fixture of the season away to Bearwood College. Shiplake claimed an 8 wicket victory, but the contest was far closer than the scoreboard suggests. After Bearwood posted a menacing 148-6, Shiplake knew they would have to bat very well to win. Matt Dalrymple led from the front, playing some beautiful shots and rotating the strike with maturity on his way to 112 not out. Despite his exploits, the match came down to the last ball where Shiplake finally got over the winning line. It was a fantastic performance to end the season.

The U15As second match of the week was against Abingdon School on Wednesday. Captain Miles Bridgeman returned to the side and won an important toss. After electing to bat on a beautiful pitch with short boundaries and a fast outfield, Miles (28) built a partnership of 67 with the excellent Henry Atkinson (45). Unfortunately wickets fell and despite a cameo innings of 26 not out from Hassan Rubbani, the team were bowled out for 161 from the last ball of their 20 overs.

In response, Shiplake bowled well with opening bowler Christian Miller taking 2 early wickets. Abingdon had to work hard to meet the required run rate but lost occasional wickets meaning the game remained in the balance until the final over. The home team reached their target with 3 balls to spare and with 4 wickets in hand. It was a truly excellent game played in great spirits. TheU15Bs also played Abingdon but found batting much more difficult as they were restricted to 79 in a 45 run loss.

Due to Year 9 adventure week, the U14As and U14Bs had just one fixture each this week, both against Reading School. The As earned a 14 run win in a low scoring contest while the Bs came up against a superb batting opposition and suffered a disappointing defeat.

On Saturday 21 June a combined U14/U15 squad travel to the Oratory School to play in a triangular 15 over tournament against the hosts and Knox Grammar School, Sydney.

The 1st XI enjoyed a busy week of cricket with two fixtures and a T20 tournament. The week got off to a perfect start last Saturday with a 65 run thrashing against Reading School. The Shiplake batsmen were particularly impressive, hitting 185-2 in their innings. On Wednesday the boys suffered a disappointing defeat against Forest School but entered the Reading Schools T20 Tournament on Thursday with fresh energy and confidence.

First up, Shiplake were drawn against hosts Reading Blue Coat and were cruising at 44-0 from 6 overs before an exceptional spell of bowling from Blue Coat’s Middlesex 2nd XI bowler initiated a dramatic collapse to 90 all out. The opposition reached the winning target with 6 wickets in hand.

The next game was against Reading School, who Shiplake had beaten so comfortably just 5 days before. Batting first, Reading posted 162 despite Jamie Westbrook’s excellent figures of 2-6. The Shiplake chase got off to a flyer with Barney Aldridge getting 32 and Callum Boyd 22. The lower middle order failed but the tail chipped in with valuable runs from Ben Arnold (21) and Reiss Simpson (22). An amazing game came down to the last over, with Shiplake requiring 10 to win.

There was no margin for error as numbers 10 and 11 (Tom McCooke and Ruaridh Scott) were at the crease. Dramatically, Shiplake managed 9 runs off the first 5 balls of the over before Scott was run out on the last ball for a tie.

The final match of the tournament was against Windsor Boys, who batted first and were all out for 139. Alex Bradley was the pick of the bowling attacking taking 3-17. The Shiplake response started well again through Barney (26) and Callum (14). Harry Ibbitson then took the fight to Windsor with 44 off just 20 balls and despite losing some cheap wickets, Ben Arnold steered the team home for a 4 wicket victory.

One win, one tie and a defeat was a good return for the cricket played.

Finally this week, Lower School House Cricket took place on Friday. The tournament featured A, B and C team fixtures on the new and front fields. All Titans and Olympians were given the opportunity to compete in enjoyable and evenly-matched fixtures on a very sunny afternoon. There was some great cricket, and sportsmanship, on show.