Cricket in Alicante

Over the Easter holiday, 12 members of the 1^st and 2^nd XI Cricket squads travelled to Alicante, Spain, to take part in a pre-season tour to get ahead of the game! From 17 – 21 April, Mr McCraw and Director of Sport Mr Griffiths accompanied the 12 pupils and provided the report below.

A small squad from players in the 1st and 2nd XI enjoyed a pre-season tour to Spain over the Easter holiday. It was a very early start on the Wednesday, with quite a lot of travelling, but a warm welcome when we arrived.

The squad played a 20/20 match every day from Thursday to Saturday, in either the morning or afternoon, and then were training in nets when not playing. Shiplake played against Bedford on Thursday, Winchester on Friday and Radley on the Saturday. The matches were all very competitive and from which, all of the boys learnt and developed.

The first match against Bedford was affected by rain, so did not quite conclude and the last match against Radley was our boys’ best performance. Particular mention to R. Stone who performed well batting, and C. Creighton bowling.

Sadly, the weather was better in England than in Spain, but it was still a positive start to the cricket season. This led on to a friendly fixture against Henley U19s on Thursday with a win off the very last ball of the match. It was a fun and positive start to the season. We now look forward to watching how they all progress throughout the term.