Sports Report 22 May 2019

 

The U17s opened up their National Cup account with an impressive away win against a strong Marlborough side. Shiplake bowled first and after a great start with the ball, reduced Marlborough to 86-6. Around the halfway stage, Marlborough recovered well with some very handy runs at the end of the innings. Some tight bowling from A Bartlett helped keep the total reduced to 166-8 after the 30 overs, with wickets for J Shortland (2-20), J Angell (2-40) and C Creighton (2-19).

 

Both J Angell and O Stalder started strongly for Shiplake in reply to Marlborough's 166. An opening partnership of 41 ended after J Angell picked out the deep square-leg fielder for 20. However, O Stalder continued from where he started, falling for 57 after an impressive display of shots that kept Shiplake ahead of the run rate. Shiplake only needed 16 to win with the last five overs; C Creighton (76) and T Gorringe finished the game off in the very next over and secured the 8 wicket win.

Next in the National Cup - Worth School.

 

 

Last Saturday, Shiplake met Pangbourne at home to play their second match against the opposition. After a convincing win in the last match, Shiplake rested some players with the aim to make a more competitive match. This resulted in debuts from 5 second team players who have lacked game time due to cancelled games, it was a great opportunity for those boys.

 

Pangbourne won the toss and elected to bat first. Shiplake started well in the field and accurate bowling from M Haynes, a debutant, restricted Pangbourne in the first 6 overs. As well as picking up a wicket, B West also took a magnificent catch. There was however a dip in performance from overs 7- 14, which saw dropped catches and miss-fields allowing Pangbourne to head towards a big score with their number 3 passing 50. Pangbourne were 90-3 from just 13 overs, when R Stone came on and bowled an incredible 3 overs, picking up a run out and a LBW, which restricted Pangbourne to 126 after 20 overs.

 

Shiplake needed 127 to win from 20 overs. They started slow with the bat, with 22-0 after 6 overs, three quick wickets off J Howard, J Powell and R Stone fell and Pangbourne took control off the game. B West at 4 and T Gorringe at 5 saw Shiplake regain grip of the match with the pair building the innings backup for the next 10 overs. T Gorringe raced to 57 on his 1st XI debut, his power hitting saw Shiplake in control going into the last three overs, needing 24 from 18. The wickets of T Gorringe and B West fell and it left Shiplake needing 6 to win off the last ball, with T Mythen on strike he made the game as close as possible hitting a one bounce four. Pangbourne won by 2 runs.

 

 

Last Saturday, 18 May, we welcomed six players from Wellington College for nine sets of doubles tennis. Trailing 2-1 after the first round of matches, we responded by winning the second round of matches 2-1. This meant that the match would be decided in the final round in which opposing pairs faced each other (Shiplake's 1st pair vs Wellington's 1st pair). In the end, pair 1 (L Poundall and H Doyle) and pair 2 (B Varady and B Staddon) were too strong and won their sets 6-2 and 6-1 respectively. Wellington won the battle of the 3rd pairs, 6-4, in a tense set that saw every game go to deuce. Congratulations to the six that represented Shiplake for putting on a terrific display. 'It was very high-quality tennis,' commented one of the parents. We look forward to our next match on Thursday against Holme Grange School.