In this week's Sports Report, we catch up on boys' cricket, girls' rounders and GB rowing. In cricket, there were senior fixtures against Cokethorpe and John Hampden Grammar School, while our Lower School pupils took on their counterparts from Claires Court. On the rounders field, our U18 girls started their season against The Oratory School. Meanwhile, our GB rowers were in action at the Munich Junior Regatta where they brought home an array of medals.
Cricket
Boys' 1st XI vs John Hampden Grammar School
Result: Defeat by 1 run.
Coach: Mr J Wheeler
Boys' 2nd XI vs Cokethorpe
The 2nd game of the season saw Cokethorpe travel to Shiplake College for our first home match and in true summer term style, the sun was shining and players were able to dust off their sunglasses ahead of the game. Cokethorpe won the toss and opted to bowl first. L Swinburne-Johnson and B Macleod opened the batting and were tactical in their approach, showing signs of reflection following the narrow defeat in the season opener. The pairing managed to stay on the wicket for eight overs before being separated, which then saw our big hitter, J Cooper, step up to the crease. Looking to pick up where he left off in our first fixture, J Cooper quickly tallied up 34 runs from 28 balls and along with D Coles, Shiplake finished the first innings with 124/2.
A bowling and fielding masterclass in the second innings saw O Lewis, C Kerrison, J Coe, O Morris, V Clifford and B Macleod take wickets from Cokethorpe who, in the final over, were all out for 47 runs. An excellent performance from the boys leaving two very proud coaches!
Coaches: Mr S Read & Mr K Heaney
Lower School Boys' 1st XI vs Claires Court
Final result: Victory by 7 wickets
Coach: Mr R Edwards
Lower School Boys' 2nd XI vs Claires Court
Batting first, Shiplake lost two early wickets before an excellent partnership of 50 runs between W Hunt and D Siddiqui set a solid platform to build on. However, another flurry of wickets left the innings faltering at 67-7. L Ellison, I Walmsley and T Siveter batted sensibly to see us to the end of the 20 over mark, finishing on 93-8. The final over yielded nine precious runs - this was to prove crucial in Claires Court’s run chase.
Shiplake went in hunt of early wickets where tight bowling from W Hunt, I Walmsley and D Siddiqui built the pressure. This led to a smart team run-out and stumping from wicket keeper O Owens. With the bowlers rotating, Claires Court needed a partnership. This duly arrived with the 5th batter adding a much needed 50 runs. With just four overs to go, the opposition had two solid batters and needed just 13 runs. It looked all over but up stepped L Ellison, J Swankie, W Hunt and T Siveter to see Shiplake over the line. W Hunt’s penultimate over was superb; conceding just one run and taking a precious wicket. Bowling the last over, T Siveter had three runs to play with. Outstanding fielding, a smart catch by E Morgan and under pressure, Shiplake managed to keep the runs down to just 2!
A Shiplake win by the barest of margins...a single run!
Lower School Boys' 3rd XI v Claires Court
In what was for many their first game of cricket, the Shiplake 3rd XI acquitted themselves very well despite losing the game. Shiplake lost the toss and were put into bat with O Thomas and A Bowater-Rubio opening the batting well and although the runs were not flowing, they stayed in for a while and picked up a few runs. O Thomas was the pick of the batsmen with nine runs and all in all, the team were able to gain experience in the middle. The main learning point would be to look to hit the ball into the gaps and to communicate better between the batsmen.
The bowling was more of a strength for Shiplake and again, everybody had a chance to bowl but the pick of the bowlers were A Bowater-Rubio, O Houldsworth and O Thomas. Everybody contributed and gained real experience, and the key going forward will be to increase the consistency and to stop the extras column growing at an alarming rate!
Rounders
Girls' U18A Team
On Wednesday 3 May, the girls’ rounders team played The Oratory School in the first rounders match of the summer season. Shiplake started off strongly with a good line-up of batters. They then moved onto fielding, where some smooth skills from T Firth and E Browne caught many of The Oratory girls out the game. Shiplake came out of the first round with 8 rounders to The Oratory's 2½ which was a great start.
We went into the second round with high hopes and ready to win. In this round, we witnessed a few strong catches and massive hits which brought us to a whopping 14½ rounders to 6½. This meant that Shiplake won both rounds, totalling an amazing 23 rounders to The Oratory's total of 8½.
Shiplake finished the match with P Sanderson receiving Player of the Match for batting and H Boddy receiving it for fielding. Well done to all the girls who played; we are all looking forward to the rest of this rounders and the cricket season!
Report: R Allen, Girls' Sport Captain
Coach: Mrs C Lovelock
Rowing
At the end of March, a group of our senior rowers were put through their paces at the U19 GB rowing trials. From there, we were delighted to announce that N Floyd, F Middleton and J Weir impressed the selectors and were called up to represent Great Britain at this month’s Munich Junior Regatta.
It proved to be a successful weekend of racing in Munich this weekend where J Weir won gold in the women's quad and in the women's double. She has subsequently been selected to race for Great Britain at the European Championships in Bled, Slovenia, at the end of May.
In the men's events, F Middleton won gold in the men's four and was joined by N Floyd to race in the men's eight, where they also won gold.
It was fantastic to get such high-level racing experience and of course, it was an honour for the pupils to represent their country. Many of these athletes will be selected to represent GB at the World Championships in the summer so if things go well, this Shiplake trio will be selected in July.
Report: Mr D Currie
