Cricket

First XI Lg The squad trained hard over the winter, travelling down to Canterbury every week for nets, showing great commintment and enthusiasm forthe game. It also helped to engender team spirit - which was to become a characteristic of the team. Before term began the squad came back early for some vigorous practice on Upper and at the end of this we all felt confident that the horrors of the previous season would not be repeated. However, in the first match organised Cranbrook, nerves got the better ofthe young team and after the openers were out cheaply, there then followed a middle order collapse reminiscent of the national team! A score of under 100 was never going to be enough and we lost, but it was to prove to be the only loss against another school. The side bounced back immediately with an exciting win against King's School, Rochester - the school's first win for three years! We batted first and soon lost two early wickets, but Fraser Debney and Matthew Day batted superbly and steadied the rolling ship. Matthew Day went on to score 100* and we were able to declare on 235-6 after some quick scoring by Matthew Wooderson and Tim Watts 42*. Some interesting field placing and poor bowling gave King's a good chance of winning the match until a brilliant one-handed catch by James Vincent turned the match. In the final overs it could have gone either way, but we held our catches and nerve and won the game by 12 runs. The next game was again the experienced Forty Club who batted first and gave a wonderful display scoring 234-1 declared, with both Openshaw and Moss scoring centuries. The team were not downhearted by this and replied with a confident 213-5 with Hotrod 64, Wooderson 71 *, and Wright 44 match drawn. We then had a disappointing match against Dover College, a game which we should have won, having played the better cricket. Vincent bowled particularly well taking 5 wickets for 54 runs as Dover struggled to 176-8 in 57 overs. Despite a brilliant 90 by Horton and useful knocks by Debney and Wooderson, we ended up 3 runs short having had 10 overs fewer in which to score the runs! The following day we suffered our second defeat of the term, losing to a surpnsingly ungentlemanly Band of Brothers team who seemed to have forgotten that they were there to educate the boys rather than beat themhollow! Lesley Bond surprised everyone when at the Mote he won the toss and elected to bat - when it is usual to allow men's sides to set a target and make a game of it. Anyway, he told me that he knew what he was doing and proved right as not a ball was bowled after our innings due to the rain! More rain affected the game against Maidstone Grammar School who declared 168-5. We chased hard with Horton 49 and Debney 37 * but could not score fast enough ending up with 130-2. After the half term break we showed few signs of rustiness against King's School, Canterbury, and honours were shared. Matthew Wooderson played a wonderful innings and ended up on 99*. When he and Matthew Day 56 were batting it even looked as though a win was possible. Rupert Humphrey played a captain's innings forthe Old Suttonians scoring 84 valuable runs when the school looked as though they would get them out cheaply and they ended up with 197 all out. Day 58 and Wooderson 111 * again batted beautifully and once again a victory was possible in the last over - but inexperience let us down and we just failed despite having 5 wickets left A low scoring match against DOYRMS on a lively pitch on Upper meant that a result was always possible for either side. We batted first and suffered an early collapse and were saved by Tim Watts 58 * and Tom Janes 53 who batted in their own aggresive styles. With only 161 on the board it meant that we hadto bowl and field well. This we did and strangely enough DOYRMS ended up on 130-2, hardly positive cricket even though we bowled the same number of overs. The team played very well against Bethany beating them convincingly. We bowled straight and held our 23 [continued over]