Yearlings A Cricket Tour

The Yearlings A Cricket tour left on the morning of June 19 for Oakham. After a spot of light lunch Wellington fielded first in a 30 over game in glorious weather. Oakham amassed 148 all out from 28 overs with some solid hitting in the middle order. Wickets were shared by all the bowlers, the pick being Zaara (W) with 3 for 13 off her 5 overs. The chase did not start all that well with Alex (Hl) being run out without facing a ball. At 28 for 3 things did not look good. But then Freddie C (HL) strode in and smashed 63 from 58. When Freddie W (Hl) joined him blasting 10 of his first 2 balls we were fully in control of the game at 124 for 5. Then some proper Yearlings cricket took over to get us to 139 for 9 leaving Tom (Pn) and Tom (S) to scrape the 10 required to win. After one dropped catch and one very dubious run out (somehow given not out) we managed to see it through with two perfectly timed pulls for four from one of the Tom’s (Pn).

A pleasant evening out in Oakham and a good night’s sleep saw us on the bus at 7.30am on Tuesday heading to Manchester in the rain. And the rain got harder the closer we got to Manchester. Manchester Grammar School called the game off in good time which resulted in a bit of head scratching at the front of the bus. But we were going past Birmingham. One quick call from Miss Brookes (17 tickets) and another from Mr McDonald (coach parking at King Edwards School, Edgbaston) and we took a quick detour to the final day of the Test Match. Unfortunately, we lost that one – so we were now won one, lost one.

A good curry in Shrewsbury and a reasonable night’s sleep saw us at Shrewsbury School for an 11am start. Again, we fielded first (40 over game). Shrewsbury got off to a good start (50 for no loss) until Freddie W (Hl) nipped both openers out. Zaara (W), Nishka (T) and Tom (S) all picked up wickets and we restricted them to 219 for 8. Freddie C (Hl) got us off to flier and Alex (Hl) put right the injustice of Monday. But wickets kept on falling in bizarre ways. Rupert (Hl) hit an enormous 4 only to be run out next ball, Zaara (W) was run out in mass confusion and Tom (Hl) was bowled by a subterranean shooter leaving Sam (Hl) to offer up some dogged non-bazball resistance for a strong 20 off 42 balls. Jamie (M) was left stranded when Tom (Bd) finally could resist the spinner no longer after a vigil of 32 balls for 9 runs at 136 all out.

Thursday saw us have a light net, some lunch, watch a bit of the 1st XI v MCC then off to The Oval to watch a T20. We arrived at a packed and buzzing Oval with Surrey scoring 252 off their 20 overs and Middlesex chasing it down with 4 balls to spare. As there were OWs playing for both Surrey and Middlesex we can call that one a win – so won 2 lost 2 by Friday.

Friday saw us on Turf against Dulwich. One of the Dulwich players played very well to reach an impressive 100, although there was some tight bowling from Sam (Hl) and Zaara (W), with Jamie (M) being the pick of the bowlers 4 for 13 off 6 overs. A good declaration from Dulwich meant this was a result game with 204 the target and plenty of time. We started our innings on 10 (two sets of 5 penalty runs for Dulwich running on the wicket) but an excellent slip catch saw Jamie (M) depart in the first over and Tom (Hl) depart in the second. The middle order of Freddie C (Hl), Bobby (Bd), Tom (Pn) and Alex (Hl) all chipped in with runs at a good click of over 7 an over to keep us in the hunt. But the wickets kept falling and we ran out of batters. All out for 144 from 24 overs.

So the tour ended with 2 wins and 3 losses – but an excellent week with lots of cricket and great weather.

Read the full sports report HERE.