With Cricket season well underway, our 1st and 2nd teams have had some brilliant games against Reading Blue Coat School while the U15A team faced off against Burford School. The 1st VI Tennis team took to the courts at Pangbourne to show them a thing or two about the game while the U18 girls also had their first Rounders fixture of the term.
Cricket
1st XI v Reading Blue Coat School
Coming off an excellent win the previous Sunday against RGS High Wycombe, the 1st XI continued their tough run of fixtures against Reading Blue Coat School on Wednesday. With the threat of showers, Captain Joe Tucker won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers Matt Dalrymple and Ollie Brown started positively. Despite Brown being run out, Dalrymple and Tucker kept the scoreboard ticking over and put together an 88-run partnership in just 10 overs. Dalrymple eventually fell for a well-made 77, including three sixes and five fours. Tucker (32), Year 9 Jai Angell (12 not out) and Lewis Bishop, meant that Shiplake finished their 20 overs on 153 for 5. A competitive total.
Despite a good first spell from Callum Creighton and Bishop, the Blue Coat chase started well with openers Price and Perkins batting fluently. However, when Price fell to left arm spinner Rufus Stone, Captain Tucker saw the chance to attack. Bringing himself into the attack, he proceeded to take 3 for 15 off three overs to swing the contest in Shiplake’s favour. Tight bowling from spinner Callum Theodorou and the returning Creighton and Bishop meant that Blue Coat finished their 20 overs on 135 for 6, giving Shiplake a 22 run win.
2nd XI V Reading Blue Coat School
The 2nd XI turned up to play their local rivals, wondering if the game would go ahead as dark clouds and a splattering of rain made for an ominous forecast. Their opponents were clearly expecting to play and were very confident about their chances in this 20/20 encounter.
Shiplake Captain Justin Van Vuuren won the toss and decided to have a bowl at the opponents on what looked like a good batting wicket. Nobody was expecting that in 80 minutes time the game would be finished and that Shiplake would be driving home victorious after their most comprehensive win in recent memory!
This was to be the Ben Atkin show! Steaming in from the top end of the Blue Coat pitch, Atkin removed opener Kshatrya with the first ball of the game with an in swinger that started on off stump and uprooted leg stump. The fielders were understandably celebrating and very vocal, especially after Atkin then removed batsman number three, Evans, with the next ball. At 0-2 after two balls, the nervous looking Blue Coat number four, Brown, walked out to face the 3rd ball of the day not expecting to be facing a hat-trick ball. He survived and received a loud cheer from his teammates in the pavilion for his troubles! However after the next ball the cheers were coming from the fielding team as Atkin removed his third victim in the first four balls of the over and cue wild celebrations! The rest of the over felt a little disappointing as there were no more wickets and Blue Coat even managed to score their first run of the game, again to ironic cheers from their players in the pavilion!
After the excitement of the first over, everyone needed to get their breath back and settle into the game. Not a chance! Max Haynes’ bowling left arm over the wicket removed batsman number five with his first ball of the match, a dead straight full length delivery that had the Blue Coat batman paying down the wrong line. Three balls later and Haynes was at it again, removing another batsman with another straight ball. By this point, the atmosphere in the Shiplake ranks was electric, everyone could feel that they were witnessing something sensational. After two overs, Blue Coat had amassed four runs for the loss of five wickets.
Could we take a breather now? Not a chance! With the first ball of his second over, Atkin took a sharp caught and bowled to register his fourth victim and in the next over Haynes bowled his victim to leave the home side struggling at 12-7 off 4 overs. Blue Coat looked to put up some resistance but found the Shiplake fielders supporting their bowlers superbly to deny run scoring opportunities. After a third over, maiden Atkin wasn’t finished and picked up two more wickets in his last over, thanks to an excellent Dorrell catch for Atkin’s last wicket.
A tenth wicket stand by Blue Coat pushed up their total to 41 before Westbrook-Burr took the final wicket with a sideways turning ball that bowled the standout batman Ireland for 15.
Bluecoat finished at 41 all out after 12 overs with Atkin finishing with figures of 4 overs, 1 maiden 6 wickets for 7 runs, an absolutely outstanding effort. Haynes should also be very proud of his figures of 4 overs, 3 wickets for 6 runs in only his second game for Shiplake 2nd team.
After a quick turnaround, Shiplake came out to bat knowing that they needed to start solidly to avoid any uncomfortable moments and to dampen down the motivated opponents. They need not have worried; the calm Howard and Captain Van Vuuren played calmly and chose their shots well in the opening couple of overs. Although Howard departed for 10 and then Powell for 12, the captain (16 not out) played a tremendously determined and mature innings to take the team through to a comfortable win in the end, reaching the target with the loss of only 2 wickets in the 9th over.
A fantastic win for the boys who now have won both of their games going into what will be a much tougher test this Saturday against Lord Wandsworth College.
U15A v Burford School
Shiplake fielded a strong XI in the quarter final of the Oxfordshire cup against Burford, the team bolstered by the addition of Jai Angell, Jake Shortland and Oliver Stadler. Captain Jake Livingstone-Smith won the toss and elected to field on a green wicket offering help for the bowlers. The decision looked to be a good one when Jake Shortland took a wicket with his second ball, on debut. Alex Bartlett bowled a very economical spell from the other end, conceding just eight runs from his four overs.
More tight bowling followed from left-armed Sam Redding and off-spinner Luke Theodorou. Despite some impressive shot making from the remaining Burford opening batsman, Shiplake continued to stifle the scoring rate of their opponents. The Burford batsmen looked to increase the rate of scoring from the 15th over onwards but a slow outfield restricted them and this pressure resulted in a couple of run outs. Burford closed their innings on 100, a score Shiplake were confident to chase.
After an excellent Shiplake tea in the pavilion, which allowed the opportunity for players, coaches and supporters to thaw out, opening batsmen Jai Angell and Jack Livingstone-Smith strode to the crease. These two faced some testing deliveries early on from Burford’s seamers but never looked in grave danger. Livingstone-Smith began to push into gaps on the on side with regularity and Jai Angell started to time some powerful drives through the covers. The Shiplake openers started to accelerate the run rate and when 17 runs were conceded the 11th over it was clear who the victors would be. Livingstone-Smith departed with the score on 80 and it was up to Angell and Alex Bartlett to knock off the remaining runs. Angell finished with an impressive 57* and Shiplake now progress to a semi-final match against Lord Williams school.
Tennis
1st VI v Pangbourne College
Going into the fixture, Shiplake had been prepared with preseason training in the Spring Term and two weeks of coaching since returning from the Easter break. The 1st VI looked to take full advantage of this as Pangbourne had only been back at school for a couple of days.
The first round saw Shiplake win all three of their matches, with an excellent 6-4 win for their third pair, debutant Alex Coles in Year 10 and Miles Firth, against the first Pangbourne first pair. However, with the conditions becoming increasingly difficult to play in due to some blustery weather and the eating of too many chocolate brownies, Shiplake lost two of their three matches in the second round. It was all to play for going into the third and final round with the scores at 4-2 to Shiplake. However, our boys did not let this set back deter them. Wins from Shiplake's first pair, skipper Marcus Hillman and Alex Sutton and second pair, James Christie and Jamie Gibbs sealed the victory in the third round.
Overall score, Pangbourne 3 - Shiplake 6
Rounders
U18A v Reddam House
Last Wednesday, two teams made their way to Reddam House for their first matches of the season. After the B team started with fielding, they knew they had a tough 9½ rounders to beat. They started well with some strong batting from Ella, who scored some great half rounders, and a good performance from Rhian Edwards at backstop, which meant that we were able to get some girls out straight away at first post. Reddam put up a strong fielding team with a quick bowler and a good catcher on second post, which made it harder to draw closer to their score. Despite the hard work from the team, Reddam took the win with a score of 9 ½ to 3. The first team started with batting, we went out there aiming to set the standard high however Reddham were getting faster and stronger with their fielding techniques deep out in the field, a strong performance from Brooke who scored two excellent rounders for the team. The pressure was on for us to catch as many batters out as possible when it was our time to field. With Livi and Sophie working well together in the field, we managed to catch some girls out straight away and also at 4th and 2nd post. However, Reddam’s performance proved too strong with a final score of 3 to 8 ½ to Reddam. Well done to Livi who won player of the match in fielding and Brooke for batting.
Report provided by A Team Captain Ella Nolson
