Sports Report 27 April 2021

It was lovely to see a return to some fixtures last week with two days of cricket over the weekend, a fixture against St Edward's in rowing and the Sixth Form girls taking on Holyport in rounders.

Cricket

It was wonderful to see the return of competitive cricket to Shiplake on Saturday with our block fixture against our neighbours and friends from The Oratory. Our thanks go to Mr Cottey and the grounds team for all their work preparing the squares for the season. As always there were some very close matches with the U15A and the 2nd XI matches coming down to the final few balls of the innings. The outstanding individual performances were from Will Diver who scored 66 from 44 balls with 12 boundaries and Oliver Stalder who scored 40 opening the batting for the 1st XI. 

On Sunday the 1st XI competed in the regional round of the T20 National Cup at Radley College and gave an excellent account of themselves. Shiplake were drawn against RGS High Wycombe in the first round of the tournament and bowled them out for 95 in the first innings. Oliver Stalder and Jai Angell then shared a 97 run partnership to win the game, Jai finishing the match unbeaten on 58 from 45 balls. This gave Shiplake the opportunity to take on a strong Radley side in the second round of the tournament. 1st XI captain, Jai Angell, lost the toss and Radley elected to bat. Our bowling lacked the consistency and accuracy to put the Radley batsmen under any pressure and they were able to post an imposing total of 203. Angell and Stalder got the innings off to a promising start with Stalder hitting an impressively large 6 over midwicket, but wickets fell regularly thereafter and Shiplake were eventually bowled out for 104.

Special thanks to Mr Angell for scoring all of our matches over the weekend.

Report by Mr P McCraw

Rounders

On Wednesday afternoon we played our first rounders match of the season against Holyport. Shiplake started batting and immediately scored many full and half rounders with some amazing hits from Maddie Fisher and Issy Hepburn. The first innings resulted in a draw with both teams gaining 9 and a half rounders, however the win went to Holyport who had fewer batters caught or ran out. 

The second innings saw Shiplake win with 8 and a half to 7 rounders. Incredible fielding could be seen with Maddie Adams on second base and Elizabeth Tang’s incredible throws while deep fielding. Shiplake’s impressive batting and effective fielding technique allowed them the overall win, despite the skill and teamwork of the Holyport team. This is an encouraging start to the season and a brilliant achievement for the Shiplake rounders team.

Report by Laura Pasmore

Rowing

On Saturday it was fantastic to have our first private fixture where we competed against St Edward's, Oxford. This was only a small fixture involving our girls' 1st and 2nd quads and the boys' 1st VIII. The match included two 1000m pieces and one 500m side-by-side and was held on the Radley College stretch of river. The 1st VIII lost the first 1k by 3/4 of a length and won the 2nd 1k by 1/2 of a length. In the 500m there was a clash of oars and Shiplake took advantage and rowed off to take the win. The 1st Quad won all pieces by open water over the Teddies A boat. The 2nd Quad raced Hinksey Rowing Club and won all their pieces by open water. All rowers had a great morning racing and thoroughly enjoyed their first competitive race in over a year! Thank you to St Edward's for organising the fixture and Radley College for allowing us to use their Boat Club. Next up Eton College on Tuesday 27 April. 

Report by Mr D Currie