At Woodridge. Rishabh's ton!

After the disappointment of a very wet day at Woodridge we dined out at a new local game lodge - the lodge had an excellent dining area with a panoramic window over a water hole at which the game would normally congregate. Sadly the wet weather yesterday meant that the game had no need of the water hole so apart from 4 or 5 bucks nothing was seen. However there were many trophies inside the lodge including a buffalo head and a number of photos were taken with that as a background. An excellent African meal was served - two large potjkes ( I apologies if I have not spelt the word correctly.) provided the centre piece. A potjke is a large cast iron pot in which a stew is cooked over a wooden fire. We had a chicken and a specially delicious venison potjke which was supplemented by roasted butternut squash and a corn dish which looked rather like large pieces of rice! There was also traditional African bread which is eaten with jam! For dessert trifle and ice cream were served. No one went home hungry!!

Today dawned dry, if not sunny. We had 100% cloud cover all day but at least we managed to get a game of cricket against an Old Woodridgean XI - I use the word Old loosely as most of them left the school either this month or last December! They were supplemented by an Old Bancroftian - Liam Wood - who played in his Woodford Wells shirt!! Given that Woodridge is one of the premier School sides in the Eastern Cape it was no surprise that they proved very strong. Winning the toss they batted and amassed 282 for 7 - one batsman, now a professional rugby player dominated the early batting and hit the Bancroft's attack for 103 from 25 overs! The best bowling was Matt Tann who took 3 for 47 from 8 overs. The fielding was better thanks to the cooler conditions but still has not reached the standard we expected. Unfortunately during the bowling we had a couple of injuries, Neville Jacob cut a finger quite badly trying to take a return catch whilst bowling - luckily his Dad was on hand to provide medical aid! - and Rahul Patel pulled a side muscle when bowling.

At 25 for 3 things did not look good - the early bowling was fast and good and a collapse looked imminent. Enter Rishabh Shah and Daniel Willoughby who then added 124 in 21 overs - Daniel fell for 44 after a very determined knock. Matt Tann then kept Rishabh company for some time as Rishabh kept building his score until finally after 5 excellent years in the 1st XI he reached the goal that has hitherto eluded him - a ton!!! He finished on 124 not out - a truly excellent innings which demonstrated beyond any doubt what we have all known what a tremendous batsman he is. Thanks to a quickfire 20 off 5 balls from Rahul Patel Bancroft's ended on 223 for 5, whilst short of the opposition's score it was a much better performance to build on.

We move on to Knysna tomorrow saying goodbye to our old friends at Woodridge and hope for more good cricket in the days to come. The only problem is that the weather forecast tomorrow is not too good! It may be possible to post more photos tomorrow evening.