Victory at last in Rahul's match!

Dawn broke over Cape Town with unbroken sunshine - not a cloud in the sky and it was warm! After breakfast at the hostel - not quite what we were used to in our hotels but perfectly adequate we set off for Western Province CC which was build with money from the sale of Newlands Cricket Ground ( minus the pavilion ) to Cricket SA. It is a beautiful ground with the most magnificent backdrop of Table mountain. We arrived to find a young side opposing us but it was full of good cricketers and when we had lost 6 wickets for 100 runs and we were in the 28 over of a 40 over match we did not look like posting a good score - again some loose shots were our undoing although Neville Jacob and Tyrone Behari were undone by a couple of poor umpiring decisions by the opponents umpire. Enter Yusuf Sohoye to join Rahul Patel. In the next 12 overs the score advanced to 218 for 6 - Rahul was at his belligerent best and Yusf was an excellent foil pushing ones and staying thereon 111 not out - his forst tone for the score - Yusuf had patiently amassed 18!

The young Western Province side struggled against the bowling - Yusuf and Matt reid Evnas took 3 wickets each and Rahul, to complete his match, took two excellent catches. They were dismissed for 59 runs and Bancroft's won by 159 runs - at last a worthy victory and the effect on the cricketing morale of the side was obvious, general morale has been excellent throughout the trip! The earlyish finish led to an evening in the Waterfront, hence this post from an internet cafe!! We thought about going up Table Mountain, but sadly there was not enough time as the coach driver would have turned into a pumpkin before our return as we have only have the coach until 6.30 each day whilst in Cape Town.

We were delighted to welcome OB Ian Fletcher who now lives in SA to the game - it was good to meet up with him again and to talk about the school and for him to witness such a good game.