Woodrdge match and farewell to the Head.

Rishabh's ton part one

Knysna - half way point of tour.

Having bid a fond farewell to all our friends at Woodridge ( in the rain again!) we boarded our charter coach from Cape Town which will be with us now until our departure home. Our driver Henlou seems quite a cheerful chappy and everything is " 100 per cent" !!

Driving west now on the N2 all the way to Cape Town we first passed Jeffreys Bay, the surf capital of South Africa and there the clouds finally broke ( about 20 miles west of Woodridge) and we had sunshine the rest of the day meaning that we had good views of the beautiful garden route. We stopped for a break at the Storms river gorge where many photos were taken from the bridge and then drove slowly over the highest bungee jump in the world, not for the faint hearted!

Having checked into the hotel at Knysna Quays we were met by old friend Keith Cretchley who . runs the Knysna Sports School who led the coach to the ground - a new one for us . It is in a beautiful spot about 10 miles from Knysna - it is reminiscent of an English village ground! Keith has created this new ground from nothing.

His XI was a mixture of players who were either current or former members of the Sports school, three of whom were in the provincial side for their age group, but the team overall seemed to be a much more appropriate match for us. Bancroft's batted first against an attack which was very similar to that we would encounter on the school circuit on a greenish wicket where the ball did a little early on. Progress was slow and at 20 overs ( it was a 35 over match ) Bancroft's had reached 66 for 2 with Nigel Jacob not out 24. The loss of Nigel immediately after the drinks break at 20 overs heralded a bit of a collapse and eventually the team struggled to 111 all out, way below par against such an attack. Bancroft's young bowling attack failed to find its line and length, far too many balls were down the legside or too short and the opposition knocked off the runs in 25 overs losing only 3 wickets - two of those in the first over to Lakshman Sathananthan. Our modest total was not good enough and our bowling not consistent enough. The side is lacking in confidence at the moment, the result of the experience they had in Namibia. There are plenty of good cricketers but they are not yet standing up to be counted. We should have done much better against the opposition which really was not, overall, the standard of 1st XIs on the school circuit.

The evening was spent at the Dry Dock restaurant in the adjacent Knysna Quays following which most of the team watch the Man U v Arsenal match in the hotel!

Tuesday morning dawned fine and the team has just returned from the boat trip on the Knysna lagoon out to the famous Knysna Heads, the site of many wrecks over the centuries! The rest of the day is free before moving on our next leg towards Cape Town tomorrow. Our next game is on Thursday at Hermanus. Let us hope that the break will encourage better cricket then.

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.

Namibia to South Africa

The last day in Namibia saw the temperature reach new heights - during the afternoon and the second T20 match it was 40 degrees - it was no wonder that the team were wilting a bit!

After breakfast ( the usual meal feast for most of the team as it was a buffet) we set off for the ground for the two T20 matches. The opposition was waiting for us - the only problem was that the groundsman had been told a 2.00 start ( both teams were there for a 9.30 start ) and no one had told the lady with the key for the pavilion!! We eventually got started at about 11.00 against what we expected to be an u15 side - well there were pretty big u15s and one owned up to being 18 when challenged about not wearing a helmet! They were another useful unit and posted 124 in their 20 overs. Bancroft's replied with 104 thanks to an excellent partnership of 60 between Tom Hartington ( 33 ) and Matt Tann ( 24 not out) - no the others did not really trouble the scorers - a series of silly shots and some panic letting them down. The second game was further delayed as the lunches had been sent to another ground - it has to be said that the strandard of cricket has been excellent but the organisation did not match up - JGB was heard to comment about inability to organise knees ups in brewery as the standard they achieved! This match was agianst the national u19 T20 team - yet again they were strong and the heat was getting to the team - 4 days in the Namibian sun was taking its toll. The bowling failed to get a grip and the fielding weas lethargic at best - the opposition posted 191 for 2. Bsancroft's reply of 82 - 5 was disappointing as only Rishabh Shah - now off the sick list - who scored 33, Rahul Patel (16) and Daniel Willoughby (15 not out) impressed with the bat. Afet the game presentation of Bancroft's shirts were made to the team we had played 3 time sover three days and a few words were said by JGB in which he commented on the vast improvement in u 18 Namibian cricket he has seen over his three visits to the country and also the excellent spirit in which the cricket was played. The Namibian team were a delight and excellent ambasadors for their country.

Back at the hotel a fines meeting was held - an excllent way to develop team bonding and again we discussed where things had not gone right. This was followed by the third eveing meal at the hotel buffet at which one or two tourist broke new records for the amount they ate!

Friday was a day of travel - first though was the hardest part of the day - getting 17 cricketers, without their Mums to do it for them, to pack and get ready to travel. After one or two wortds of encouragement we were just about ready for our 10.00 departure once once one or two missing items were found, usually in someone else's luggage! We thenb said goodbye to the delightful staff at the Country Club and Hotel , our base throughout the stay in Namibia.

That proved to be the easist part of our departure from the country! At the airport there were scenes of some chaos! We arrived there at 11.00 for a 12.40 flight - the small check in hall was full of people checking in for a jumbo flight to Germany which had been due to depart at 10.00!! Once our gear had been checked in it was off to immigratrion where we filled in the same forms as we had on arrival and then stood in a rugby scrum to pass one of the two officials on duty just to join the queue for the one scanner available at security. Having finally achieved that we burst into the departure lounge where there wasn't a seat to be had as the passengers were still waiting for their jumbo to load!! Arriving and departing from Jo'burg was much less stressful but it was not surprising that many of the party were asleep on the flight after the tiring early part of the day! At 18.30 we touched down at Port Elizabth to be met by Criag Neave, the Headmaster and an old friend, and the Woodridge bus. After a stop en route at a Kentucky fried chicken for supper we got to Woodridge and settled into our accommodation in one of their boarding houses. It was not quite the 5 stars that the team was used to but was more than adequate.

Saturday dawned; at 7.00, so JGB reported on his return from his early morning exercise, the sun was shining and all looked set fair! A false dawn.

There were two celebrations today, one for Bancroft's, it is Matt Tann's birthday and the team sang Happy Birthday as he was given his cards brought from England, and the other for the locals around Woodridge, because at about 8.30 the clouds built up and by 9.00 it was raining heavily thus breaking one of the worst droughts they have had! As this blog is posted, it is now 1.45 local time, it is still raining and therefore our chance to get our own back on Woodridge College has been abandoned without a ball being bowled. This was all on a day when the weather forecast had been for a fine dry day - it isn't only the BBC that get the weather wrong! The boys are now contenting themselves with a game of football in the rain and some may go swimming afterwards in one of the three pools on the campus - they wont get any wetter in the water. They can then relax in the commoin room and watch satellite TV, something they all have PhDs in! This evening we are off to a local game lodge hopefully to see some game but also to have an African style evening.

Tomorrow we have a match against an invitation XI, 10 of which are Old Boys of the school of a range of ages and the 11th player is an Old Bancroftian, Liam Wood, who is at Woodridge on a gap year scheme. He met us this morning at breakfastr and he is clearly enjoying an excellent year out here. Let's hope the sun will shine.

Last evening the team enjoyed the buffet supper ( eat as much as you like!) so much that we have booked in for the remaining two nights of the stay in Windhoek. Suitably fed and after a good night's rest we expected a better display on the field today.

The match ( another 45 over game against an invitation team) started in the same way as yesterday. Stand in captain, Nigel Jacob lost the toss for a second time and returned with the immortal words, I can't believe it was heads for the second time - what are the odds on that??!!

We were in the field and as it turned out we were there for the hottest part of the day. The opposition batted with some determination and the young bowling attack - opening today were Yusuf Sohoye and Samraj Sadra - did their best against determined batting and struggled to maintain line and length. The spinners didn't bowl badly but they did not give us the control we needed and the fielding often let us down with some of the younger players losing concentration. They have not quite made the step up from their year sides - it will come in due course. The opposition score of 258 - 5 off 45 overs was a big total helped by 100 from a most impressive batsman who had played for Namibia's senior side.

Our response got off to a bad start with Nigel Jacob running out his younger brother, and a number of other top order batsman not giving the concentration needed and playing as if in an u14 game! A positive stand between Alex Stroud and Tyrone Behari doubled the scorte but in the end we failed to do ourselves justice.

Back at the hotel we spent time analysing our shortcomings and working on the positive. The benefit of the tour will not be in the purely clinical terms of results it will be from what the younger players learn and how that improves their cricket. It certainly has been a steep learning curve for them over the past two days and it has to be said that the opposition have been very strong. Tomorrow we have 2 T20 matches to look forward to and the best news is that the captain has recovered from the illness that has kept him low and has declared himself fit to play.

First Post

We arrived safely on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Windhoek, Namibia. All was well and everyone was safe. Having all unpacked and checked in to the country club hotel and after having a brief training session at Wanderers we went out to the well known Joe's Beer House in Windhoek a tradition going back many tours. The food was scrumptious and many of the boys experienced tasting foods that they haven't tasted before for example Zebra, Crocodile, Kudu and Ostrich. It was apparent that everyone was tired and shortly after the meal we were all in bed and ready for the next day's training session.

We arose early the next morning and had a decent breakfast and went to the Wanderers cricket club to start our day's training. Soon everyone gauged just how hard it would be to play cricket in South Africa and Namibia due to the demanding conditions and altitude.

After a few hours of training and many dropped catches we returned to the hotel to enjoy the rest of the day and the hot weather. Many of the boys spent their time enjoying the hotels facilities such as the pool, rooms and for some the free Internet connection!

After a few hours of relaxation we decided to have dinner at a local mall in Windhoek. The favourites among tourists were the Spur steakhouse and a very tasty Pizzeria. Having been well fed and watered we got an early night at the hotel knowing tomorrow would be a big test and our first game of the tour against a Namibian U19 Invitational XI. Unfortunately the Wanderers Cricket Club Ground was deemed unplayable for 6 weeks by the Namibian Cricket Board. However this was not too much of a hindrance as we got to play at the United Ground which supposedly had a better deck than the one at the Wanderers Ground. We arrived at the ground on time and began our pre-match warm up, unfortunately our stand in captain, Nigel Jacob, lost an important toss. After some very disciplined fast bowling from the Namibian side we found ourselves 65 for 5. Then the spinners took a strangle hold on the game bowling us all out for 109, which in all honesty was a modest total. The highlight of the innings was Richard Barrett and Lakshman Sathananthan's hard fought 10th wicket partnership of 31.

After a quick tea the boys were out on the field raring to go. After a great start from Rahul Patel who took a wicket in the 1st over the boys confidence was flying sky high and luckily for Rahul, Jeremy Bromfield was not umpiring at his end so the LBW decision did stand! Rahul was well backed up by Lakshman Sathanathan and Samraj Sadra; consequently the Namibian side found themselves 65-5 which was identical to Bancroft's 1st innings score at this point. Despite some excellent spin bowling from Matthew Reid-Evans and Neville Jacob, which was backed up well by some outstanding fielding from the Bancroft's side, the might of the Namibian lower order was true and they coasted to a 5 wicket victory. As this may be dissapointing for the boys, it was none the less a solid start to tour considering acclimatization and in particular acclimatization sickness to captain Rishabh Shah and Tyrone Behari.

A notable performance from the match was Rahul Patel's 3-20 off 6 overs.

We have another game tomorrow and the camp are looking forward to it with high spirits and anticipation!