After building strong momentum in the last weeks of our season , the 1st team were eager to continue their good form abroad .
CRICKET TOURS
BARBADOS
After building strong momentum in the last weeks of our season , the 1st team were eager to continue their good form abroad .
During the 2023 summer holidays , the 1st cricket team was very fortunate to travel to Barbados . After an excellent end to the term , we began the first match of the tour by rolling over a fellow school from England , and then making light work of a potentially challenging run chase the next day , with standout performances from Ben Dawkins ( 49 ), Henry Smith ( 77 *) and Harry House ( 62 ).
The highlight of the tour was a day at the Isolation Academy Cavaliers ground , a cricket club in the north-east at a spectacular location surrounded by mountains . We played two T20 matches that day , with the second under floodlights . After confirming our third win from three matches relatively comfortably , the Isolation Academy Cavaliers , a proud , cricket-loving community , who were unlikely to let a few English schoolboys get the better of them twice in one day , called up the cavalry .
We faced a heavily strengthened team that evening , but managed to limit them to 145 runs , a chaseable , but slightly daunting score – especially with several men in the Cavaliers team . We battled through to keep ourselves in the game , succeeding thanks mainly to yet another sensational Ben Dawkins knock ( 72 ). However , with only
one wicket left and still 14 runs astray , faith was fading . But with two strong batsmen at the crease , Fred Ivey and Ollie Rajah , we remained hopeful . These two edged us closer to the finish line , before it came down to the final ball , needing only one run to win . Some of us could not bear to watch , but after seeing the ball beat the fielders and run away towards the boundary , we sprinted onto the pitch in absolute ecstasy . It was an unbelievable win and possibly the best match any of us had played in .
Unfortunately , we did not match this performance in our final two games , but we didn ’ t allow this to subtract from the sensational cricket we had played . A couple of days off were spent on the beach , as well as a Catamaran cruise . Before heading home , we had a tour around The Kensington Oval – Barbados ’ s test match stadium ; it was incredible to walk around the ground and on the pitch , and a brilliant end to a sensational trip .
Although we missed the opportunity to go unbeaten , four wins from six games was nevertheless an outstanding result . A massive thank you to the staff who joined us on the trip .
Harry Scott , Upper Sixth
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