Cricket tour to Grenada
On the first Monday in July we all boarded the plane for Grenada , West Indies . The squad consisted of 15 players , ranging from Upper Sixth to Year 10 , and the coaches , Mr Hulston , Mr Holden and Mr Smith .
Throughout our time in Grenada we explored the island , visiting the capital St Georges , snorkelling , visiting a 200-year-old rum distillery – the rum was 80 % alcohol and tasted more like poison – and swimming next to a tropical waterfall .
The main challenge of playing cricket in the Caribbean is the heat . It was not necessarily the scorching sunshine , but the humidity , especially in all your batting gear , which made you feel you were in a sauna . It did not take us long to find out that the Grenadian batsmen were ultra-aggressive and not afraid of smashing a good length ball over the ring field . In fact it meant that most of our wickets were caught on the boundary .
These unfamiliar conditions meant it took us a while for our tour to really get firing , as we unfortunately lost our first three games . We were , however , incredibly fortunate to play three games at the Grenada National Cricket Stadium . We then managed to follow up these three losses with back-to-back wins , due to gutsy batting performances from Rory Easton ( 59 ), Nick Bett ( 48 ) and Patrick Nickols ( 66 *) and a much improved bowling and catching display .
Our sixth and final game was nail-biting but we just fell short with the bat in the second innings , despite some spirited fight from the team . The final record was two wins and four losses .
Bowler of the tour was Peter Wright with figures of 24.3-2-70-9 and Batsman of the tour was Nick Bett with 190 runs at an average of 38 . Nick also passed 1000 runs and 50 wickets for Sevenoaks School 1st XI .
Overall , it was an absolutely once-in-alifetime experience to play cricket in the Caribbean , one I will simply never forget .
Alfie Marr-Johnson , Year 10
6 SPORT