King's Bruton Cricket Festival, 2010
Match reports by Mr Howard Holdsworth, Head of Cricket
The Christ's Hospital 1st XI enjoyed participating in the cricket festival held at King's School, Bruton from Monday 5th to Wednesday 7th July. The party travelled down to Somerset on the Sunday after the end of term. Upon arrival they were greeted by that 2010 rarity - rain! It did not last long. The boys were hosted throughout in a spacious boarding house and were well fed in the Main School dining hall.
Monday saw the boys take on their first opponents, City of London Freeman's School from Ashtead. The players stuck to their task throughout the long day on the picturesque Abbey Field. The game began at 11.00 and did not finish until the last wicket fell at 19.10. The boys who featured strongly for CH with the bat were Calvin Williams, who made 59 not out, and Luke Hansford, who scored 55; and with the ball we saw Seb Streeting take 4-31 and captain, Alex Marsh, take 3-9 from 9 excellent overs.
| Match 1 Score | CH 215 all out | City of London Freeman's 133 all out | CH won by 82 runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Match 2 Score | St Peter's York 272-7 dec | King's Bruton 245-7 | Draw |
After a good night's sleep the boys played against the host school, King's Bruton on Hyde field, which truly was a magnificent sight and a credit to the groundsman, Jed. Our efforts were given a kick-start in the field as Angus Doyne-Ditmas took a stunning catch in the 3rd over. Sam Fryer then removed the stumps twice in his best spell of the season before Alex Satterfield took three cheap wickets. All the touring party was delighted that young Arthur Elmes took the final wicket. After two early scares, Stuart Whittingham (53) and Charlie Kowszun (25 not out) saw us to a comfortable victory in a game which finished very early at about 3.30.
| Match 3 Score | King's Bruton 110 all out | CH 111-3 | CH won by 7 wickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Match 4 Score | St Peter's York 199-9 dec | City of London Freeman's 103-9 | Draw |
The boys found it hard to contain their excitement at the prospect of winning the Festival and sleep did not come easy to all. We returned to Abbey Field only to lose the toss to St Peter's who decided to bat. Seb Streeting quickly removed both of their recent centurions cheaply, but St Peter's recovered from 30-2 to be 163-3 from 37 overs at lunch. Our bowling was given the boost of Stuart Whittingham returning after not bowling for six matches due to injury. Even off just four paces his speed was enough to unsettle them. We fought back well to reduce them to 213-8 but their lower order hit lustily and ruined Seb's figures which ended at 5-73, his first 5 wicket haul of the 1st XI in his final match. A short discussion was held on how to rise to the challenge of scoring 280 runs in 47 overs. The boys set off by scoring runs quickly - both Alex's were given out when well set (Satterfield 35 and Marsh 25) but a quite extraordinary innings of 130 from Stuart Whittingham (many observers said it was amongst the finest they had ever seen) and an equally good 67 not out from Calvin Williams saw us to a memorable victory in just 31 overs. We had run out as winners of the tournament, which was greatly deserved as all of the boys pulled together to support each other.
| Match 5 Score | City of London Freeman's 170 all out | King's Bruton 145 all out | CLFS won by 25 runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Match 6 Score | St Peter's York 279-9 dec. | CH 280-5 | CH won by 5 wickets |
There are some thank yous that cannot be omitted: To Stuart Hamilton, the festival coordinator and Master i/c at Bruton, to Jed the Groundsman, to Mr and Mrs Fryer, who kindly donated tour shirts and caps, to Mr Mike Gladding who came to watch each day and made presentations to the "Player of the Day", to Christian Somma, 1992 Captain of CH 1st XI, who presented a new trophy for player of the season, a magnificent cup, with a replica for this year's winner, Alex Satterfield to keep along with a new bat, but most importantly to the boys themselves. They were fine ambassadors for our school and very pleasant company indeed.