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| Saturday 31st March |
Arrived at Cape Town in warm sunshine. The boys went straight to their guest house at District Six, with the tourists heading to their Waterfront hotel. With perfect weather, Merwe brought forward our visit to Table Mountain, and the entire party spent a happy afternoon exploring this beautiful wilderness, and watching a sensational sunset. An excellent start to the tour. |
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| Sunday 1st April |
More splendid weather for our visit to Robben Island, a couple of miles offshore. We saw Nelson Mandela's cell and had the privilege of guided tours by former inmates. Seeing the way the brutality of the apartheid era has given way to acceptance and friendship was incredibly moving.
After a swift return, accompanied by jackass penguins and dolphins, the boys headed for practice in preparation for the first match tomorrow. |
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| MATCH ONE: CAPE TOWN - U13's |
| Venue: |
Tygerberg Cricket Club, Cape Town |
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| Opposition: |
Western Province Development Team |
| Match Report: |
A big losing margin disguises a strong side with plenty of promise - but in the end the 30 degree heat told. We started well, with a good run of early wickets after the South Africans elected to bat, and what seemed like an achievable total of 114 for 6 after 40 overs. However, the unfamiliar conditions seemed to bring on a batting collapse and we were all out for 65. Next objective: drink more fluids and work on withstanding the heat! |
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| MATCH ONE: CAPE TOWN - U15's |
| Venue: |
Tygerberg Cricket Club, Cape Town |
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| Opposition: |
Western Province Development Team |
| Match Report: |
It was a sizzling start as our bowlers adapted rapidly to the mud-pack wicket, and we kept it up with sharp fielding and precise bowling throughout the innings. Freddie Paul took the first two wickets, but was upstaged by new sensation James Barlow who bagged four - a winter's hard training paying off in spades. With 132 to beat and a mature start to the Oundle innings the game looked in the bag. Sadly a mid-order collapse lost the game by a mere seven runs. A fine start to the tour, and a nail-bitingly close match. |
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| Tuesday 3rd April |
OTCC history is made with the first ever oversees victory for an Oundle Town team. This was followed within minutes by the second win. With the teams playing at different venues unsubstantiated reports suggest that our U13 touring squad secured the first win just fractionally before the U15 success. Well done to both squads.
Some of the supporters took a break from cricket today and embarked upon a trip to the Cape of Good Hope. This really is a spectacular country. The full touring party joins tomorrow for a "Cultural Break" at Mossel Bay for a few days of relaxation in the sun. The tour has started at a fast pace and many will welcome the rest. |
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| MATCH TWO: CAPE TOWN - U13's |
| Venue: |
Edgemead Cricket Club, Cape Town |
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| Opposition: |
Edgemead Cricket Club |
| Match Report |
Report to follow... |
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| MATCH TWO: CAPE TOWN - U15's |
| Venue: |
Edgemead Cricket Club, Cape Town |
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| Opposition: |
Edgemead Cricket Club |
| Match Report: |
This was a closely contested encounter with OTCC bowling and fielding superbly to hold Edgemead to a total of 105 all out. A fine fielding display was highlighted by the 5 run outs with some highly accurate direct hits on the stumps. Our spin bowlers featured strongly and the accuracy and speed of our fast bowlers is improving. With the bat Oundle produced a solid display with a fine opening stand between David Foster and Peter Wilson. After another middle order wobble it was left, appropriately, to Grant "Slogger" Snelling to smash the winning runs finishing with a majestic four. Grant was awarded "Man of the Match" on his birthday.
Our hosts at Edgemead made us feel very welcome and all enjoyed a memorable days cricket. |
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| Wednesday 4th April |
Super Mario keeps tour on track.
Today was billed as a relaxing trip to the seaside resort of Mossel Bay. Unfortunately, the tour came to a grinding halt when one of our coaches developed turbo problems. After many miles of blue smoke the turbo finally failed and we were stranded in the middle of a five hour journey on the African plains.
Luckily, one of our tour sponsors Mario Ilien of Ilmor Engineering (designer of Formula 1 engines) was able to advise upon reconfiguring the engine to run under normal aspiration. After a few hours of work we were able to move again under reduced power and eventually arrived at Mossel Bay in a thunder storm. All are well and Mossel Bay is beautiful. |
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| MATCH THREE: Lads & Dads |
| Venue: |
Mossel Bay |
Picture to follow... |
| Opposition: |
Touring party’s dads |
| Match Report: |
After a day relaxing on the beech the Lads and Dads match took place in Mossel bay as the sun set of the Indian Ocean. With many of the touring party playing under lights for the first time and some of the Dads playing cricket for the first time the spectators in the stadium were transfixed by a feast of sport excellence. Under a full moon we played cricket for several hours and the ground was filled by excited cheers and laughter.
The boys showed little mercy when bowling or batting against their fathers who now have a much greater appreciation of the skills their off-spring are are developing.
Great fun was had by all and we finished the evening with a bbq.
Cricket was the winner tonight.
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| Friday & Saturday 6th& 7th April |
Following our excursion and stay at Mossel Bay we moved inland to the town of Oudshoorn and the ostrich farm and wildlife resort of Chandeliar (www.chandelier.co.za). Here we camped under big star-lit skies and participated in team building adventure games in the veldt. We also had a very close introduction to the life and nature of the ostrich. These are remarkable creatures.
For our evening meal on arrival we enjoyed ostrich lasagna. In the morning we ate a hearty breakfast of scrambled ostrich egg and ostrich sausage. For lunch we had ostrich burgers and in the evening we cooked ostrich kebabs around the open fire. In the morning scrambled ostrich egg and ostrich sausage featured once again. Luckily, everyone likes the ostrich. |
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| Monday 9th April |
Miqlat Ministries Bowy House
Today we visited Bowy House to present our tour charity contribution in support of the aids orphanage. We found Bowy House to be a happy place full of care, hope and faith in the future. Lalie Lombard, the live-in manager of the house, gave us a detailed introduction to her work and the lives of the children in her care. It is clear that Lalie and her helpers are providing an essential refuge for some very needy little people. Our boys spent an hour playing with the children in their garden and afterwards their mood was quietly reflective. This was an experience that will stay with us.
We wish Lalie and her team every success and we hope to establish a more permanent link between the club and Bowy House.
In the afternoon our squads returned to their cricket activities after several days break. They enjoyed an impressive nets session at Paarl Boys High School in the growing shadows of the surrounding mountains. |
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| MATCH FOUR: Paarl Cricket Club |
| Venue: |
Paarl Cricket Club |
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| Opposition: |
New Orleans Secondary School and Magnolia Primary School |
| Match Report: |
Today our squads enjoyed the privilege of playing against two local township school teams in Paarl. Despite the extraordinary contrast in background, education and access to wealth they played on the field as equals. Cricket provided the platform for a very moving encounter and a series of shared experiences through the day. This ended with a joint meal for all four teams at Manyana (the church establishment where our squads are staying) hosted by Oundle and the boys made new friends.
On the field of cricket the representatives of New Orleans Secondary School and Magnolia Primary School were too strong for Oundle. We met opposition teams who played with great skill, passion and team spirit. The Oundle squads were given a lesson in the game of cricket and learnt a great deal more about life.
U13
Opposition: Magnolia Primary School
Oundle batted first but struggled to achieve a total of 99 for 8 in the face of some consistently accurate bowling. In response Magnolia reached the target with relative ease and won by 5 wickets.
U15
Opposition: New Orleans Secondary School
New Orleans set an impressive target of 175 runs off the allotted 40 overs with the loss of 6 wickets. In response Oundle opened well with some solid opening partnerships including 48 from the bat of David Foster. With the run rate increasing however, the middle order failed to accelerate and the tail collapsed at a total of 125.
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| Wednesday 11th April - Rain Stops Play |
Heavy rain in the night has forced the postponement of our eagerly awaited day-night match against Paarl Boys High School at Boland Stadium. Merwe has managed to reschedule the remaining days and we will now visit Boland Stadium tomorrow and the final match of the tour will take place on Friday just before we return to Cape Town for our journey back home. The tourists will arrive home tired but happy. |
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| MATCH FIVE: Boland Stadium, Paarl |
| Venue: |
Boland Stadium, Paarl |
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| Opposition: |
Paarl Boys High School |
| Match Report: |
U15
Paarl Boys set a total of 220 for 5 of 40 overs. Freddie Paul had figures of 4 overs for 15 and 2 wickets, David Foster 22 for 2 and Gareth Hook 6 overs 2 maidens 24 for 1. Despite the strong effort Paarl Boys won as Oundle could only achieve 110 for 7.
U13
The under 13’s produced a different story. After 35 overs Oundle reached a total of 178 for 5. Peter Foster 35, Ben Milborne 36 and George Davies 26 runs led the attack. Paarl Boys could only achieve 39 all out.
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| MATCH SIX: Paarl |
| Venue: |
Boland Stadium, Paarl |
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| Opposition: |
Merwe Genis Cricket School |
| Match Report: |
U15
We arrived at the ground to find advanced preparations in progress to convert the cricket pitch for rugby at the start of the South African winter season. After frantic efforts the square was rolled and marked for our match. The considerable time delay reduced the possible overs to 20 for each innings. With our plane home standing on the runway at Cape Town the pressure was on to complete the cricket quickly.
Oundle batted first with Freddie Paul scoring 33 and Henry Chandler 35 in a spirited early partnership. The Twenty20 attitude continued down the batting order with the not out batsman John Crawford and Robert Jackson scoring 14 and 23 respectively. Oundle set a target of 142 for 5.
Merwe Genis Cricket School responded strongly but with a steady fall of wickets they were all out in the twentieth over for 74 runs. Oundle used 10 bowlers in the match and the most notable performance came, surprisingly, from our wicket keeper John Crawford with 2 wickets for 3 runs off 2 overs. Freddie Paul was named Man of the Match.
The tour ends with a win and a dash to Cape Town airport.
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