The cricket season concluded this weekend with a block fixture against Caterham School and a 1st XI match against Old Boys XI on Sunday. Overall 100 matches have been played across both the Junior and Senior School this summer with some fantastic team victories and individual performances.
The U12s finished the season with (rare) home matches against Caterham School on Saturday morning and fresh from his 100 last week, and despite an injury midweek, Aditya Kumar led the way with 98 not out in the As total of 158-2 in 20 overs. Although the Caterham School openers had a flying start regular wickets including 4 for Blue Collard meant Eltham College bowled them out for 128 and won by 30 runs. The Bs also had a successful morning when tight bowling restricted Caterham School to 90 in 20 overs and excellent innings by Reuben Chandler and Saul Cogswell in reply helped us chase down the target comfortably.
The U13As were beaten away at Caterham School but the Bs got another win. The As posted 132 in 20 overs with Benjy Davis and Alex Clout batting well in a 56 run partnership from 45 balls. However, the Caterham School opener scored 92 off 50 balls in reply and Eltham College were guilty of missing several catches as the game slipped away. Charles Nortey took 3 wickets as the Bs restricted Caterham School to 118/6 from 20 overs and Captain Max Milliner batted superbly in reply finishing 45 not out and being well supported by Alex Macheath and Lewis Ashley-Cheek as the Bs won by 7 wickets.
James Bush was the star in the U14As as he made 86 out of our total of 158-8 in 30 overs. Despite some late hitting from Caterham’s middle order we managed to restrict them to just 138-5 to win by 20 runs, Yusuf Sait bowling 6 overs for just 8 runs and taking 1 wicket. The Bs had a tougher afternoon as Caterham School made 135-9 in 25 overs, Marcus Arman impressed with 2-10 off 4 overs. Eltham College’s top order collapsed to 31-6 in reply before Cameron Slatter’s 29 got us up to 111 as we fell 24 runs short.
It has been a tough season for the U15s but the A team put in a superb performance on Saturday morning beating Caterham School by 6 wickets. Captain Ollie Greenhead was the star of the show taking 4 early wickets with the ball before scoring an excellent 50 as alongside Toby Cogswell made a great start chasing a total of 109. The Bs set 98 in 20 overs with Jamie Bischoff scoring 23 and Conrad Scrivener 19 but despite 2 wickets for Hayden Riley Caterham reached the target with 6 wickets in hand.
The 1st XI, unfortunately, had the final match of their mini-league against Sutton Valence School rained off on Wednesday afternoon but played twice over the weekend to conclude their season. The league has worked well this summer (also including Sevenoaks School, The Judd School and Reigate Grammar Schoool) and we will be looking to enter more sides into similar concepts next year. Saturday’s performance against Caterham School was our best of the season as a great team performance led us to a 220 run win. Batting first, Nico Murlowski scored his maiden 100 well supported by Sam Smith with 67, Irvine Turner with 39 and Arran Khanna with 27 as Eltham College totalled 276-4 from 50 overs. Although the Caterham School opener took 14 from the first over, Eltham College was ruthless in the field from then on as some superb catching behind the wicket gave Owen Davies 3 wickets and Dom Lester 2 with the new ball. Then at 54-5 James Smith entered the attack and took 3 wickets all clean bowled in his first over. A Tom Gallo run out was next before James Smith returned in his 2nd over to take his 4th wicket, also clean bowled, as Caterham were all out for 56. A great performance which wasn’t quite matched on Sunday in the traditional end of season game against an Old Boys XI. The Old Boys batted first and although Nick Smith took a wicket 2nd ball they made a quick start before James Smith, Irvine Turner and Tom Gallo pegged it back in the middle as the score reached 106-6 in 23 overs. An aggressive 75 run partnership by Old Elthamians Richard Fleming (2011) and Aran Tawana (2015) took the game away from us and although we dismissed both in the last few overs, Richard for 103, the Old Boys got to 206 in 40 overs. The top 5 of Eltham’s College’s line up were made up of the Upper Sixth but unfortunately, we didn’t make the best of starts as all five were back in the pavilion with the total on 55. Although Sam Smith and Arran Khanna recovered the innings once Sam was 9th man out for 49 the game was gone with Eltham making 138. We say goodbye to the six members of the Upper Sixth who have represented the 1st XI this year and thank Irvine, Dom, Nick, Jamie, Adam and Jake for all of their efforts for Eltham College cricket over the years.
Bring on Summer 2018!
