After the internal exam week which included all of the House cricket matches in the afternoons and then half term there was plenty of cricket fixtures as we returned to school last week.
The U12As continued their superb season with victory over Yardley Court in the Kent Cup quarter-final last Wednesday. Batting first, captain Akhil and Aaron set about building a large total as they combined for a match-winning partnership. The two of them put on over 100 before Aaron was dismissed for 34 but Jake then joined Akhil to take our score to 143-1 from 20 overs. Akhil finished on 76 not out. Yardley Court made a quick start to their innings but a key run out by Alex got the side going. Akhil then bowled beautifully to take 4 wickets in the middle before Ed and Matthew came back to finish things off at the end. Matthew took 2-9 off his 4 overs as Eltham won by 44 runs. Unfortunately the fixtures against Colfe’s scheduled for A-F teams were cancelled due to the wet weather last Friday.
The U13As fell short in their run chase against Hayes last Monday in the Cup. A slightly disappointing bowling and fielding display meant that we had a large total to chase but an excellent 50 from Matthew put us within range. Unfortunately a collapse at the end meant we fell 8 runs short.
Four U13s played up in the U14A team on Saturday and all performed well. Well done to Matthew, Ben, Max and Charlie. It was a strange match as Eltham made a superb start with the bat as Matthew supported Oli in an opening stand of over 50. However, when Oli was dismissed for 47 we collapsed from 93-2 to 115 all out. Kings Canterbury appeared to be cruising themselves in reply before their own collapse as Matthew took two wickets and Max had a superb direct hit run-out. In a tense final few overs The Kings last pair put on 12 runs to win by 1 wicket. The U14As had also beaten Hayes in their cup fixture last Wednesday as Frank scored 40, Blue 39 not out and Theo a quick fire 26 off 14 balls in our total of 141 in 20 overs which proved too much. They then played Langley Park on Thursday and Ethan scored an excellent 50 supported by 40 more from Blue and 30 from Theo in our total of 151-2 in 25 overs. The bowling was shared around and the Langley number 3 batsman batted superbly to lead them to victory with a couple of overs to spare. The U14Bs got a great win on Saturday against Kings Canterbury as Saul was the star taking 4 wickets and getting a run out as we bowled them out for 133 and then Alex led the team to victory by 4 wickets.
The U15s travelled down to Canterbury on Saturday afternoon and arrived to a heavy rain shower. After a delayed start matches got underway before another heavy shower hit. This meant a reduction in the overs such that the B team played just a 15 over match and the As 20 overs. The As had already batted 17 overs before the second rain shower so were disadvantaged by the change in format but Charlie S batted excellently to score 45 and Josh smashed a quick 17 runs to get us up to a total of 93. Louis and Matt then bowled superb opening spells to put pressure on Kings before U14 player Frank came into the attack. Frank bowled a match-winning spell of 4 wickets for 9 runs in 4 overs and was supported by Hashir who took a key wicket and Louis who ended up with 2 himself in an excellent win. The Bs struggled bowling in the wet conditions on a small ground to conceded 120 in 15 overs and despite some good hitting by Max and Akash to begin with the total proved too much.
The 1st XI also travelled down to Canterbury and despite numerous breaks for rain enjoyed a close match although ultimately disappointing. Having not played as a team for almost four weeks the side made a good start with the ball as Reyhan and James B created chances with the new ball. In the end it was an excellent piece of fielding by Connor which led to the first wicket. Although the Kings number 3 looked in ominous form Connor and Joe bowled good spells of off-spin and each picked up a wicket before lunch. Kings reached lunch at 133-3 from 30 overs when we had the first rain shower. This led to us reducing the match to 40 overs and Kings came out hard for the final 10. Eltham did well to restrict the scoring and although their number 3 batsman reached a superb 100 Archie took two late wickets to keep them to 207-5 from 40 overs. After one ball of our reply the rain came again and we took an early tea which led to some re-calculations on the format. In the end it was decided that Eltham would chase 150 in 25 overs and Ken and Reyhan made a good start. Unfortunately we kept losing wickets at key times trying to keep up with the run rate and Kings seamers bowled well with our top 4 all being caught in the slips. Ken top scored with 34 before Ben M hit a quick fire 28 to keep us in the hunt. Richy and Anu were left to try to score 40 off the last 5 overs and although both hit key boundaries it proved too much and we finished 7 runs short.
