U9 v Magdalen College School

Magdalen Playing fields

Magdalen Playing fields

C.S.Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia, was a fellow of Magdalen College Oxford, and the Under Nines travelled to his world to play cricket amid the buildings described by another wordsmith, Matthew Arnold: 

	"And the eye travels down to Oxford's towers:
	That sweet city with her dreaming spires..."

Oxford was indeed in fine form on this most pleasant day in May, and the MCS cricket ground was ideally situated on an island in the Cherwell, with students and tourists passing by in punts, the botanical gardens across the river, and the buzz of traffic on Magdalen Bridge.
We had travelled expecting to play an ‘incrediball’ pairs game, but were upon arrival asked because of time constraints to play a 15 over a side game with softball but ‘normal’ limited overs rules.

Bilton Grange batted first, and on what proved to be a perfect batting wicket, Oliver J and Harry C made a sound start, playing themselves, before Oliver was run out. He was replaced by his namesake, who together with Harry put on an excellent 58 run partnership (Oliver R 20, Harry C 19*).

As the overs rapidly passed, we needed to accelerate the scoring rate, and both Oliver and Thomas sacrificed their wickets in the quest for quick singles, as did George, who hit his first ball for six and was bowled next ball trying to repeat the shot (in the only wicket to fall to a bowler all afternoon). Bilton finished on 85 for 4, a creditable score, though one area we need to improve is in learning to take quick singles- running between the wickets was overly cautious at times and we turned down perhaps 12 runs that should have been taken.

The Magdalen reply was sound, and our bowling was generally rather tidier than theirs- we conceded 12 fewer runs in wides/no balls which is a sign of our gradually improving bowling. However we reckoned without two excellent batters who produced some fine strokeplay and ran between the wickets well, and were difficult to dislodge- they gave few if any real chances and found the boundary with good placement. With four overs to go they needed 22 to win, which was still closely poised, but the home team’s batters kept their heads, accelerated the pace well, and passed the target with 9 balls to go.

Without wanting to seek refuge in cliches, there were many positives to be taken from this afternoon’s match- a very tidy and alert fielding performance, a batting performance that was well paced (but ultimately about 20 runs too short) and some improved bowling accuracy, not to mention being able to adapt at a moment’s notice from the expected pairs format to a limited overs match with a different tactical approach required. Special mention to Rian, Thomas H and Harry S, whose contribution to the match was as a result restricted to fielding.

DRN

 


Tags: Cricket, Juniors, Prep