CRICKET | St Andrew’s College 1st XI vs Hilton College
St Andrew’s College won the toss and opted to bat first on a slow wicket, which made scoring challenging. Hilton College’s bowlers kept things tight, especially with the new ball, maintaining discipline throughout.
Ryan Jellis was a standout performer for Hilton College, finishing with figures of 1 wicket for 17 runs, keeping St Andrew’s on the back foot.
Despite the difficult conditions, St Andrew’s College’s batsmen dug in and posted a competitive total of 204/5.
The highlight of their innings was a brilliant knock by Myles Sansom, who remained unbeaten on 102, anchoring the innings with resilience and composure.
In response, St Andrew’s College started strongly with the ball, with Alastair de Kock claiming the first breakthrough. Hilton College fought back with a solid partnership between Jayden Roux and Luke Wilson. However, a spectacular catch by Rhys Wiblin brought an end to Wilson’s innings, putting St Andrew’s back on top.
The match remained close throughout, but Oliver Johns delivered an exceptional spell of bowling for St Andrew’s College, claiming 3 wickets for just 14 runs in 4 overs, playing a key role in tightening the noose around Hilton College.
In the end, Hilton College’s batting faltered under pressure, and St Andrew’s College emerged victorious by 16 runs, securing a hard-fought win.
Myles Sansom who made 102* against Hilton College. St Andrew’s College scored 204 for 5 in their 50 overs.
CRICKET | St Andrew’s College 1st XI vs Bishops
The final game for the 1st XI at the Independent Schools Festival was against a highly rated Bishops outfit in a T20 match, held at Cornwall Hill. After a bright start through William Beamish and Myles Sansom, wickets fell with regularity which meant that the College XI were never able to accelerate as they would have liked. A late cameo from Oliver Johns with 44 off 27 balls saw College end on 147/6 in their allotted 20 overs.
Bishops started out aggressively in their chase and this put pressure on the College bowling attack. Despite a couple of big wickets by Aba Zingela, Bishops were always up with the rate and ended up securing a well deserved 4 wicket win.
CRICKET | Western Cape Tour
The Western Cape Cricket Tour ended off with two victories and two losses against the traditionally powerful Wynberg Boys High School.
Both the Colts B and Junior Colts A went down, with the tour serving the purpose of challenging and exposing these teams to opportunities that they would not normally have in a normal cricket season. From this perspective, the tour was a huge success for these teams and many lessons will have been learned, especially on the batting front.
The 3rd XI rounded off what was a very good season with a solid win against Wynberg. Mida Nkontso and his team can be proud of their efforts and performances throughout the season, not just on this tour. Many individuals put their hands up during the season at different times, and challenging them against new opposition on this tour has shown that they are a hugely competitive unit, not just in the Eastern Cape, but in the strong Western Cape too. Well done to them.
The 2nd XI can be immensely proud of their achievements on the tour, winning all four of their games. They ended with a tense and exciting 3 wicket win against Wynberg to end the season unbeaten against all the schoolboy sides they came up against. When under pressure, they showed proper resilience and determination, and just found a way to get over the line. There were a couple of standout performances along the way, but what stood out with this team was the manner in which small, important contributions under pressure were often the standout performances.
Well done to Tom Lake and his team for all they have accomplished this term, they can be very proud of themselves.
