Summer Term 2023 - Week 3 Sports Report

Rowing – Wallingford Regatta

With summer fast approaching (If only it would warm up a bit more!) Canford crews headed to the Olympic Lake at Eton Dorney for one of the biggest regattas of the season.

Canford entered Junior coxed and coxless fours and boys and girls crews from Canford acquitted themselves brilliantly.

Junior boys’ coxed four, Imy Woodcock, Benji Bishop, Olly Stuart, Arun Samra and Dan Coupe convincingly qualified for the final where they finished 3rd.

Boys coxless four with Rex Batt, Ed Fillingham, Archie Jones and William Fearnley raced well and finished 7th.

The girls’ coxed four of Mia Ulyett, Valerie Roberts, Sophia, Whelan, Susie Jones and Jess West led the field but faded through the middle 1000m and finished 9th.

Looking forward, these crews will race again at the National Schools Regatta NSR on the 27/28th May.

Cricket v Bishop Wordsworth’s and Girls’ Regional Indoor Finals

Boys’ 1st XI - National T20 Cup Rd 1

1 run for 2 wickets off 2 overs was not how we envisaged the 1st XI batting season to finally get going but this is how we found ourselves in the 1st round of the national T20 cup vs Bishop Wordsworth’s. Winning the toss and choosing to bat on a wicket that we knew would not improve the approach was to get runs on the board and create pressure in the field.

Unfortunately, Jamie Elviss received the perfect yorker first ball and Sam Martin played early at one to give a simple catch to mid-wicket. What followed was a mature partnership of 76 between 2 of our experienced players. LVI Dill Howell (Cpt) and Eddie Jack (VC) steadied the innings and scoring at just over a run a ball. Eddie continued on once Dill had departed and reached his 50 at more than a run a ball. A mixture of big hits (one exceptionally large 4 that landed on the Sunken Lawn!) and 2s into gaps allowed George Guirdham on debut score a quick 25 off 19 balls and Oscar Berridge a fluent 32 off 27 and allow us to finish the innings on 148 for 4.

The aim in the field was to create pressure in the ring, create 2 run outs and bowl straight. 7.5 overs later the game was over with 1 run out, 6 bowled, 2 LBW’s and a catch at midwicket.

Sam Reeve on debut bowling an exceptional line and length to have figures of 6 for 14 off 3.5 overs (equalling the best figures in the last 20 years) 5 of the 6 dismissals bowled.

His opening partner Monty Hooker was equally impressive taking 3 for 9 off 4 overs. This was an exceptional example of plan bowling and although Bishops will not be our strongest opposition this season the attitude and execution of plans as a fielding group was a great benchmark to set ourselves.

Next up is Dauntsey’s and then Bryanston in the 100.

U15 Regional Indoor Finals

Our U15 girls travelled down to Bristol for our next round of games in the National Indoor Cup. Our pool consisted of Cathedral School, Penryn College and Redland Green School in a round robin format which would then see the winner playing off against the winner of the other group.

After a bit of a rushed travel we made it there and were up first against Penryn College and we managed to bowl them out for 44. We then made 103 in what was a good start for the girls. We knew our next 2 games were going to be the hardest and in the format, one mistake could keep you out of top spot.

We faced Cathedral School next who batted first, we bowled unbelievably well and restricted them to 63, their lowest total of the day. Unfortunately, we didn't get off to the start we needed when our in form batters all lost their wickets for low scores. Our new girls, Ruby Hindell in particular, stepped up and kept us in the game. Needing 12 off the last over, it proved a bit too big a task and we went on to lose the game by 4 runs.

Cathedral School then went on to win the tournament beating Taunton in the final.

We put the loss behind us and came out firing against Redland Green School. We put on 70 in our 8 overs and our bowlers stepped up again and kept them to 63 runs. Winning by 7 runs.

This placed us 2nd in the group and matched against Blundell’s for 3/4 playoff. Blundell’s were a great team and scored 89, the highest total against us in the day, 4 of their girls retiring, a great effort.

We went out and made 78, once again a very narrow loss, leaving us with 4th place for the day.

It was a great day out and an awesome learning curve for our girls heading into the outdoor hardball season.

Tennis

Due to the poor weather last week, it was decided to postpone the fixture against Taunton, with a view of trying to place it in again somewhere after half term. Instead, the teams had a very short session outside, working on predominantly volleying and positioning on the court.

Despite some rather horrific downpours, they all showed such resilience and nearly all 253 of the pupils signed up for tennis managed a decent session.

Hopefully some good weather will allow us to look forward to fixtures next week including a Bryanston block for the girls and a split block for the boys against Winchester and Milton Abbey.

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