Summer Term 2023 - Week 10 Sports Report

Cricket v Bradfield College, KES Southampton and Winchester College

Girls 1st XI v Bradfield College (U18 National T20 Quarter Final)

On a warm sunny afternoon on Mountjoy Oval Canford's Girls 1st XI produced their best performance of the season to sweep into the semi-finals of the Schoolsports Magazine U18 National T20 Cup.

Bradfield College were the opposition, as they were in the U15 National Cup Quarter Final on Saturday, and a number of players on each side were therefore familiar to each other. The visitors won the toss and decided to set a target for Canford to aim at. The Canford bowling attack was at its best early as Emelia B, Clare J and Poppy W put the opposition on the backfoot straight away. The tightness and accuracy of the attack paid dividends and led to 2 wickets apiece for Poppy and Clare and a scoreboard of 26-4 at the end of the 6 over powerplay. These wickets included a great catch from Lucy Stephenson to remove Bradfield's key batting threat. The pressure continued to be applied by the spin attack of Emily VS and Penny Dirou coupled with some excellent fielding. Bradfield continued to lose regular wickets and could not push their run rate much above 4 an over. Izzy R joined in with a tidy bowling spell and Bradfield limped to a final total of 85-9 with Poppy ending up with a team leading 4 wickets for just 13 runs off her 4 overs.

The Canford reply started crisply with Emelia B and Izzy R both looking in good touch before Izzy departed in the power play with the overall score at 20. Poppy W came to the wicket and with Emelia to the fore they took the game away from Bradfield with a partnership including touch shots, power hitting and great running between the wickets. When Poppy departed just 4 runs were needed and Daisy T came in to strike the winning runs. Emelia B finished 40 not out and had pushed Canford to a fine victory by 8 wickets with 6.4 overs to spare.

A brilliant performance from the girls who win the Southwest section and they will now go through to Finals day at Kingston Grammar School on Thursday 6th July. There they will take on the winners from the North Section (Repton School) whilst the Midlands winner (Ipswich School) and the Southeast winner (Forest School) meet in the other semi-final.

1st XI v Winchester

We played Winchester away on a scorcher of a day. The last game Saturday school fixture for our U6 contingent, Robbie Hemmings and Elliot Hilton.

We won the toss and decided to bat.

Robbie unfortunately was dismissed in the first over which brought Dill Howell to the crease. It was steady going until he got a very good ball, leaving us 2 down early doors. Sam Martin and George Guirdham steadied the ship and put on a very nice partnership.

The wicket had a few demons in it and they batted very well to bring us back into it before Sam Martin then hit one to point and after that we lost 5 wickets for just 15 runs ending on 166.

Winchester looked like they were batting on a different track, our bowlers not able to access the demons the home bowlers did. They were 90-0 before George got our breakthrough. One followed shortly after but unfortunately it was too late meaning they reached our target with 8 wickets to spare.

The side will look forward to Cricket week including a centenary clash with Stowe and the traditional MCC, Rifles and Cygnets fixtures.

Canford 2nd XI v Winchester (25 overs) – won by 32 runs

Canford: 176-6 (25 overs) Jamie Elviss 81, Jimmy Johnson 41

Winchester: 144-5 (25 overs) Monty Hooker 2-29

Player of the Match: Jamie Elviss

Canford 2nd XI finished a very successful season with a fairly comfortable win against a Winchester side who arrived boasting a strong record themselves. Canford won the toss and chose to bat on another glorious summer’s day. Jamie Elviss picked up where he left off before his exam break, showing class and composure to see off the new ball and counterattack alongside Jimmy Johnson, after Johnny Walster fell cheaply. The pair put on 107 for the 2nd wicket, regularly finding the boundary and running well between the wickets. It has been an outstanding season for Jamie, who scored 350 runs in 6 matches with one hundred and 2 fifties at an average of 70 and a strike rate of 154! It’s a shame we didn’t have him for our only defeat against Dauntsey’s. Jimmy also impressed after a frustrating season with the bat, scoring all around the ground, but his straight and cover drives were particularly memorable. The middle order chipped in with some quick runs to get us to 176 off our 25.

In reply, Monty got an early wicket with his newfound short ball tactic, when the Winchester opener chose to walk when the visiting umpire had clearly decided not to give any caught behind decisions all afternoon (to Johnny’s benefit earlier). There then followed a dangerous partnership of 61 for their 2nd wicket and the game seemed in the balance. Enter all round legend Samuel Symes debuting for the 2’s. With Emelia Butler stifling the batters from one end, they tried to attack Will Vessey from the other, only for their opener who was starting to accelerate, to send a towering strike towards the long off boundary. ‘Chippy’ stood his ground, kept his composure, and took a fantastic catch without overbalancing over the rope. This was the turning point. With the asking rate increasing, the Winchester batters couldn’t get themselves back into the game. Sam and Ed Timberlake bowled tidy overs of their own, and there was even time for skipper George Bolland to finally give himself a bowl in the last over of the game – and it was really decent medium pace (where were you all season with this George?!). Overall, a really good win to cap a really good season.

U15As

A real buzz in the field particularly between overs combined with an accurate display of bowling from the whole group saw Winchester canter to a respectable 192 off their 30 overs but quietly, Canford were confident. Pick of the bowlers was Gabe Davey and Ben Priaulx’s fielding merits a mention with one early run out from him saving lots of runs in the long term.

When you are 100 for 0 off 12 overs, you tend to win matches and both Ben Jack (62) and Bertie Aspinall (71 not out) can be so proud of the way that they punished the bad ball and scored singles off good ones too. Shots of the day were a straight drive for four to see Ben off the mark and any of half a dozen lofted extra cover drives form Bertie.

A fabulous end to season team, well done.

Canford – 195 for 4 (26 overs) Winchester – 192 for 6 (30 overs)

U14As

Bowling first at Winchester on a small pitch with a few trees in the ground, Brown and Wilson opened the bowling, with both hitting good lengths and bowling to their field settings, whilst being backed up by great fielding from the rest of the team. Vorobyev took a wicket first ball after Hedges took a catch at square leg and Goold bowling tight lines and not going for many boundaries. Restricting the batters to running for most of their runs worked well and built-up pressure for the batting team. Rodber and Wilmot joined the attack slowing the run rate down. At drinks the home side were at 55-1 off 13 overs. With spin working well Inglis got a bowl, but the mindset of the batters changed as they began to accelerate. With the score creeping up the opening bowlers came back on. Brown and Wilson got a wicket apiece as Brown got an LBW and Wilson a caught and bowled. Winchester finished on 188-4 off 25 overs. This was a good effort from everyone to keep the score this low. The second innings didn't start well or get much better from that point. Inglis was bowled for no runs after 5 balls. Punnett fell shortly after. Rodber was batting well and hitting the ball hard. Hatherley also got a duck before Rodber fell for 11 runs. Brown got unlucky and was bowled. Hedges again was bowled. Wilson came in and hit the biggest 6 of the season on his way to 21 runs off 14 balls. Vorobyev lost his wicket after being caught and bowled. Vrettos, Goold and Wilmot all lost their wickets for 0. Canford were 66 all out for their final game of the season.

U14Bs

What turned out to be a tough day at the office started off brightly on a hot steamy day at Winchester. Having won the toss and decided to bat Monty P and Josh S started brightly and looked very comfortable in seeing off the opening bowlers and moving the score steadily to 25. However, once they had fallen in quick succession no-one else really troubled the scorers as all fell for single figures. There was some brief resistance in the middle but an all-out score of 57 was unlikely to be enough.

The bowling, as it has been during the season, was decent and at 19-3 Winchester were having a little wobble but they survived the mini crisis and went on to win by 7 wickets.

Thanks to all who have played for the U14Bs this year. Some good lessons learned and lots to work on ahead of next summer.

Rowing @ Dorset School Games, Henley Qualifiers and Henley Royal Regatta

Henley

A busy last week of term for the Boys 1st VIII with Henley on the horizon. The tough part is that you have to get there first! Having split the boat into two fours for National Schools’ Regatta it meant that the VIII had to go through the rigours of qualifying where only 8 out of the 18 participating crews would secure a spot. The crew however more than earned their place in the Princess Elizabeth’s Cup on the Tuesday with a very solid row and all eyes then turned to the draw.

Westminster School was the name out of the hat as opposition and the team knew it would be a tough race against a crew who had finished 8th in the A Final at National Schools. It was a muggy day on Tuesday and the boat were given a rousing send off as they boated by a large number of parents and OC’s.

As expected, the race itself was a fairly tight affair but Westminster got off to the faster start and found an early 2 length lead. Despite the best efforts of the Canford eight they could not pull that gap back in and Westminster ran out deserved winners.

Well done to the crew - Rex Batt, Edward Fillingham, Archie Jones, William Fearnley, Arun Samra, Daniel Coupe, Benjy Bishop, Oliver Stuart, coxed by Imy Woodcock.

A tough end to what has been an excellent year but it was great to see so many Blue and White blazers at Henley supporting our rowers and the future of Canford rowing looks bright.

Dorset School Games

On Wednesday 21st June we took eight Shells to compete in the indoor rowing competition at the Dorset School Games. There were two teams (Y9 Girls, and Y9 Boys), consisting of; Cecily Davies, Leena Kachemad, Lizzie Hornung, Zoe Watson, Aaron Blackman, Ethan Gallagher, Charlie Tyndall, and Ed Fitzgerald.

Both teams had to complete a 4 minute row each, with prizes for the total distance covered by the team and individual top distances. The girls each had very strong individual rows, placing 4th overall and therefore just missing out on medals. Cecily also just missed out on a medal coming a very respectable 5th out of 24. The boys all had phenomenal rows, with all boys placing in the top 5 in their individual heats, and both Aaron and Charlie coming top of their heats. This led to them topping the leaderboard overall and winning Gold for East Dorset! Alongside this, Aaron placed 1st overall and Charlie 3rd overall.

Both teams finished the day with a mile relay. The girls smashed it coming 3rd, followed up by the boys who put in a dominant performance coming away with 1st place. Not only this, but they finished 105m clear of the 2nd place team!!

All in all, the Canford team had a great day, with some very strong rowing and represented East Dorset excellently!

GB/France Trials

Archie Jones and William Fearnley travelled to Nottingham to a race off for selection in the J16 coxless pair and finished 5th. An excellent achievement and well done to the boys

Athletics – Quadrathlon at Dauntsey’s

Dauntsey’s hold the Quadrathlon every year for the Shells, 4th and Lower Sixth year groups. The event comprises of four events, long jump, shot putt, 800m and 100m, split into Seniors and Inters. Highlight performances were seen by Jansci Motsi winning the overall Senior event and Massimo Brown winning the Inters competition, while achieving a new personal best in the 100m. Kit Bulstrode-Newman produced a pleasing result in winning the 100m race, especially running a year young, congratulations to him. Elisabeth Koppert, senior girl, also impressed with the putt of the day, 9.57m. The Athletics Club wish Lawrence Al Hariri a speedy recovery after an injury meant he didn’t get to finish the competition.

Good luck to Megan Mowbray who represents Dorset in the English Schools Athletics Championships on the 30th June / 1st July at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Megan will take part in the intermediate girls triple jump where she is currently ranked in the top ten U17s in the country.

Golf v QE Wimborne

Our last golf match of the year was a very friendly affair against QE. The beauty of golf is that you can easily match up players using rough handicaps and then adapt the rules if one team goes a couple of holes up in Matchplay.

So, some of the novice golfers played a scramble against their opponents whilst some of the better golfers played a four better ball and the top two pairs played singles Matchplay.

In fact, the match was so friendly that the pupils didn’t report their scores to me at the end so using the oft quoted adage, “golf was the winner”, because I have no idea of the real result!

Real Tennis

For the first time there has been a school Real tennis Champion this year and I’m happy to report that the inaugural winner of the trophy is Lower Sixth pupil Albert Blackburn.

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