Match Report: U-11 Pairs Cricket

A man was walking along the beach one day. Ahead he noticed another, older man picking up a starfish that had become stranded on the sand and throwing it back into the sea.

“Why do you bother?” the man asked him. “The beach goes on for miles and countless starfish get stranded every day. You can’t really make a difference.”

The old man looked at the starfish in his hand and then he threw it to safety among the waves. “I can make a difference to this one,” he replied.

Countless children feel stranded at school. For some Calder House can make a real difference.

Tuesday, 17 March 2009 00:00

Our two schools are very different. Cheltenham College is a large prep school with over 400 children whereas we, of course, have only one tenth of that number.

So it was with some trepidation that we made the trip north to play our illustrious opponents knowing that the school was steeped in cricketing history. The fact that Gloucester Cricket Club continues to hold their Cheltenham Festival each year in the school grounds made our boys even more nervous.

It was an amazing scene at the school with 6 different cricket matches and 6 different rounders matches with children from four different schools all taking place. Millfield and Wycliffe Schools were also present with over 200 hundred children all taking part.

Calder House did not look out of place amongst these schools, as we held our own against stiff opposition. Putting Cheltenham in to bat we kept their score low with some exceptional fielding. Isaac took a great caught and bowled and there was another sharp run out. The boys are getting better and better with every game they play and the fielding in particular is looking good. We restricted Cheltenham to a score of 277 from their allotted overs.

The boys quickly sorted themselves into pairs with each one determined to contribute. Fielding four boys who had never played a cricket match we knew that the total would be a difficult one to reach. We started well with Ben and Sam getting us off the mark quickly. James and Erin continued batting with care before our middle order batsmen of Max, Brodie, Harvey, Tom, Ollie and Ben F tried to get the total within reach. Unfortunately we kept losing wickets, which meant that our final pair of Gus and Isaac had a real mountain to climb. They tried their best but came up just short with Cheltenham finally winning by only 30 runs.

Our day did not end there as the children then enjoyed a sumptuous cricket tea of sandwiches and chocolate muffins and were able to mix with the opposition players discussing the game we had just played.

Another great day!

Andrew Day
Headmaster