The Michaelmas Term began with some much-needed House Competition. With only virtual cricket training sessions during the Summer Term, the boys were keen to put their skills to use with House Cricket.
Seymour Captain, Zac W. has written the following report summarising the journey Seymour’s Senior A team took to becoming this year’s House Cricket Champions:
We started off our House Cricket campaign with a game against Crake on Wednesday 9th September 2020, who had beaten Egerton in their previous fixture by a considerable margin. We went in with a strong side, very confident against an opponent with a few stand out performers. Seymour lost the toss and were put in to bat first, with George K. and Archie A. as our openers, we lost a few early wickets, with Oscar H. taking 3 quick wickets for Crake in 3 overs, however we managed to keep the run rate ticking over throughout, with George K. keeping the batting order together with a top score of 34 runs. Sam K.F came in at number 6 towards the end and hit a flurry of 6’s, as we coasted to 179-7 off our 20 overs.
Seymour then went into the field looking to defend a good score on a pitch that favoured the batsman. We took our first wicket in the third over coming from Zac W. and caught by Ben K., however Oscar H. put in a star man batting performance to put pressure back on us. We managed to take Oscar’s wicket towards the end of the innings with a difficult catch from Archie A. taken from a high hit ball towards the ‘Cow Corner’ position. We won the first game by 40 runs and secured our place in the Final, with Seymour reducing Crake to 139-9 from their 20 overs.
We went into our second game against Egerton with one change made to the team that beat Crake 3 days prior, we decided on a mutual agreement for Seymour to bat first and Egerton to field so that we could try and make a game of the contest as we were substantially better equipped for the game than our opponent. Again, George K. went out to open, this time with Charlie Y. who led the line. We got off to a relatively slow start with dot balls dominating the play, with an occasional 6 from Charlie. We finished the first innings 110-5.
The second innings began with Harry N. and Stan D. opening the bowling, with Stan taking a wicket off his second over. We slowed Egerton’s run rate down, with few wickets coming until the 10th over where Ben E. came on to bowl for the first time in the innings. What a bowling display this would turn out to be! He took his first wicket in his first over with a ball that pitched on the line of the wide ball mark on the off-side and turned square to hit the batsman’s leg stump. He then went on to take an outstanding hattrick and maiden in his second over, followed by completing his ‘fifer’ and a six-wicket haul in his third over to take away the match ball. What a performance!
We finished the game, winning by 12 runs, in what proved to be a tight run fixture in the end. Feeling very hopeful for the Final of the house cricket competition to come on Wednesday 16th September 2020.
The day arrived for the final against Wilson House. Wilson won the toss and elected to bat first, with us having to field first for the first time in the competition. We went into the field quite tentative and showed a few nerves with some poor fielding and bowling, giving Wilson far too many extras to add to their total. James G. and Jack H. opened the batting for Wilson, with them losing a wicket early on to a poor piece of calling from the batsman ending in a run out. Charlie D. then stepped into the crease and together with James G. put on a stellar batting performance with G. ending his innings on 70, unfortunately for him being stumped on the last ball of the innings by Jonny W. off the bowling of Zac W. and Charlie D. ending up on 49*, with Wilson finishing up 181-2 off their 20 overs.
Wilson had a high score to defend going into the second innings with the pressure being piled on the Seymour batsman, with a required run rate of just over 9 an over. We opened the batting with George K. and Archie A., hoping that they could provide the runs needed to put us on our way to victory. Our heart rate was raised early on when we lost the wicket of Archie A. to a run out, from some bad calling which took us below the required runs per over rate.
Ben E. entered the crease to support George K., putting together a partnership of 93 taking us within touching distance of a victory, with us only being 1 or 2 runs behind the require rate come the time Ben E. lost his wicket, from another run out and finishing his game with 30 runs to his name; with Wilson breaking a very encouraging and important partnership.
George went on to make his 50 and pushed on with a flurry of 6’s, however the wickets kept falling, and it seemed as though we were going to run out of batsman that were up to the task of keeping to the run rate. George K. lost his wicket only 3 overs before the end trying a lofted cut shot for 6 but miss timed it and was caught in the deep. This presented a great problem as we lost a batsman that put in an attacking ‘Ben Stokes-esque’ performance with six 6’s and three 4’s ending his game on 73 runs.
Sam K.F came to the crease and we saw him as our last hope for victory knowing of his history of scoring boundaries. The game went right down to the wire, with 14 runs required from the last over. We managed 12 runs with some help from extras, but still needed 2 runs off the last ball to win the game. Unfortunately for the game, the final ball was a wide, however it meant that Seymour made the 2 runs needed in extras and won a game that will not be forgotten for a while. Seymour are House Cricket Champions for 2020!!
A great campaign for Seymour House and hopefully the start of a great year for Seymour sport, with more House competitions on the horizon.
Thank you to all the staff that made this competition happen given the difficult situation at the moment. Special thanks go to Mr. Webber, Mr. Lovering, Mr. De Weymarn, Mr. Walker and all the grounds staff.
Seymour U18 ‘A’ Squad:
Zac W. (C)
George K.
Max K.
Jonny W. (WK)
Ben E.
Ben K.
Harry N.
Charlie Y.
Archie A.
Stan D.
Sam K-F.
Jamie L.