On the 29th of September 2 teams, consisting of 26 students and 4 coaches travelled to Sydney for 13 days. A trip which turned out to be an amazing experience for everyone. 

For the majority of the tour the group stayed at St Joseph’s College which was an ideal location to use as a home base. The first few days of the tour involved a lot of training and mental preparation for an exciting week of cricket which was to follow. These full on trainings were exactly what everyone needed heading into the first games of the season and ideal building blocks to develop the future of the club.

Over the first weekend while we were working hard in preparation for the cricket, we were lucky enough to attend the 2016 NRL Grand Final. A close match at a packed ANZ Stadium with 85,000 people was an experience of a life time.

We then went into a busy week of cricket with four matches in just four days. Both the 1st XI and the Development XI went unbeaten against St Joseph’s College, St Ignatius College, Sydney Church of Grammar School (Shore) and Newington College. The grounds both sides played at were in great condition and the facilities at all schools were simply incredible. The teams produced some impressive performances and deserved the rest day on Saturday as we went and did some sight seeing on route to Manly for the afternoon.

A combined side then went on to play the North Ryde RSL club side, which resulted in another tough win for the boys. Our last school fixture saw us playing at the very prestigious, ‘King’s School’, Parramatta. Here the facilities were second to none and both sides produced good, hard fought wins on some incredible grounds. We then spent our last 2 nights in Liverpool as we travelled for our last games to play I Zingari in two 20/20 matches. With the inclusions of all four coaches and a special appearance from Mr Hill in the opposing side, we knew the games wouldn’t be easy. Both teams finished on top with some close wins to end the tour. An unbeaten run throughout the whole tour, 13 matches and 13 wins.

A huge thanks to everyone who got all of us there. This included the coaches, Mr Parr, Mr Lane, Mr Horrell and Mr Smith who all gave up their time to attend the trip and taught us so much on this very successful tour. Also a big thanks to all the parents and grandparents for all the fundrasing they achieved, especially close to fifty of them who made the trip over to give some much needed support!

Oscar Redfern – Development XI Captain

For those who may be interested, here are some more photos from the trip.