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Cricket Colts
 
Photo by Brendan Biggs

STC Colts Cricket

Brendan Biggs —

STC Colts Cricket report – by Conor Fitzgerald

The St Thomas of Canterbury College Colts Cricket team. Wow, what a team name. This has been my favourite cricket team to play in by far. We have formed some unbreakable friendships this season. As a result of those friendships, the cricket team’s chemistry is simply outstanding. Despite our recent win/loss record, we have played some very competitive cricket. Including a destructive innings of 54 from our number 10 batsman Tane Knowler which almost had us our first victory over the Lincoln-Ellesmere Lions 1st XI. Tane’s innings against Lincoln gave the team momentum into next week’s match up against arch rivals St Bedes 3rd XI. In this match we battled our way to victory. Every member of the team made a solid contribution. Standout performances were opening batsman Danny Richards with a well-controlled innings of 42 and Maton Adamson in the bowling department taking 3 for 23 off 8 overs.

Kicking the season off for the Colts was a game against Middleton Grange High School/Riccarton High School. Losing the toss, their captain sent us in on a green Riccarton High School wicket. The green pitch lived up to its name as we lost our opening bastman Conor Fitzgerald to short ball that struck him on the arm. Later, we found out we’d lost an opening batsman for five weeks due to a broken arm. The team managed to scrape 60 before we were bowled all out. Unfortunately, that innings cost us the game as our opponents chased down our score in 11 overs.

For our next match we headed out to Rangiora to play the Rangiora High School First XI. We lost the toss and had a bowl first. Our effort in the field was outstanding as we bowled Rangiora all out for 160. The team bowled well with Harry Mayo taking 3 wickets for 27 runs after 7 overs and Eddie Morgan taking 2 for 24 after 5 overs, including 2 wickets with successive balls. The lads went out to bat with confidence after their encouraging first 50 overs of bowling. Opening batsman Matt Ryan managed to put together a nice little innings of 19 lasting until the 25th over. That said, we were all out for 74.

After three consecutive losses the team was looking for a big performance in our first home game of the season. We won the toss and sent Boys High in to bat. The team did very well to restrict Boys High to 195. Harry Mayo and Danny Richards bowled exceptionally well with Harry bowling 10 overs taking 3 wickets for 27 runs and Danny also bowling 10 overs taking 3 wickets for 35 runs. As a team we fielded with enthusiasm putting our body on the line at all opportunities. After a solid performance in the field, we were looking to better our work with the bat. Despite a middle order collapse, we managed to crack 113 before being bowled all out. Keaton Dale showed some form with the bat when he put together 33, including multiple boundaries off their opening bowler. Another stand out performance was Anton Smail who notched up a well-rounded 24.

Lincoln Ellesmere Lions was our second to last match up of the season. The team is still waiting for our first victory. We headed in to the field first and held them to 177. We had some excellent bowling figures from Maton Adamson who took 3 for 23 of 10 overs, Tane Knowler also had nice figures taking 2 for 19 off 10. After an enthusiastic effort in the field the boys went out to bat. We reached about 120 before we began our staggering last wicket partnership. Tane Knowler and Eddie Morgan put on an outstanding partnership which took us to 2 runs short of our target of 178 before Tane got run out going for the second run. Tane Knowler displayed magnificent aggression hitting 54 runs off 30 balls.

The last game of the season was against St Bedes 3rd XI. Having come so close last week against Lincoln, we were determined to get a victory. Captain, Anton Smail, won the toss and sent the Colts in to bat. We started off nicely with a composed innings of 42 from opening batsman Danny Richards. Tane Knowler and Haryy Mayo both helped the team total with explosive innings’ of 35 from Tane and 41 from Harry. Every player in the Colts contributed with the bat extremely well. After setting St Bedes 248, we took to the field with confidence. Passion is the word I would use to describe our fielding effort. Maton Adamson bowled well again taking 3 for 23 off 10. Harry Mayo took 2 for 22 off 8. We bowled St Bedes out for 158.

Overall, the Colts did well to fight for a victory at the very end of the season. The friendships formed this season were exactly what we needed heading in to a cricket tour in Australia.

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