National Schools Twenty 20 Cricket - Victory at King's!

Date: Sunday 25 April 2010

First round matches were played over this weekend in the National Schools Twenty 20 Cricket Competition, and St Edmund's were invited to join Dover College, the Duke of York's RMS, and King's School themselves at Birley's ground in Canterbury to decide who would go through to the next phase, to be played at Tonbridge School later in May.

DoY's pulled out so we were left with a three-way tournament. In the morning King's beat Dover by ten wickets, to put themselves in pole position. Our first game was against Dover, and when Ben Pape won the toss and batted. our response was to race to 203 - 2 in the 20 overs. The skipper led the way with 48, Rafi Stone batted through for 71*, and Max Anglin reached an unbeated 50* with the last ball of the innings.

Any thoughts of an easy win were rapidly dispelled by the power hitting of one Mr Jay who raced to 69 off 27 balls! Lamentable outfielding and catching gave Dover every chance of a surprise win until the last over when needing 11 to win, they could only manage 8,and thus we secured a 2-run victory. To be frank, we were knocked out of our complacency, and learned a salutary lesson which helped to galvanise the performance against King's.

King's managed 157 - 6 in their 20 overs. Pape (2 - 19) and Higson (2 - 23) were the pick of the attack, and this time some stunning outfield catches were taken by Max Bungay (2), and Max Anglin. King's expected to win on their own turf, but Pape, leading the way with 60*, and a scintillating 55 from Stone, took us to the brink of victory. This was sealed by a mature 'death' innings of 25* from Max Bungay, who saw us home with an over to spare.

To say that the King's boys were shocked is an understatement, and quite frankly, I was amazed by the transformation of a team in the space of fifteen minutes and some salutary advice from coach Hartley Alleyne. Now the XI are in with the big boys, travelling to Tonbridge to compete against Whitgift School, Judd GS, and one other, for the right to progress further in the competition.

Many thanks to the many parents who supported us today, and the staff who gave up their Sunday to come and watch. Their loyalty was well rewarded with one of the finest hours in the history of St Edmund's cricket - a win over King's, at King's, at 1st XI level!