Sports Report – Cloister Time 2023, Week 7

Tuesday 6th June 2023

Cricket: U17A v Monmouth School (h). The Cricketer magazine National Cup

Henry managed to win an important toss and elected to bat first. We made excellent progress with both Charlie and Henry putting away anything loose. Charlie very strong off the back foot with an array of pull shots, Henry with a mixture of front foot drives and forcing shots off the back foot progressing to 68 in the 12th over. Charlie was then well caught at deep square leg, Seb then followed caught behind and shortly after Steven mistimed a pull shot and was also caught and at 89-3 in the 17th we were wobbling a little bit. James Kennedy came in and played well, working the ball into good gaps and running hard and it was a useful 31 partnership between him and Henry before James fell LBW. Aaron then came in with 9 overs to go and helped accelerate the score. He and Henry had put on 39 in 5 overs when Henry was run out for a well constructed 65, holding the innings together well. Aneesh did not have much time and was out early trying to increase the scoring rate. Alex and Aaron had 2.1 overs left and managed to score a very important 25, which took us up to over 6 an over. Aaron finished on 35 from 28 balls with some great shots particularly down the ground and over wide mid-on. Alex also contributed 12 from 6 balls, with the only 6 of the game. All very important runs and we finished on 193-6 from our 30 overs.

Monmouth started their reply well scoring at just over 5 an over for the first 6 overs. Seb then clean bowled the opening batter, this had the desired effect and from there we managed to increase the scoring rate required through good spells from both Charlie and Aaron. We set good fields and bowled well to them. Then came Tom Howard on debut. bowling off spin, who took the key wicket of their other opening batter LBW and went onto take 2-7 from his 3 overs, an impressive start! Both Archie Lawson and Stan Askew also help increase the required rate, Archie taking a wicket in his first over clean bowled. As the required rate increased up to 12 an over and beyond, it was left to Seb (2-23) and Aaron who finished with figures of 5.4 overs, 4-20 and a Man of the Match performance, to complete the victory. Monmouth bowled out for 140 in the last over. We move onto the Regional Final to play the winners of either Mount Kelly College or Clifton. (PNG) Won by 53 runs. 193 for 6 against 140 ao.

Junior House Tennis Doubles

A glorious afternoon in the sunshine saw the Junior House Doubles has reached the semi-final stage. As the Kingsgate Tennis Club courts were bathed in sunshine the first round matches got underway. There was a festival atmosphere and plenty of support from those waiting for a free court. In the first half of the draw the Furley's first pair of Max Jackson and William Hamerson Jones are looking strong and only dropped a single game on their way to the semi-final where they play the Chawker’s first pair of Gregory Dolgovopolova and Daniil Vorobev. Performance of that half of the draw though was arguable the Toye's second pair of Alberto Gianni Garcia and Issac Claisse knocking out two first team pairs to make the quarter finals. In the other half of the draw the College first pair of Wilson Tang and Fred Matthews won two tie-breaks to squeeze their way into the semi-finals, where they play Hopper's second pair of Amar Fernando and Oscar O'Caroll, who beat two first pairs on their way to the semi-finals. (JWS)

Wednesday 7th June 2023: Cricket v St Swithun’s

A combined Yearlings C/D team took to Doggers to play against St Swithuns U14's. Charles and Oskar opened the batting for us and although our run rate was slow, after the 3rd over Charles started to pick up some more runs before Oskar was unfortunately caught. Aaron stepped in at number 3 and hit a 4 off his first ball and we started to pick up the run rate slightly before Aaron was unfortunately caught. Charles and Seb then created a strong partnership before Charles had to retire. Soon enough Seb was nearing retirement but was unfortunately caught off a nasty edge. After this our batting started to go downhill as St Swithun’s took wicket after wicket and before we knew it we were all out by the 14th over.

St Swithun’s had some god batters and so we knew we needed to be aggressive with our bowling and fielding. We chose to open the bowling up with Arron, but he took a while to settle into his usual rhythm. Charles bowled the next over and it was superbly bowled, however the run rate was still too high for St Swithun’s. Aaron managed to pick up a wicket and so did Charles, boosting our confidence massively. Seb and Ollie went into bowl and they also took wickets, but St Swithun’s were still maintaining a high run rate. It all came down to the final over as St Swithun’s needed 10 runs to clinch victory. However, some great fielding from Perks and Oskar only allowed them to score 4 runs. Winchester college won by 6 runs. 90 all out vs 84 for 9. (JM)

Thursday 8th June 2023

Cricket: Jun Colts A v Churcher’s College (h). County Cup Semi-Final

In the County Cup Semi-Final, captain Stanley Askew (K), won the toss and elected to bat first against Churcher’s. James Kennedy (D) and Arthur Hampel (B), opened up. After a series of boundaries through the off-side, James was run out. Sebastian Kingsbury (A) came in at three, and although Arthur was bowled a few overs later, good contributions throughout the middle order meant that Winchester had wickets-in-hand toward the end. Stan came in at 5, hitting 6 fours and a six, and although he was eventually out for 39 off 24, some good running between him and Isaac Claisse (B), and a quite a few extras, meant that Winchester finished 157 for 7 off their 20 overs.

In the field, the atmosphere was electric from the start. Stan and Archie Lawson (I), opened the bowling, and despite Churcher’s getting a decent start, the breakthrough came in the fourth over from Archie, with Kennedy taking an excellent catch behind the stumps. The pressure was kept on from there, and despite us giving them far too many extras, wickets were falling all the time. First change bowlers, Howard (E) and Claisse both bowled very well, Claisse finishing with 2 wickets, and Tom with 5. Churcher’s were bowled out for 76, a win by 81 runs. (Tom Howard, E)

Sailing v Bryanston School & Sherborne School (h)

On Thursday Winchester made the trip to Spinnaker for a long awaited fixture against both Bryanston School and Sherborne School. Most of the races were extremely close and well-fought and the racing was made even more challenging and exciting by 180 degree wind shifts and gusty conditions. Consequently, the winner of each race was often decided on the final upwind stretch of the course. Winchester managed to consistently beat Bryanston, not losing to them despite some close finishes. However, Winchester were tied one all with Sherborne so it all came down to the deciding race. Despite Winchester reaching the fourth mark in 2,3,4 – a winning combination – Sherborne made an impressive comeback to take the overall win after what was an extremely competitive and enjoyable afternoon of racing. Winchester: 2nd and Bryanston: 3rd (Rupert Balmain, V Bk, K)

Tennis: Senior House Doubles

The day started with convincing wins by the Beloe’s 2nd (Pungpapong & Kadarauch) and Toye’s 2nd (Inglis & Ungureanu) pairs, as well as a closely fought match with Beloe’s 1st pair (Sawbridge & Hunter) coming through 7-6. The round of 16 was filled with exciting encounters with impressive wins especially from the Chawker’s 1st (Park and Vallat) and the Phil’s 1st (Garrett and Ofcialdegui) pairs, winning 6-3 and 6-1 respectively. The two finalist pairs, Furley’s 1st pair (Van Every and Brunner) and Freddie’s 1st pair (Lee and Cao), also began their pursuit of glory with two 6-0 victories. The Freddie’s 1st and College 1st (Apostolides and Karapetyan) pairs, quickly headed through to the semis with two 6-3 wins over the Phil’s 1st pair and Trant’s 1st pair respectively. The Chawker’s 1st pair, Park and Vallat, soon joined them with a 6-1 win over Cook’s 1st pair (Moghadam and Jiang). The remaining QF proved a thrilling watch with the Furley’s 1st pair winning a tight affair on a tiebreak against a confident College 2nd pair (Latimer and Oldenhove). The semi-finals resulted in victories for Freddie’s 1st pair over Colleges 1st pair and Furley’s 1st pair over Chawker’s 1st pair. A close encounter awaits on Wykeham day between Furley’s and Freddie’s. (Miles Park, F)

Saturday 10th June 2023

Athletics HSAA County Championships (n)

11 boys had qualified to represent Winchester & Eastleigh Schools at the Hampshire Schools’ Athletics Championships at Portsmouth on Saturday and there were a number of podium successes. First up was Gus Bowden (VI2, F) in the 400m Hurdles and, in just his fourth ever race over the distance, Gus claimed a credible 3rd place. Later in the day Gus took 1st place in the 110m Hurdles. JP pupil Edward Fangzhou (B) took 2nd place in the Junior Boys long jump and this was matched by Felix Coleman (E) in the 80m Hurdles. Ivor Martin claimed 1st place in the Junior Boys 1500m avenging his defeat at the District Trials earlier this term. Jeffrey Chan (Vbk, C) took the Inter Boys Long Jump title and also ran a great leg in the relay to help the District team secure 1st place and Jad Garlick was runner-up in the Inter Boys Shot Put. Amongst the other senior boys there was an excellent victory in the Discus from Harry Draper-Barr, making it two Senior county titles in a row. Harry finished 3rd in the Shot Put too and there was an excellent second place in the Senior 400m for Kaito Kawada-Williams (VI2, F), finishing behind the fastest U18 boy in the country! Congratulations to Edward, Felix, Ivor, Jad and Jeffrey who have all been selected to represent Hampshire at the Southern Inter-Counties Championships on Saturday. (MSB)

Cricket v St Edward’s School

On a wonderful Summer's Day, Lords lost the toss and were put in the field. The wicket looked good for batting, but we also felt there might be something in it for the bowlers with the new ball. At 37-0 in the 7th, despite beating the bat a few times a good score from the opposition looked on the cards. Seb then produced a quick bumper and Callum took a great catch at mid on diving to his left; the lads were inspired by a great piece of cricket. Another great piece of cricket followed when Henry having been placed at short mid wicket a few balls earlier took a catch off Alex's bowling, Alex took another LBW. The spinners were then introduced, Wilf taking a fantastic diving catch to his right one handed! Will at the other end was miserly, bowling 7 overs 4 maidens, 0-7! Ethan came on and immediately found good turn with both his leg spin and googlies. At lunch Teddies were 89-7 and they then set about trying to bat their full amount of overs. The spinners kept things tight and we took 2 further wickets, 1 each for Callum and Ethan to have Teddies reeling at 110-9. A little frustratingly their last pair put on 25, Charlie taking the last wicket, but 135 AO was a good effort by the bowlers and backed up well in the field too. Ethan finished with 3-18, Callum 2-27, Alex 2-38, Seb 1-21, Charlie 1-18, Will 0-7 ,

We set about the run chase positively looking to take on anything loose. Wilf did this, scoring both sides of the wickets whilst Henry looked to rotate the strike and the pair put on 93 in quick time, with one particular over going for 27! It was a slight surprise when Wilf was caught at backward square leg for 68, a knock which had included 11 fours and 2 sixes. Seb and Henry continued in the same vain and we won in the 18th over, Henry finishing 25* and Seb 22*, an excellent all round performance. (PNG)

2nd XI (a). Won by 26 runs. 136 for 6 against 110 for 9.

The 3s rocked up to Doggers on a scorching day and were put into bowl by Teddies. Brooke (A) took a brace of wickets before demolition man Symonds (A) took a 2fer. Simson (A) held down an end and was rewarded with a wicket after numerous chances leaving them 50/5 at drinks. McCreery (A) picked up two in two balls before debutant Will Alexander (B) took an astounding 3 wickets for no runs. That meant the 3s required 59 from 25 overs. Simpson (G) and Fisher (B) stylishly boosted us to 40-0 after five overs, before a collapse of 4 wickets in 9 balls meant Payne and Symonds needed to finish it in off in style. Another good win for the 3s and thank you to Mr Dodd and Mr Rogers for umpiring. Won by 6 wickets. 58 for 4 against 57 ao. (Gus Brooke, A (Capt)

On the hottest day of the year so far, the JCAs arrived on Mead's to find the St Edward's team already there and warming up. Skipper James (D) lost the toss and we were put in the field, exactly what we would have done to the opposition. James opened up the bowling and struck third ball, toppling the opener’s middle and off stumps leaving them 1-1. Stanley (K) struggled to find his line and released some of the pressure at the other end, and was changed for Archie (I) quite early, who managed to find a breakthrough just after the powerplay. James continued and bowled a six over opening spell, only going for 15 runs - impressive in most conditions, but a real effort in the 28 degree heat. Extras continued to pile up, and an 88 partnership which eventually brought fifties to both their numbers three and four proved it had been a good toss to win. There was some exceptional fielding at times, but the chances the bowlers put so much effort in to create were too often spilled. The last few overs proved somewhat more ruthless, and showed what could have happened if an earlier opportunity had stuck, with Teddies going from 177-3 through to 206-9 at stumps with Freddie (I), James and Archie getting two apiece and Archie getting the wicket from his bowling and an excellent run out. A good total, but certainly chasable.

The second innings started well, although Rory (H) dragged on early. Stanley joined James and together they put on a 50 partnership for the second wicket before Stanley holed out to midwicket for a quick 24. Arthur (B) joined James and continued with the high tempo, reaching 127-2 at drinks after 17, 52 runs ahead of the opposition at the same stage. Sadly Arthur was caught two runs later, with James snicking off to the keeper the next over. The last six wickets fell for 39 leaving us 34 short of the total with 7 overs remaining. That six of our batsmen were caught when we had built a position in which the scoreboard pressure had been almost completely removed was particularly disappointing, and a debrief (with an ice cream) will hopefully lead to us winning more of these games in the second half of the season. Eton, Charthouse and KES await next week alone.

Many thanks to Mr Smith for standing 63 overs in the blistering sun, and all the parents who support, watching the game live, or following on PlayCricket. (JPT)

After some "tough learnings" in the last couple of matches, the JCBs recorded a first victory of the season with a performance that owed much to two very good(!) training sessions earlier in the week.

The positivity and calmness which had been so difficult to consistently maintain in earlier games did not waver despite the overly warm weather. When asked to dig deep, the JCBs found something extra; and, when they needed to concentrate to close the game off, they certainly "kept it 10 molar": Vardhan Mehrotra saving runs with some sharp fielding at cover point and Arthur James-Duff and Zach Goulding notably holding onto important catches.

To the game itself: Having won the toss and elected to bat first, Jamie Mitchell provided a breezy start with 23 but regrettably while the run rate suggested a large total was in the offing, loss of regular wickets to aggressive shots meant that the score moved from 35 for 1 (after 5 overs) to 57 for 3 (after 9 overs) to 72 for 4 (after 14 overs) to 84 for 6 (after 18 overs). A final total of 125 in 25 overs was thanks to a strong partnership of 41 between Tom Gordon and, in a supporting role, Aarav Sharma (Tom finishing unbeaten on 48).

In reply St. Edward's started with some positive batting of their own: it was important that after a couple of good strikes, Alberto Gianni Garcia bowled a straight one to the Teddy's number two which got through to his pads for an LBW and that Tom Gordon stayed calm to run out their number 3 with a simple throw into the keeper's gloves from cover point. However Teddy's were ahead of the rate and cruising at 82 for 3 after 13 overs. The introduction of Ben Margolin's leg breaks turned(!) the game as he took 3 wickets in his second over (overall figures of 3 for 15 from his 5 overs). Ben and his spin partner, Aarav (1 for 20 from 5 overs), slowed Teddy's progress and when the opeing bowlers, Alberto (4 for 22 from 5 overs) and Ollie Street (conceding just 18 runs from his 5 overs) returned for the final overs, they bowled fast and straight to push Teddy's behind the run rate for the first time. Alberto claimed his second, third and fourth wickets of the afternoon and Teddy's, needing 11 to win from the final over, could only score 6. Won by 5 runs. 125 for 6 against 120 ao. (JM/GEM)

The JCCs took on Teddy’s in their first match after half term on Gater 2 and lost the toss resulting in batting first. The openers started off shakily with a wicket falling quickly, but Sawhney and Callaghan managed to salvage a quick 50-run partnership to reach 66-1 at the drinks break. Coming back to a good spin attack, 5 wickets fell in quick succession putting Winchester at the backfoot, but Winkley and Grange managed to put the pressure back onto the bowlers firing consistent boundaries and punishing the length deliveries and putting up a solid total of a 169-8 (25).

Winkley and LeCourt, opened the bowling providing some quick pace, but the Teddy’s openers replied calmly with a structured and composed response to their bowling putting up 58-0 after 6 overs. Then the deadly off spin duo of Duckworth and Sawhney managed to pick up three quick wickets ramping the required run rate up to 11 an over. With a second change of pace, the Teddy’s batsmen racked up some much-required runs to apply some pressure, but it wasn’t enough and Sawhney picked up two more wickets to conclude the game with his figures of 4-17, and Duckworth’s 1-16. Teddy’s ended their effort on a 144-5 and Winchester won by 25 runs. (JOC)

The Yearlings As took on Teddies in our first game after half-term. Luck changed as Amar (I) finally won the toss and he chose to bat on a very hot and humid day after a tiring bus journey. We lost 2 early wickets to go 1-2, but Amar and Ayush (E) rebuilt steadily. They looked positive against the spinners, with Amar hitting a massive six and Ayush hitting a lovely sweep. After a partnership of 44, Amar was caught out and soon after Ayush was bowled. Then James R (A) came in and played a sensible knock of 31, rotating the strike with ease. A couple of wickets fell including James and Holly (I) came in at the death. He looked to attack with Plum (F), as Holly hit 6 fours to go 33*(20) with Winchester finishing on a strong total of 150 off 25 overs.

We didn’t get any wickets early on, and their openers hit a 64-run partnership before Tom took 2 wickets in quick succession to get us back into the game. Unfortunately, we dropped their captain on 20 and he punished us with an attacking half-century. Late hope came after Ayush bowled tight at the death and took a wicket, but it was too little, too late. We lost with 7 balls left in another tight contest. Lost by 7 wickets. 150 for 8 against 151 for 3. (Holly Wang, I)

A T20 for the YBs game punctuated by a thunderstorm. We didn't start well with the bat and the top five were all clean bowled, which leads me circling back to my continuous suggestion: move your front foot! Runs were contributed by Fergus, Thai and finally Oscar who was not out with some deliciously lusty blows. 118 was probably a below-par score and so it proved.

After an early wicket the fielding deteriorated and easy runs were gifted. However, the team finally roused themselves to take wickets and the outcome was a lot tighter than I thought it was going to be. This intensity should have been maintained throughout the game. Nikheel was the pick of the bowlers with 1-12 from 4 overs. Monty fielded particularly well on his debut and Oscar kept very well with only one bye. Lost by 5 wickets. 118 for 7 against 120 for 5. (PAH)

The Yearling Cs travelled up to St Edward's Oxford to play another thrilling T20 match against their U14C side. We won the toss and chose to bat first knowing that heavy rain was approaching, and that play could be stopped. As a result, we attempted a slightly more aggressive batting strategy than usual with the hope of getting a lot of runs early on in the innings. Seb and Charles opened up the batting and started strong, hitting a couple of 4's and sixes in the opening overs before Seb was eventually caught and sent walking. After just 4 overs the heavens opened, and we were forced to quickly put the covers on and temporarily pause the match. Once play was resumed, Aaron and Harry were beginning to create a strong partnership, but we just couldn't find an answer to St Edwards's fast bowlers. After conceding wicket after wicket with our top scorer only scoring ten runs, our final run total was just 75.

By our own standards, our batting performance was one of our worst performances this year. So we knew that winning the game was going to be a challenge and that we needed to not give away any extras whilst also producing our best fielding performance. Aaron opened up the bowling and bowled a golden duck for his first delivery which boosted the team's confidence. However, St Edwards settled into a strong rhythm and took control of the match with an average run rate of 5.9. We tried a few different things with our bowling, including changing our regular order and allowing some new members of the team to bowl but nothing reduced the St Edwards run rate. After just 12 overs St Edwards had won the match scoring 76 runs after only conceding five wickets. Lost by 5 wickets. 70 for 8 against 71 for 5. (JM)

Sailing: BSDRA Thames Valley Area Championships

With no top years this week due to exams we entered the weekend with a team full of young sailors and a newly announced captain keen to prove themselves as the core of the sailing team for the next year. When we arrived at Datchet Water, conditions were light and we were doubtful we would get a full day of sailing. Nonetheless when we swapped into the boats for our first race against Eton excitement was riding high. After a great start we left Eton in the dust with a quick 1, 2, 3 and continued this streak throughout the afternoon beating TBYC, Clifton, Seaford, Milton Abbey, Sherborne Girls School, St Edwards, and Sherborne 2 in similar fashion. We almost met our match in our fourth race with Millfield where they had some quick racers who got away on the start but after some team racing we managed to convert to a winning but unstable 1, 3, 6 win. However, we did not keep a perfect record and in our last race of the round robin lost to a very quick Sevenoaks team, despite our best efforts with one of us over the line early at the start they managed to get away and we crossed the line in 2, 4, 5.

After the round robin finished these strong results were enough to get us through to the semi-finals. Lining up against Wellington in the semis it was a best of three to get through to the finals. After one of our teammates found themselves in last we managed to clutch a 1, 2, 5 win after a decisive downwind segment that saw one of the Wellington boats penalised. In the 2nd race the Wellington team fought back and we crossed the line in 2, 5, 6 putting the pressure on the last race for that place in the finals and after another 1, 2, 5 we were put through to the finals against Sevenoaks. With one of us getting spins on the start line they managed to take a 1, 2, 4 win in the first race and in the second race and although there was some very good team racing at the front it wasn't enough and they managed to get away with another 1, 2, 4 we were forced to admit defeat. At the end of it all we came out with a well-fought 2nd of the 16 other teams that entered and had learnt some valuable lessons and gained confidence with a taste of victory. We hope to carry this momentum and success forwards to our next event, BSDRA Finals in 3 weeks time. Noah Hensher (VI:2, D, Captain-of-Sailing elect)

Tennis v Magdalen College

This outing turned out to be something of an adventure. Our first coach started to show signs of overheating so we waited in a layby for another. Eventually, a smaller coach arrived and despite being over an hour late play began in an idyllic location. Magdalen's 12 grass tennis courts are set up on what is effectively a private island surrounded on three side by water. Carefree students drifted by in punts occasionally colliding with each other causing gentle laughter. The sun shone and all appeared calm until a dramatic storm suddenly appeared. Play stopped for a brief spell but extraordinarily we managed to complete the whole fixture with Winchester managing to win every match across all three senior teams on a surface on which they had little experience, a praiseworthy effort. (TERC).

A wonderful afternoon of tennis for the U15s against MCS in the scorching heat of Palmer field on this Saturday afternoon. It was made all the more difficult seeing families enjoying the fresh water of the Itchen. However, our boys did not seem destabilised by this, as after 30 minutes, victories started coming in, and they kept coming. Our Bs concluded with a score of 7-2. Special mention should be made of Jason Chiang (F) and Daniil Vorobev (F) who did not concede a single game to the opposition. Our Cs also won comfortably with 6-3. MCS strong first pair did not give a break to our boys, beating their counterpart, and bringing both our second (Indy Jarratt, C, Matthew Cave, E) and third pairs (Tristan Fung, K, Matthew Leung, H) to tie break, where Winchester boys managed to snatch the last few points. Won 6 – 3 (KF)

The U14B&C Tennis teams performed valiantly against a strong team from Magdalen. Despite some excellent individual points, Winchester were unfortunately on the losing end of a 9-0 whitewash. The boys were a credit to the school though, and praise should go to Kourosh Moghadam for playing 2 matches on his own after Theo Okolo was forced to retire injured. (LJR)

Rowing: Marlow Town Regatta

There was some successful racing at Marlow Town Regatta this past weekend with crews from JP, MP, VBk and the Girls competing. A Special mention must go to the MP year group, who had a bit of a coup by beating three boats from Radley in the J15 eight category. This was an outstanding performance from the boys, overturning some difficult results earlier in the season. Four of the MP boys also raced in the J16 eight category, winning that event also. (SJL)

Extras:

Congratulations to Seb Morgan (V, D), Ethan Baker (VI2, G) and Wilf La Fontaine Jackson (VI1, B) who all played alongside a number of professional cricketers last week when playing for Middlesex and Hampshire 2nd XIs respectively. Being selected to play in these matches illustrates how the two professional clubs highly rate these boys.

Also, well done to Seb Browning (MP, G) who has progressed through the initial ISFA England U15s Football trials to make into the wider training squad. Seb will have training sessions and further trials during the summer so we wish him the very best of luck.

All fixtures details can be found on: https://sportsfixtures.winchestercollege.org/

Sporting quote for the week:

“It’s normal to enjoy praise and dislike criticism. True character is when you prevent either from affecting you in a negative manner.” Former UCLA Basketball Coach, John Wooden

M.S. Burley

Director of Sport

14th June 2023

Twitter: @WinCollSports