Girl’s 1st XI wicket keeper, Lucy, shares her thoughts on the girls’ cricket season at Durham School…
This cricket season has been fantastic for girls across the school, with very few weather interruptions, which has allowed for a much smoother running of fixtures compared to the chaos of last year. Successes have been seen across the board with the Under 13s coming second in their tournament at Ampleforth on the 25th June, with great performances all round, and much better fielding, which has been worked on tirelessly in recent games sessions, it has been great fun working with this group of girls; their enthusiasm and engagement in the sport has been fantastic and I hope everyone has enjoyed themselves enough to come back and play more cricket next season. I would like to give a special shoutout to Clemmie for her brilliant bowling for the team and to Gabby who has been nothing but outstanding in the field and at training, bringing great energy.
As for the Year 9s and 10s, their season has again, been a fantastic one. Stand out players have been Aggie, who has been hitting 6’s for fun, as well as Calli for her penetrating bowling, taking many wickets as well as bringing her enthusiastic energy and attitude to the field and finally, Rachel who has taken the tricky job of wicket keeping; I know from experience how hard it can be to face every ball in the match, and she has stepped up the challenge with real determination and has performed amazingly.
Furthermore, the girls’ 1st XI have been nothing but outstanding this season. Despite a tricky start to the season, losing to RGS and getting knocked out of the 100-ball cup in their first match, the girls’ Crocs kept their heads up high and moved on stoically to their next challenge. This resilience and ‘bouncebackability’ was rewarded with excellent back-to-back wins. Firstly, there was a hard-fought success against Barnard Castle scoring 90/9 and keeping Barnard Castle down to 71/8. This was then followed by an excellent win away at St Peter’s York, victory achieved in unpleasant rainy conditions scoring 107/4 and then restricting St Peter’s to only 94 in their 20 overs to seal victory by 13 runs. Top performers on the day were Poppy P and Millie N.
Next was an unbelievably hard battle against touring Australian side Kent Street who batted first scoring a whopping 181/7, and it could have been even more if the ground fielding hadn’t been so good (more about the catching later!). Sadly, the Crocs could not match the hard-hitting of the Aussies, ending the game on 102 runs. Well done to Sophie S for taking 3 wickets and bowling out their top batter. Dropped catches were what held the Crocs back in the field with 5 chances spilled; however, we took that as a lesson learned and moved on to the Edinburgh tour with a positive mindset.
The tour to Edinburgh started off strongly against Mary Erskine, batting first and making 126 runs; well done to Poppy for an excellent 43 and to Millie. Conditions were poor, with the wind making the ball swing significantly; however, we used this to our advantage in the field with tight bowling from Poppy who took 3 wickets backed up by Jess who took 2, backed up by top fielding performances from Zara stopping multiple fours, Millie for being everywhere all at once backing up almost everything. In the evening the girls met with OD sports teacher, Miss Hastings, and grabbed some lovely food in the city before heading back to the hotel for a good rest (although we couldn’t find the hotel at first, ending up at 2 wrong Travelodges).
Fettes College was up next, Scottish champions, which had been a very hard battle last year. But they were no match for the mighty Crocs. Brilliant batting led to us having 133 runs to defend. Sadly, I can’t say I contributed to the score, with a duck in my last ever match for the school. Again, though, our fielding was on point in this game, with early wickets keeping the score low. Poppy P took 5 wickets in the game and there was some fantastic fielding by Lottie, Libby and Millie. We were able to keep Fettes’ score low, ending the game with them only scoring 88 runs. This ended the Crocs’ season with a successful Edinburgh tour. We found ourselves swimming in the sea at Alnmouth on the way back from the tour, perhaps naively using ice creams to help us warm up!
Well done to the 5 girls who played their last ever match for the Durham School crocs: Libby, Grace, Marni and Rosa – you have been the trailblazers; you have led a new wave of girl’s sport at Durham School, and you have been fantastic throughout it all. It has been an honour playing for the Durham School Crocs and I can’t wait to see how well they get on in years to come. Thank you to Bedders, Mrs Myers-Bruin, Muchy, and of course, Aussie Sam for so much help: the girls’ development would not exist without you, and this season has been unbelievably enjoyable.
Crocs over and out!
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