Cricket season sees skills develop.

U8 & U9 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

The U8/9 King’s St Alban’s team started their cricket term in brilliant fashion. The team bowled first, and Romi T got the team off to a cracking start with a maiden over! Nell bowled with consistent line and length to pick up a maiden-over too. Ben, Pip and Matthew picked up the wickets for KSA and restricted the scored to 235. The fantastic performance didn’t stop there, and they continued to impress with the bat. Nell and Edith, Matthew and Thea, and Dylan and Martha all hit boundaries within their pairs and contributed heavily to a fantastic score of 282 with the bat. The Player of the Match went to Nell for her maiden over and a perfectly timed Six over the leg-side boundary!

 

 

U8 & U9 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

The team had a great afternoon over at Hawford, with some of them playing their first ever competitive fixture against another school. All did really well and many useful lessons were learned. We batted first and hit some nice shots throughout the innings, with Elodie and Jullietta top-scoring. Daniel also impressed with his decisiveness and willingness to run. Bowling is a difficult skill to pick up at this level, but everyone took the feedback on board and improved throughout their over, with Henry and Millie getting wickets. We will take many useful lessons into our next fixture.

 

U8 & U9 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

On Tuesday our Years Three and Four pupils played in their first match of the season on a sunny afternoon against Hawford. It was pleasing to see how their bowling has developed, with their consistency improving. With the ball struggling to bounce very high, they did find it hard to hit. Their fielding improved through the match as they gained a better understanding of the game. Well done to them all for their very pleasing effort.

 

U11 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

This was the KSA U11’s first game of the term. KH won the toss and put us in to bat first. We started off slowly and struggled with the bat. We lost nine wickets in total, which is really hard to come back from in any match. We finished with a total of 240 and, at the break between each innings, we spoke about how important it is to look after your wicket. The team’s attitude to keep going and to give it a good go against a good Hawford side was really impressive. We were alert in the field and bowled exceptionally well, but they were able to chase down our target. The two stand outs with the ball were Emily S, who took a wicket and only went for four runs in her over, and Sam T, who also took a wicket and went for five runs in his two overs!

 

U11 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

The sun was shining and the children had a lovely afternoon of cricket on Wednesday. We won the toss and elected to field first. There was some excellent bowling on show from KSA, with Lottie’s first ball resulting in a wicket on the middle stump: excellent! Tom, Henry and Shreya also managed to let only a few runs be taken in their bowling overs. Our fielding was good, and Hawford only managed a couple of extras from missed fielding opportunities. By the end of the innings we had managed to keep their score to 269. Tom and Henry opened the batting and managed to score two Fours within their first overs. Will and Humphrey also scored two Fours and Lottie, Helena, Tom, and Otto managed to score a Four and three Sixes between them . The game came down to the final over, where we needed 15 off the last six balls. Unfortunately, we didn’t quite manage it, despite scoring a Six and a Four! The final score was Hawford 269, KSA 261. Well done to Tom (batter) and Lottie (bowler) who were awarded Opposition Players of the Match.

 

U11 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

On Wednesday, King’s Hawford travelled down to play us in our first competitive game with the U11s. The sun was out and energy was very high going into the first innings. Grace was chosen to lead the team as captain and won the toss, putting the opposition in to bat first. George and Jasper started the innings very well and this was carried on throughout the next eight overs. Ruqayyah and Lily managed to get the first wickets of the game and gave us a really good change to chase down the target in the next innings. The batting was good and a special mention to Asha and Grace who scored 24 in 12 balls, which was the highest partnership of the game. Sienna, Sophia, Ruqayyah and Lily all managed to hit some brilliant shots over the boundary to help keep the King’s St Alban’s score ticking along. This was a very competitive game, giving us a good platform to work on for next week.

 

U10 and 11 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

It was perfect cricket weather on Wednesday afternoon and Mrs Hand’s team enjoyed a friendly match in the sun with their compatriots from Hawford. Uriah and Isaac opened the batting for St Alban’s, scoring an impressive 10 runs from two overs. With some excellent teamwork, Tilly and Isy added another 14 runs to the score sheet. George and Henry also impressed with their batting, including a boundary for Four. Charlotte and Aelwen also had a great innings, scoring nine runs between them. Ana batted superbly and her partner, Seb ran well between the wickets in response.

Uriah opened with some accurate bowling for King’s St Alban’s and took two wickets. Rosie also bowled well, only conceding five runs. Emily and Charlotte both bowled fantastic maiden overs and Anastasia closed the bowling with a brilliant wicket maiden for St Alban’s. The Hawford teacher commented on how impressed she was with the St Alban’s bowling. Although St Alban’s gave away fewer runs in wides and no balls, and ran many more runs, Hawford managed to take more wickets, with a deduction of five runs each time as the penalty. This meant the final score was 241 to St Alban’s and 252 to Hawford. Well done to all the pupils on their superb efforts and sportsmanship.

 

U10 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

Well done to the U10 and U11 pupils who played in a hard ball match at Hawford on Wednesday. Louie captained the game, setting the field well and encouraging his team when needed. Arlo and Brody opened the batting confidently, and Arlo scored a Four. Our batting was in many ways too safe and we needed to chase the loose balls a little more. Freddy bowled a wicket maiden over and Louie and Ellie also gained wickets. Although we were defeated, there were lots of positives to gain from the game.

 

U10 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

The sun came out again for Wednesday afternoon’s cricket fixtures against our friends from King’s Hawford. It was a great opportunity for the Year Five girls and boys in this team to gain some more valuable match practise at a familiar away setting.

St Alban’s chose to field first, which gave the team the chance to demonstrate the progress that they have made with their bowling and fielding. Bowling and wicket-keeping in pairs, the opening pair of Emma and Ariya got off to a great start, only conceding eight runs and taking one wicket. Phoebe and Zara, and Georgia and Sophia bowled well against some strong batters, whilst Crispin and Jake only conceded 13 runs, but also took one wicket. Not to be outdone, Skye and Izzy took two wickets for 10 runs, and the final pair of Charlotte and Yifei managed to only concede 10 runs from both overs. This meant King’s Hawford were restricted to a final total of 59 runs for four wickets.

With a total of 60 to win, the team from St Alban’s made a swift start to their run chase, with Ariya and Emma scoring 17 runs off their first over; the girls hit two boundaries during their two overs. However, Hawford took two wickets, which proved costly. Zara and Phoebe batted well, hitting 16 runs for one wicket. Jake and Crispin were the pair that scored the most runs for the team, with 15 for no wickets and one boundary, whilst Sofia and Georgia, and Charlotte and Yifei all batted well with their partners.

The innings finished with St Alban’s scoring 53 runs for five wickets, which meant the result ended in a narrow loss to King’s Hawford. Given that the team lose five runs off their total for every wicket lost, it shows that both teams were very close and the result could quite easily have gone either way. It also shows that with a few tweaks to our communication with the rest of the team when bowling , fielding and batting, improving concentration during the match, and also by reducing the number of wickets lost, this team has the potential to be very competitive this term!

Well done to all of the children who took part and thank you very much to all of the parents and relatives who came along to support the children.

 

U10 Boys’ and Girls’ Cricket v King’s Hawford

The U10 team took on King’s Hawford on a bright afternoon on the School’s sport fields. KSA won the toss and elected to field. Hawford batted well, achieving a total of 249. KSA responded with a strong display with the bat, and particular congratulations go to Ethan and Rory, each reaching the boundary with beautiful strokes, and to TJ for scoring the only Six of the game. With the match set for a nervous finish as KSA approached Hawford’s total in the final over, KSA’s hopes of winning were scuppered when Hawford took two wickets with the last couple of balls of the match. In the end, Hawford were victorious, scoring 249 runs to KSA’s 234. Overall, it was a competitive and hugely enjoyable match.   

 

U11 ESCA Cricket at Bromsgrove

The eight children who represented KSA on Thursday afternoon should be proud of how they performed. Our first game was against a strong RGS team, and we struggled to get going with both bat and ball. Our second game was against The Elms, where we produced a complete performance. Reuben captained the side and did a fantastic job at organising his field and encouraging his teammates throughout. The whole team batted superbly and put up a really impressive total of 256 in just eight overs. Sam T, Joel B and Harry S stood out with the bowling, restricted the run rate and took some important wickets. The Elms finished on 246. It was a great afternoon of cricket and the team are already starting to show progress. Well done.