National Cup Success for Girls and Boys Cricket at King’s

Cricket is in full swing at King’s, and last week saw two of our teams progress to the next round of the National Cup.

On Wednesday the 17^th, our U17 boys played Rugby School and the U15 girls faced Solihull School, both in the National Cup competition. Playing at home, with the Cathedral in the background, it was bound to be an exciting set of fixtures.

The U17s boys batted first and made 180. Monty J put in an outstanding performance, hitting 100 off 63 balls. Rugby started positively but, thanks to some tight bowling and outstanding fielding from King’s, they found themselves at 90 for 7 off 15 overs. Some solid batting from the lower order saw them recover well, bringing the game down to the wire. Rugby needed 19 runs off the last over, with one wicket in hand. Despite the pressure, Arthur Q held his nerve and saw the over through, securing a King’s victory by seven runs.

On the neighbouring pitch, the U15 girls were also playing some excellent cricket. Similarly, they opened the batting, setting a score of 137 for 9 off the full 20 overs. Both the openers, Bryony G and Grace JVV hit 38, and demonstrated some skilful batting. King’s started bowling ferociously, reducing Solihull to 13 for 4 at one point, thanks to a magnificent four-wicket maiden from Katie H. Solihull started to fight back, but our girls bowled and fielded brilliantly, eventually bowling them out for 71 runs. Katie H finished an exceptional spell of bowling with five wickets for seven runs.

The U18 girls narrowly lost their cup game on Thursday the 18^th by a mere five runs. Malvern College batted first and scored 132 for 5. The girls made a good start, chasing well, and at one point were 98 for 3 off 12 overs, with only 35 needed from 47. Bryony G batted well again and got us off well with 51 off 35 balls. Then wickets started to tumble, and the team found themselves at 123 for 6, from which they needed a very achievable 10 from 15. Both Kate B and Issy G continued to accumulate runs and were running hard. We needed six off the final over to win, but were bowled out for 127. It was a tight game, and the result could have easily gone either way. Wednesday the 24^th sees the U18 girls return to Malvern, where they hope to reverse the result.

We wish all three teams the best of luck in their next games against Denstone College, King’s High Warwick and Malvern College.