This week has seen some great victories and some extremely exciting cricket matches especially with our local rivals, Ipswich School.
The Senior 1st XI have recorded two wins over Colne Community College and Ipswich School. Against Colne, the 1sts bowlers performed extremely well as a unit as the visitors were restricted to 96 for 6 in their 20 overs. Josh Allday’s concentration was equal to the task on a trying wicket and he batted through with 56 not out to ensure a victory by 8 wickets.
The bowlers, once again, set up victory over Ipswich School with Brendon Tait and acting captain, Ben Moore, taking three wickets each, as Ipswich made 165 all out on a dry old wicket. In reply, RHS were in deep trouble at 28 for 4, before it was the turn of all-rounders, Matt Rudston with 52 not out and James Rutledge with 42, who put an invaluable and brilliant 79 run partnership to allow us a sniff of a victory. Josh Butt, batting at No10 and making his debut, scored the winning runs in a hard fought game.
Earlier in the week, the 1sts lost a 20/20 to New Hall by 6 wkts on a bitterly cold day at RHS. 113 for 6 in a 20/20 contest was never going to challenge New Hall with only Rudston and Rutledge making runs. However, the 2nds defeated New Hall handsomely with Calder Trewin Marshall making a fine century in just 66 balls. Josh Butt also contributed 40 to the team’s total 209 in 20 overs. In reply, Ollie Sellers ripped through New Hall with 5 for 9, as RHS won by 143 runs.
The 2nds, however, lost to Ipswich by just a solitary wicket in an exciting and close game. They were bowled out for an under par 98 as Ipswich just made it home. George Petrides claimed 5 for 19 and Cam Kerr bowled aggressively but could not prevent Ipswich winning by one wicket. Ben Cottrell’s reputation for having safe hands improved as the ‘hockey man’ grabbed another two stunning catches.
Similarly, our Senior 3rds lost an incredibly close game at Ipswich by 8 runs with Matt Cantelo making a flamboyant 66 in quick time. Earlier in the week, the 3rds defeated Woodbridge by 45 runs with a competent team performance from all.
Both the Under 15A and B teams lost heavily but well done to Ben Kelland for his two run-outs and Robert Street top scoring with 22.
The Under 14A’s enjoyed a thrilling win defeating Ipswich by an incredibly small margin. Cambridgeshire opening batsman, Michael Cowdrey, contributed a fine 56 out of the team’s total of 156. Initially, the RHS boys bowled tight but Ipswich came back into the game with some lusty late hitting by the lower order. At the death, Ipswich needed just 6 runs off 14 balls with two wkts left, only to lose those two wickets when Toby Buckland bowled the all-important and pressurised last over of a wonderful and compelling game. RHS U14 won by just 4 runs.
Ben Connor and Ben Price of the U14B’s bowled very well, with great accuracy and control. Ipswich’s top order crumbled and very soon they had lost five wickets, with some good catches from Charles Ewen, Jamie Fosker, Matt Saxby and, especially, skipper Alex Finding. RHS bowled Ipswich out for 83 runs. With last week’s top order collapse still in our batsmen’s memory, RHS strolled out determined not to repeat the same mistakes. Jamie Fosker and Sam Le Roy both batted well, ensuring that we were always ahead of the required run rate. Matt Saxby also contributed in tandem with top scorer, Rouxhan De Nysschen. RHS got home comfortably with some aggressive batting from Ollie Williams. De Nysschen and Saxby were voted ‘men of the match’ as RHS won well by 6 wickets.
Against South Lee, our strong Junior 1sts won comprehensively by 10 wickets and the Under 12’s perfomed well with Max Orr making his second 50 of the Summer and putting on 99 for the first wicket and Toby Braybrooke who making a career best of 39. RHS won by 32 runs as we bowled and fielded extremely well in the late afternoon sun.
As is tradition at RHS, the Headmaster presented a cricket bat to new centurion, Calder Trewin Marshall, for his 2nd XI century v New Hall.