THE policy of Nelson Mandela Bay schools to take on the best on the cricket fields around the country is proving to be successful.
By doing this, the schools clearly improved their game as the season progressed, even if there were some harsh lessons learnt in some of their losing battles.
Grey High led the way with a successful tour of the Western Cape recently. They beat Wynberg and SACS but lost to Rondebosch by 41 runs.
Rondebosch scored 150 with left arm seamer, Kaden Titus, taking 3/9. Caleb Falconer (31) did well with the bat but Grey was bowled out for 109. Before this tour Grey was locked in a titanic battle with Grey College (Bloemfontein).
Grey High made 155 in the first innings with Kiaan Cambier top scoring with 60 runs. Ben Ristow (3/17) then topped a good bowling effort for the Bay side and College was bowled out for 143. With Michael Molenaar (57) and Falconer (50*) on song, Grey High declared the second innings on 197/5.
The search for ten wickets for victory was on and Titus led the charge for Grey High. Time ran out when both teams were still in it with a winning chance and an entertaining match ended in a draw.
Woodridge lost by 88 runs to St Davids Inanda in Gauteng this weekend but produced some sparkling performances before that. They beat Kingswood College by 22 runs, Victoria Park by six wickets and Brandwag by 146 runs.
It was the victory over Kingswood College that caught the eye. Woodridge scored 120 runs and then bowled the opposition out for 98.
The Woodridge girls are also in great form. They beat New Brighton Hub by 34 runs with Lana von Hagen producing a wonderful all-round performance.
Daniel Pienaar (Kariega) had a good run with victories over Pearson and Brandwag.
They had to fight hard to beat Pearson by nine runs in an encounter that could have gone either way.
DP made 136 runs and found the bowling of Pearson captain, Jayden Groenewald (3/18), quite a handful.
Pearson got bowled out for 127 runs. Cayden Wilson (26) top scored but it was a disciplined bowling performance which secured victory for DP.
DP was too strong for Brandwag in their Kariega Derby after Sachin Coetzee and Jadwin Cona did the damage with the ball. Brandwag was bowled out for only 61 runs and DP got home with six wickets.
In their next match Brandwag came back strongly to beat Despatch by 67 runs.
Victoria Park won very easily against Gamble Street after posting 243/6. JJ Fleetwood top scored with 63 and Olwakhe Goqoza then took 3/11 as Gamble could only manage 62 runs.
VP also had a huge win over Brandwag. Goqoza made 22 runs in a total of 131 and Brandwag was bowled out for 90 to secure victory by 41 runs.
Framesby very nearly got the better of Boland Landbou. Boland Landbou scored 185/6 and the batters just couldn’t get Framesby over the line. Framesby got bowled out for 178 to lose by seven runs.
