Oakham cricketers hit the ground running after the Easter break with a whirlwind of cricket fixtures, including cup, inter-school and friendlies.
Visiting Sports and Cricket coach Patrick Latham tells us more:-
“The growing participation of girls in the Oakham School Cricket programme has been wonderful to see, and this year we were able to run three Lower School Girls teams, an U15 XI and a 1st XI for girls. It felt like Oakham cricket reached a milestone when two girls were selected as regular players for the U13A throughout the season, and Oakham fielded the first-ever mixed U14 team who travelled to play at Bedford School early in the season.
The Annual MCC match was a fantastic occasion, and the visiting team from The Home of Cricket brought several Old Oakhamian boys with it. It is always great to see Oakhamians take up the opportunity of becoming members of The MCC, and to welcome them back to play in the showpiece fixture of the season is always very rewarding. This year, some alumni met as usual at Lord’s for the second day of the New Zealand Test match, as organised by Brian Needham. Any OO cricketers who have gone on to play a good standard of cricket and are wishing to look into membership in the MCC, please get in touch as we have a growing number of staff members and OOs who can help sign application forms.
Cup Cricket
The girls and boys enjoyed plenty of cup cricket which reached a crescendo in the second half of term. The U17 boys progressed through the rounds of the Plate competition steadily until they were knocked out by Stowe School. The U15A girls performed well in their county cup competition and were runners-up on finals day at Loughborough Grammar School. The U13A Girls side beat Rushey Mead in the semi-final and went on to beat Crown Hills on finals day to become county champions. The future of girls’ cricket is looking bright with, for the first time, more girls than boys opting for cricket in the Lower School.
Facilities
Once again, the boys and girls have been treated to fantastic facilities throughout the summer courtesy of the grounds team, led by Richard Dexter. The addition of updated Canal Nets has given the boys and girls far better and safer facilities to train on games afternoons. We look forward to developing the Blezard Nets area over the summer and hope to have access to the enclosed all-weather surfaces from September, again, giving us better and more opportunities to improve our players.
Visitors
It was great to welcome various visitors to games sessions over the term, and in particular, it was a fantastic opportunity for the wicket keepers to receive a coaching afternoon with local Oakham Town keeper Chris Larson. Recently we welcomed back OO Tom Fell (‘12) from Worcestershire, who was able to work with a number of the 1st XI boys, giving batting assistance to them as they work towards the annual BOWS festival. This year the festival will be held at Wellington College and the boys face the old favourites; Brighton, Wellington & Sedbergh.”
