October 2003
As I write I have just returned from the national schools cricket trials which were held at St John’s College in Harare. Remarkably, if the trials had been held down here it might have been washed out. There was rain around in Harare but nothing that affected the cricket but it appears to have been raining all weekend at Falcon which no-one is complaining about, least of all the cricketers and we hope for some new life in the pitches as we approach the final round of matches next weekend. We may of course also have to try out our new covers, 3 of which we have obtained through the Zimbabwe Cricket Union which is very good news.
This year there was a selector from Falcon in each of the age-group panels (Will Randle at U14 level, myself with the U16s and Dave Grant for the U19s) so you might think there was good hope for Falcon boys! Well, they didn’t do too badly I suppose. We had five boys who had made these final trials and of the five three were selected. Terence Connor who had a good all round weekend with bat and ball made the U14 side while our two left arm spinners, Stanley Marisa and Sean Williams, were chosen for the U19 team. Sadly, at U16 level, Gerald Aliseni, the boy I think stood most chance of selection was not even asked to the trials for reasons which are beyond me. Barry Stewart, who was at the trials, did very well but didn’t quite crack the nod. David Crouch was the other final trialist with the U19 group. It is also worth recording that Gavin Ewing who left in 1999 became the latest – the 16th – Falcon boy to play Test cricket for Zimbabwe after his debut in the second Test at Sydney in Australia.
Since my last update, we have had two rounds of schools cricket matches, against Peterhouse and Milton/Plumtree. Up at Peterhouse our B teams were thoroughly beaten, it must be admitted but the 1st and A teams had some excellent matches. The 14A side went down by 4 wickets. The U15 As won by the same margin reversing losses in the past. Drew Deary with 4-24 helped bowl Peterhouse out for just over 200 and then Jason Paterson led the way with an unbeaten 65 (a score which may have been somewhat reduced by the vagaries of the scorers!). At one stage the U16 A team looked like going down by 9 wickets but clawed their way back and after dropping two catches in two balls lost by just one wicket in an exciting match. Barry Stewart took 5-25 off his 10 overs.
The 1st team had 50 over matches on both Saturday and Sunday. On the Saturday Davie Crouch hit his first century for the school as we reached 242-6, a total we defended to win by a narrow 8 runs. Sunday was even closer in quite a remarkable game. Batting first Falcon collapsed to 90-8, then 110-9. Brandon Corken and Paul Trethowan, 10 and 11 in the batting order were determined not to capitulate quite as easily and were still together when the 50 overs were bowled, having raised the score to 194-9, a record 10th wicket partnership against any school since our records began in 1980. Corken reached a well-earned 50 by hitting the last ball for 4. Peterhouse appeared to cruising to victory but then rather lost their way and suddenly Falcon was in with a real chance. It was not quite to be. A couple of good blows in the last over saw Peterhouse scrape home off the last ball.
The following week our 1st and A teams played Milton while our 2nds and Bs went to Plumtree against their 1sts and As. The 2nd team won pretty convincingly, the 14Bs tied their game while the 15 and 16Bs lost in relatively close games. Courtney Connear (14B), Dean Maritz and Paul Bester (16B) were boys who had success in their matches. Against Milton our 14As went down. Milton have just got 3 or 4 of that team into the national U14s so the result was no disgrace and if a few catches had been held could well have been different. Craig Shaw took 4 wickets with his leg spin and Jack Randle top-scored with 32. The 15As rattled up 290-6 with a superb 152* from Daniel Landman but if they thought they could cruise to victory they were mistaken as another fine century took Milton to 285 to lose by just five runs in a very exciting match. The U16 As, weak as they are, blew a good chance once more to win their first match of the year but went down by 11 runs. Jeremy Richards returned fine figures of 4-16 off 10 overs and Barry Stewart made 50 in the Falcon reply.
Waterpolo
The main water polo event in the last few weeks was the Crusader Shield which took place at CBC. I am afraid that I don’t have the full results to hand but sadly I can’t record that we won. I think we lost to the teams we anticipated losing to and won the ones we should have done and came midway amongst the other schools.
Basketball
Again results are not always available quite as they should be for one reason or another but from what I can tell, all sides have been successful, the 1st team particularly so. We also had the senior house basketball competition, in which Chubb beat Founders in the final.
Tennis
Sadly a number of fixtures were not fulfilled by other schools and the first team has not been in action. Other teams have had mixed results against the usual Bulawayo opposition
Squash and Tennis
The number of teams playing league squash in Matabeleland has been quite considerably reduced this year and Orlando Fernandes, our squash coach, knew right at the start of the season that our 4 teams were each in a league above what they should be. As I understand it we did in fact prop up the table in each of them but Orlando does not feel that it was a waste of a season. All teams, especially the A side showed improvement and were much more competitive in the return fixtures. A doubles league was also introduced for the top division and in this we did prove a little more successful.
Adam Joelson, our new tennis coach, entered a team in a new Bulawayo winter tennis league. It was a bit of a makeshift side as some first choice players were committed elsewhere but it was good experience for some of the younger players. Hopefully, it will have set us up for the school matches this coming term, including the Mim du Toit trophy in which we have not been too successful over the years.
So ends another busy Second Term of sport. I think it has been a successful one and it has gone remarkably smoothly despite fuel problems. The hockey teams at junior level actually played more matches than last year. The real problem for Falcon is finding fixtures for our B rugby teams and and 3rd and 4th hockey sides. Junior football matches as already noted are also a problem. Now with the weather warming up as I write we look forward to a new round of cricket, basketball, tennis and water polo. The 1st team cricket will be up in Harare in two weeks at the traditional Prince Edward Festival and I will report on that next time.
Richard Harrison
20th October 2003