The 2nd match of staff –v- pupil cricket took place on Monday afternoon after school with the pupils looking for revenge from last year’s humiliating defeat to the staff. The pupils had formed a strong team and rumour had it that they were holding training sessions in weekends before the big match. On the day, the pupils were very confident and had brought along supporters, including two parents. However, one parent very kindly agreed to umpire the match whilst the other decided to join in with the staff team. The pupils elected to bowl first and the staff were eager to take wickets. The pupils looked to be starting off with their strongest batting pair, the Khan brothers, with Azhar looking to have more of an impact in this years’ game after being bowled out for a golden duck last year. It was looking promising after scoring a couple of runs until Mr Clark had him caught and bowled with a lighting reflex catch. The pupils began to score, some down to wide bowls from staff but eventually the pressure from bowlers began to cause problems as the teachers began to take wickets. Mr Khan stepped up to bowl and he took 3 wickets in his over, a tremendous achievement for the staff team. Pupils scored 40 runs all out.

For the staff, the promising Mr Thompson, who has a wealth of experience in cricket, opened but he was then put out after the ball went high off of his bat and was caught. Mr Clark joined Dr Gardner on the field. This was the beginning of the end of the match, with Mr Clark and Dr Gardner scoring with almost every ball, even though a very young Zafar’s bowling was the highlight of the match. They even managed several 4s and 6s land the pupils could see that with 8 batters still left in the pavilion the match was well out of their reach. The match finally ended with the staff scoring 44 for 1.

Well done to everyone who participated and to the group of senior pupils who organised the game. Thank you to staff and parents who were involved in the game. I’m sure the pupils will be starting to practice for the 3rd annual Braidhurst staff –v- pupil test match.