It has been a long journey to get us to a point at which we can play ‘proper’ hard-ball cricket in addition to the Kwik Cricket most schools play, but we have got there.
This has been a long-term aim in our development of sports, trying to do our bit to reverse the sad decline in schools participating in this level of our national Summer sport.
We have invested in facilities, kit and time. We have worked hard in training and have a bunch of super talented players.
So… off we went for what was probably Parkdale’s first ever such match. Certainly the first in ‘living memory’. We chose a challenging start! Jesse Gray in West Bridgford are one of the traditional powerhouses of schools cricket, former national champions and with multiple county titles to their name. JG helpfully and kindly left a couple of their county players on the sidelines, but may have regretted that once our ability became apparent.
Some excellent, accurate bowling along with some lively fielding limited JG to a score of 270-3 (teams start on 200) from their 12 overs. Everyone bowled at least one over and everyone bowled well.
We opened our innings with a humungous six from Ollie and put on 20+ in the first three overs. From there on, we made steady progress, leaving us needing another 20 from the last three overs. Max and Jacob stepped things up a gear and cruised up to a total of 289-2, giving us a good win.
This was a lovely evening and many, many thanks to our helpful and gracious hosts. Next up… another match next week against another West Bridgford school, Heymann.
