The Courier

On Tuesday 15 May the U9 'A' and 'B' Rounders team travelled to King Henry VIII playing fields. Thankfully the sun was shining and it was a glorious evening for the fixture.

The U9 'A' team lost the toss and were put in to bat first. There was some great hitting but with solid fielding skills from King Henry's and a little indecision from ourselves on our running, we were unable to score any full rounders and managed a first half total of 3.  Crescent fielded the first innings well, with consistent bowling from Amelie Frere, confident play from backstop, Phoebe Causer, to Sienna Moran on 2nd base and good movement on the pitch from the rest of the team keeping King Henry’s score to 3 ½ rounders.

The 2nd innings however was unfortunately a different story, Crescent played it safe in their batting, missing a number of chances to score half rounders, whilst King Henry's went all out to ensure they scored as many as possible. Their new batting confidence caused Crescent to make a number of forced errors allowing King Henry’s to score 8 rounders in their 2nd innings.

Final score – Crescent 4 King Henry’s 12

Again the U9 'B' team lost the toss and went in to bat first. Batting was good with some solid hitting from all girls with Eve Ferguson impressing the opposition to score 2 rounders. Players had taken on board the feedback from the Bilton Grange game and communication between batters was much stronger stopping anyone from being run out. Fielding in the first innings was tight with some solid catching from Harriett Grey taking out one of Henry’s best batters. First innings score Crescent 2½ King Henry's 4½ .

Batting stayed consistently strong in our 2nd innings with half rounders from Eve Fergusson, Emme Edge, Amy Robinson and Jessica Sarkies scoring 3 rounders in the 2nd innings. Unfortunately, like the 'A' team, a loss of focus and concentration in fielding caused a number of mis-fields and inaccurate throws allowing King Henry’s to notch up 9½ rounders in the 2nd innings.

Final score, Crescent 5½ King Henry’s 14.

Although the score line was not in our favour there was plenty of fantastic play from all of the girls and some great learning experiences for us to take forward and develop before our next game against Crackley Hall next week.

Players player 'A' Team – Arabella Drinkwater
Players player 'B' Team – Freya Somerset

Fantastic effort and attitude by all of the girls supporting and encouraging each other throughout the whole game.

All of the Class V and VI girls travelled to Crackley Hall on Wednesday 9 May to play their first rounders fixtures of the year against Crackley Hall and Ratcliffe College.

U11 'A' v Crackley Hall

The U11 'A' team won the toss against Crackley and put them in to bat first. Fantastic consistent bowling from Clara Woolf ensured Crackley had to work hard to earn their rounders. Georgia Dowling did a sterling job as backstop catching a player out behind and quickly fielding any backward hits to Rebecca Monteith’s safe hands on 2nd base to stop half rounders. With quick thinking and accurate fielding Crescent managed to get 7 out of the 9 batters out.

In bat we couldn’t quite find the gaps, but solid hitting allowed a number of half rounders to be scored by Cara Ridd, Amelie Edge, Mia Webb, Clara Woolf and Lucy Hardy.

Final Score: Crackley Hall 4 Crescent 4

U11 'A' v Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe won the toss putting us in to bat first. Having warmed up our batting arm against Crackley we made some great connections with the ball, unfortunately again not into the gaps with both Georgia Dowling and Robyn Shaw being caught out on their first hit. Ratcliffe were solid with their fielding making quick decisions and accurate throws to keep our score to 4. Clara Woolf bowled consistently again, however Ratcliffe had a number of big hitters who were able to take their total to 12 rounders.

Final score Crescent 4 Ratcliffe 12

U11 'B' v Crackley Hall

The U11 'B' Team also won the toss putting Crackley Hall in to bat first. Crescent took a little while to settle into play with nerves getting the better of them at the start. After a couple of changes of position in the field Crescent sharpened up their fielding skills getting the ball quickly to 2nd and 4th base.

Final Score Crackley 8 Crescent 4½

U11 'B' v Ratcliffe

Ratcliffe won the toss to put us in to bat first, having warmed up against Crackley we made some consistently good hits to score a number of half rounders from Sophie Causer, Arabella Dughmosh, Lily Emery and Maya Patel with Olivia Monk scoring a full rounder.

Ratcliffe again had some big hitters who tested our throwing arms making it hard to field the ball to 4th base quickly.

Final score – Crescent 4½ Ratcliffe 11½

Player of the game 'A' Team - Mia Webb
Player of the game 'B' Team - Lily Emery

A great team effort from all girls who displayed a fantastic attitude and team spirit throughout the games.

Well done to all.

Crescent had a challenging competition at Rugby School where they saw the level that some players reach where tennis is their main sport.

Crescent competed really well considering that the children play a much broader range of sports at school. In the end, they won the French Open which was a runners-up competition. Well done to Samuel Lau, Chris Gibson, Georgia Dowling and Matthew Browne.

The under 9s played in the local competition that Crescent won last year. They played some fantastic tennis and only lost out to eventual winners Dunchurch, who were an outstanding team. Nevertheless, three of the four matches went down to tie-breakers and it could have gone either way. Super tennis from George Bell, Tumi Oredope, Archie Dowling and Amelie Frere.

The under 11s compete next week. The Crescent intra-school competition is in full swing and we are approaching the semi-final stage. Oliver Bell, though unseeded, has moved through the rounds unchallenged and his brother George looked good before being knocked out by Daniel Pinks. Fifi Lloyd made the round of 16 and gave Ethan Capelett a tough match. Sixth seed Capelett is now in the quarters against Chris Gibson. The top seeds will have played today at the time of printing.

The under 9s have played two matches so far. One against Warwick and one against Crackley Hall.

Warwick was a tough match and Crescent struggled with wides as well as striking boundaries. They lost in both the 'A' and 'B' teams.

Against Crackley, Crescent were much better with keeping extras down and scoring more frequently. George Bell and Josh Gorbutt have been the pick of the bowlers over the two matches in the 'A' team and Marco Rodriguez Hernandez the pick of the batters. Idan Dar has impressed with his fielding and bowling in the 'B' team. Crescent won both matches against Crackley.

Captains Bell and Henry Corbin have shown great maturity and organisational skills for their young age which has been a joy to see.