Boys' Cricket Tour to Barbados: April 2008

8th April:Safe Arrival

After a good flight across the Atlantic, the boys and staff have arrived safely in Barbados, have settled into the hotel and are currently enjoying a dip in the Caribbean sea.   All are well and in good form.

9th April: Match 1 v Wesley Hall

Result: Lost
Wesley Hall 129-2
St Hugh's 90-5

We won the toss and chose to bowl. Their first 2 batsmen had to retire because of an onslaught of runs.Then the great Harry Sayer came in to bowl and after a few bad balls he found his line and length and forced a catch which was caught by Ben Richards. Finally Christian Humphreys got a run out and Wesley Hall finished on a total of 129-2.

Ben Richards and Tom Lord opened the batting for St Hugh's. Tom got out to his favourite shot straight to mid -off and was caught out for 2. Ben Harden came in and made a good partnership with Ben Richards. In the the end Ben Harden was caught for 17. Harold came in and saw Ben Richards get his 50 but Ben was soon stumped by some lightening quick wicket keeping. Harold retired and the team made 90 off the 25 overs.
Ben Richards, Harry Sayer and Harold Batstone

9th April: Day Report
After our match, where Jake tried to catch a ball (unsuccessfully) with his face, we went swimming and body boarding. Jake had to wear the pink fluffy hat as a penance until tomorrow. For dinner we went to Charlie's Place, a small bar further up the road and when we eventually returned we were so tired we went straight to bed. This morning we woke up at approx 5:30am but defiantly stayed in bed till 6:30am when we got up and went for a swim in the sea before breakfast. When the cricketers left, we went back into the sea where we caught some crabs and made a sanctuary for all the sea critters we found. We then dried off and walked to the Gap for lunch.

10th April: Match 2 v Charles F Broome School

The team travelled the short distance to Charles F Broome School for their match but unfortunately the venue had been re-arranged and we then had to travel an hour to Boscobelle in the north of the island. When we arrived the players were extremely friendly and were very welcoming. Ben Harden won the toss and we chose to bat first. Batting was made difficult for us as the two opening bowlers were very quick. We found it difficult to make runs. Ben Harden was out quickly after a questionable full toss. After the first ten overs we only had 30 runs. During the next ten overs we began to get going and Thomas Lord did well to score a half century. However in the next couple of balls he was bowled out, shortly followed by his batting partner Cameron Cockburn for 11. Our bowling and fielding was not up to much and their batting was very good. We did take a couple of wickets from Thomas Lord, Jack Morland, with a huge shout, and Henry Penny. Joe Berrett made a good catch but William Sotneham’s catch was disallowed as the umpire said that the ball had bounced before it reached him... The Man of the Match awards went to Thomas Lord for an outstanding all-round effort and to Darl Babb the spin Bowler from the other team.

Cameron Cockburn, Sam Metcalfe, Henry Penny and Joe Berrett

10th April: Day Report

After our cricket match we swam in the sea and the pool. Then we got ready for a karaoke at the Butterfly Beach Hotel. Before this, the excitement of who would be awarded the pink hat was almost unbearable. Olly Spencer received it for spilling orange juice all over his French oral papers (don’t tell Madame Marnham!).  We then walked a huge distance (at least 500 metres) to the next door hotel the girls used to stay in. At the karaoke we ate BBQ food then a strange woman, who we think had had too many rum punches, started singing. We thought she hogged the mike but when we finally got to sing, the windows smashed ( well they would have done if there were any!) Ben H, Christian, Harold, Olly, and Ben R were so much better than the teachers. After an eventful evening we collapsed into our beds.

11th April: Day Report

This next morning, after a filling, delicious and scrumptious breakfast, the team left for their match. The rest of us hit the beach, swam, body boarded and chased crabs. Sam M buried himself and we sculpted a mermaid’s body for him in the sand. Mrs Dugdale would be very proud of us.

Will Lewis, Olly Spencer, Harold Batstone

11th April: Match 3 v The Baileys

Victory at last for St Hugh’s !

After losing the toss we were put into the field, hoping for a good bowling / fielding performance. The opening bowlers were Ben Richards [spin] and Ben Harden [fast]. Both bowled tightly and each took a wicket. The next spell saw Thomas Lord and Christian Humphreys also bowl well and Thomas claimed a wicket closely followed by Christian. Harry Sayer also bowled well and took a wicket. The Baileys batting was shaky and they scored 71 for 5 after 20 overs. We got off to a good start with our opening batsmen Thomas Lord [28] and Ben Richards [30] both not out. Both retired early. Wickets began to fall however. Jack Morland who usually defends well, tried to do a William Barnes and hit out only to be bowled. He stood at the crease for an age looking bewildered at what had happened. At number 11 Ben Harden pushed on and scored 6 runs off 3 balls. We scored the required runs and decided to bat on for some practice. Christian Humphreys received the Man of the Match award.

Ben Harden, Jack Morland and Tom Lord

11th April: Day Report

In the evening went to the Plantation Club. We boarded the bus which would take us to the Plantation Club. The show was called Bajan Roots and Rhythms. This was a cabaret show with lots of singing, music and dancing. Seb Perry drooled over the dancing girls. The costumes were all very elaborate and imaginative. The themes of the dances related to the history and culture of Barbados. There were links to Africa and Bridgetown Market. There were giant stilt walkers and there was a limbo competition. Mr Clark represented us and won a bottle of Mount Gay Rum. Everyone had an enjoyable night.
Will Stoneham, Peter Truran , Will Barnes and Seb Perry

12th April: Match 4 v NSC Development Squad

We arrived with our heads held high. We chose to bowl but it did not take long to see that their batsmen were confident with the bat. Our bowling was good but the batsmen outclassed us. They scored 196 / 4 in 30 overs. When we went into bat our wickets tumbled and 8 of us were out for 0. Only 3 batsmen managed to score any runs, Ben Richards, Harry Sayer and Ollie Spencer. We were dismissed for 30 runs.
This was definitely an experience.

Harold Batstone & Ollie Spencer

12th April: Day Report

Whilst the cricket team were being utterly trounced by NSC , the rest of the squad went to Paynes Bay on the West coast. Seb and Jack were buried in the sand and sculptured into a husband and wife. We enjoyed sandwiches on the beach at Cosomo's Beach Bar. After lunch we went to look for fish and Seb claims to have almost been bitten by an eel and would not get back into the water.

Will Stoneham

13th April: Day Report
The boatyard is set on the beach and has trampolines and inflatable icebergs in the sea. The icebergs have footholds and hand holds to help you climb to the top of them. Jack Morland managed to climb up and fall off more times than anyone else. War broke out against three Argentinians. Will Barnes rugby tackled one of them off the iceberg. Sam Metcalfe started the session looking normal and quickly turned into a lobster as the day warmed up. Jack's goggles disappeared into the sea but they turned out to be Mr A's.

Thomas Lord

14th April: Match 5 v St Matthew's

St Hugh’s 141 / 8 : Thomas Lord 56. St Matthew's 96 all out.
We won the toss and chose to bat. We opened strongly with Ben Richards making 20 and Thomas Lord getting his second 50 of the tour. The run rate slowed but we recovered to make a total of 141.Ben Richards opened the bowling with Ben Harden. Ben R took an early wicket and Christian Humphreys then came on to bowl and also took a wicket. St Matthew's had their key batsman into bat at this point and he was knocking 4s all over the park. Christian gave him a nice ball which he hit straight to Will Lewis who took a fantastic catch. The rest of their batsmen were rattled out quickly. The man of the match award went to Seb Perry.

Ben Richards

14th April: Evening Report

Harbour Lights Evening Entertainment. We left the hotel about 8.00pm to travel to the Harbour Lights beach party at Carlisle Bay. It was a beach party with lots of food, drink and entertainment. We were told there was treasure buried in the sand. This turned out to be bottles of rum which the staff quickly confiscated. We were given lots of long balloons to wave about during the entertainment. Mr Das Gupta made his into a hat that he said was symbol of Barbados. Nobody else could see this. After the meal Mr & Mrs A were nominated to take part in a dancing competition. They were robbed as 1st prize went to an elderly American couple. We danced a lot and had lots of fun.

Ben Harden and Will Lewis

15th April: Kayaking / Snorkelling
With a later start to the day we had a lie in and a late breakfast. We arrived at Ocean Adventures and boarded their power boat. We travelled up the West coast for about 5 minutes until we met up with the kayaks on the beach and our instructor BAD BOY LUKE. After pairing up we carried our kayaks to the water. We all got into the kayaks successfully apart from Cameron and Jake who immediately capsized. We paddled up the west coast until we got to a small beach and even though it started to rain we pirated other kayaks and swam in the sea. Seb found an old surf board on the beach which we all tried and failed to surf on. We got back on the boat and carried on up the West coast where we snorkelled and swam with huge sea turtles. We also saw a puffer fish and Mrs A thought she saw a shark but it turned out to be tarpin. A great fun day!

Harry Sayer and Christian Humphreys

16th April: Catamaran Cruise
We boarded the 'Heat Wave' catamaran in Bridgetown for the trip of a lifetime. We were splashed by the waves as all sat on the front of the boat as it made its way up the West coast. The sea was crystal clear and full of sea life as we swam on the coal reef snorkelling with the fish and turtles. Strawberry daiquiris were plenty as were the belly flops off the front of the boat. We swam to shore and made our mark on new found land, then raced back to our sailing haven for a well deserved lunch. This was chicken, fish, rice, salad, lasagne and more strawberry daiquiris. As we approached the harbour on our return we were hit by waves of applause. Another great day!

17th April: Packing!

Sadly the trip is coming to an end and we have to pack up today before catching our evening flight which returns us to the UK tomorrow morning.