Year 6 Boys' Kwik Cricket Championships

Eight children from Mr Keady's after-school cricket club represented O.L.I. in the Borough championships at Kingston Grammar School's Playing Fields. Read here to see how they got on.

Eight Year 6 boys represented the school in the Kingston Kwik Cricket Championships on Wednesday 22nd May 2019. The event, which was held in the sports grounds of Kingston Grammar School, presented O.L.I. with their first cricket event of a busy summer schedule and an opportunity to transfer learnt skills into a competitive environment. The competition consisted of 24 schools in total with teams placed in groups of three. O.L.I. would face Christ Church Surbiton and St Joseph’s in the group-stage. After completing warm-up drills and watching their opponents in the opening match, the team were excited to get their campaign underway. 

O.L.I. won the toss and decided to have a bowl against Christ Church. The opening overs started well, with the bowlers completing accurate deliveries limiting the amount of runs the opponents could score. Additionally, when the batting side went for the big shot in the remaining overs, the fielders protecting the boundary made several key stops and catches. The team were hoping the motto of ‘catches win matches’ would ring true. By the end of the innings, O.L.I limited their opponents to 218-5 (a positive run score of 18 and 5 wickets taken). O.L.I started their batting innings in good fashion, as they worked well in pairs running between the wickets to score several 1s and 2s. Also, the team were able to ‘pick up’ the short ball and consistently dispatched this with either a four or six; great batting power demonstrated! Despite losing a couple of late wickets, O.L.I. won the encounter by 30 runs as they managed 248-2. 

Next up for the team was a crucial was final group match against St Joseph’s- the victor would be group winner and guarantee progress to the quarter-finals. O.L.I batted in the opening innings and displayed impressive shot selection and quick running between the wickets. In the last few overs, the team also added a few boundaries. This, combined with not conceding any wickets, left the team in a strong position: 255 runs for no wickets. The boys continued to show excellent technique in their bowling approach. At the half-way stage of the second innings the match was very much still in the balance. However, due to St Joseph’s scoring 3 sixes in the last few overs, O.L.I. would be on the losing side of this encounter as the opponents posted a final total of 275-2. Although, O.L.I. would not go on to compete in the knock-out stage, this didn’t dampen their enthusiasm to finish the event on a high note. The team were looking forward to playing Grand Avenue in a friendly fixture. 

Against their local rivals, O.L.I. started their batting with great poise and accuracy scoring several fours. This impressive batting performance continued as the boys recorded a score of 269-2. While Grand Avenue batted well in pairs and made it difficult for the O.L.I. fielders, a number of wickets were taken. Despite closing in on the total in last few overs, O.L.I managed to finish the crossing line first as their opponents came 17 runs short of the required total.  

I would like to congratulate Devin, Jamie, Ollie, Keir, Harrison, Enrique, Max and Perujan on their performances. The boys displayed excellent perseverance and teamwork throughout the morning’s playing, winning two out of three matches played. It has been great to see the massive improvements that the boys have made in their bowling, fielding and batting since the start of term. Finally, we now look forward to our school taking part in more KS2 cricket events; the next event will be the Year 6 Girls’ competition on Wednesday 5th June- good luck girls!