Cricket Teams Enjoy Fantastic Start to the Season
As we head towards the end of this half term and with the weather improving all teams have competed well and there have been some amazing individuals’ performances with more centuries this year than the previous 8 years. There have been 6 hundreds, 4 in row as a team from the 1st XI and a hat trick in the 15s. The first XI remain unbeaten including a very impressive performance Vs the MCC, even with 5 main line players missing because of exams.
Other victories have come against Blundells, Sherborne, BGS and a great chase of 250 runs at Clifton. The girls 1st XI have had a more complete and competitive fixture programme with the numbers of girls increasing.
They have also played some excellent cricket led by Alice Robbins and Elle Golsworthy (both Woodyer). The numbers of junior girls playing has also increased and theses are exciting times for the girls programme.
The standards have increased immeasurably, and this has been a joy to watch We all look forward to seeing how they progress further in national competitions, the 15s started their campaign with a very impressive victory over Kings with Grace Golsworthy making an unbeaten 50.
It is great that every team has at least one victory, this was completed by the 14Bs winning at Clifton last weekend. Winning is not how we judge teams, this is more performance levels, but the players certainly like the feeling.
Mr Casey stated about the 14Bs: “They were so delighted to get a win and get the reward after such a great performance the week before which saw a defeat”.
Most schools we play are bigger in size and this makes gaining wins difficult for B and C teams so judging effort and attitude is a fair better gauge and this has been consistently good across all teams, so well done to all the players in our competitive blocks Vs Blundells, Sherborne, BGS and Clifton.
It has also been great to have Mr Trescothick at various matches and at training over the last five weeks, adding extra support and knowledge before he returns to England duties.
Other external achievements have come for Kian Roberts (Goodland) who has represented Somerset 2nds on two occasions so far this season and Ben Church (Wills East) and Oscar Coleman (Evans) took Somerset Academy to victory in a recent match.
Grace Golsworthy (Woodyer) has scored 4 fifties in row for school and club. A major achievement has been from the grounds staff who despite rain, cold, dark skies for most of this term have worked relentlessly to ensure we have only missed two home matches so far this season. Overall, it has already been a great summer cricket-wise even if the weather played ball!
The girls U15s came so close again to winning through to a trip Lords for the national finals. You do not always get what you deserve in sport, and this was the case for these girls. They played good cricket coming through a tough set of group matches to top the table. This meant a semi final Vs Plymouth College.
After another good fielding display led by Samia Johnson’s wickets made Taunton favourites but after some early wickets the team were in trouble, but this performance showed how much team effort they have had over this competition. Harriet Billson, Grace Gendall and Alexa Wiltshire joined forces to get the team over the line by one wicket.
The final again saw Lily Blackwell, Jessica Slade and Charlotte Webber lead from the front bowling wise, backed by excellent keeping from Sophie Day, this was Taunton’s best fielding display of the day. However, some excellent bowling and fielding from Clifton saw Taunton wickets fall and a very frustrating loss occurred. Thank you to all the members of the team for an enjoyable journey.
Individual performances have been fantastic already this season, with centuries, fifties, wickets taken and hat tricks secured!
Kian Roberts – scored 112 against Clifton
Thomas Gandall – hat trick wicket taker against Blundells
Harvey Colman – scored 100 against Kings
Theo Bennett – scored 100 against Blundells
James Pitman – scored 112 against BGS
Ben Mason – scored 100
Logan DuPont – scored 2x 100s! One with 124 against Blundells and the other with 100 against Sherborne
Other Scores over 50 –
Charlotte Webber (Besley) 79 not out Vs Millfield
Elle Golsworthy (Woodyer) 77 Vs Blundells
Cole Willoughby (Evans) 74 and winning captain
Theo Bennett (Marshall) 70 Vs Clifton
Joe Johnson (Marshall) 68 Vs Blundells
Maxi Clayton (Wills East) 67 Vs Clifton
Kian Roberts (Goodland) 65 Vs Blundells
Shafin Akthar (Evans) 60 Vs Blundells
Ben Church (Wills East) 56 Vs BGS
Harvey Coleman (Evans) 53 not out Vs Blundells
Megan Driskell (Prep) 50 not out
Grace Golsworthy (Woodyer) 50 not out in beating Kings by 9 wickets in National Cup
Grace Golsworthy (Woodyer), Sophie Day (Jenkin) and Harriet Billson all retired on 40
Bowling –
Hat trick – Thomas Gendall (Marshall) Vs Blundells
Lewis Walters (Prep) 5 wickets Vs Clifton
Shourya Raj (Wills West) – 4-14 Vs BGS
Charlotte Webber (Besley) 4 – 20 Vs BGS
Charlie Weatherill (Marshall) 3 – 24 Vs Sherborne
Caps were presented to the boys and girls teams this month (for more information on the girls’ caps presentation please read the full article). Four boys received caps: Charlie Weatherill, Oscar Coleman, Ben Church, and Thomas Ford, while it was the first year girls have ever received caps at Taunton School – a very exciting landmark for the school.
Well done everyone on such a fantastic start to the cricket season. We can’t wait to see what you achieve after half term!