What a great day of cricket

In the last hour of the tour we needed two wickets to complete a fantastic win over CCGS. Good early bowling from James Tugwell and Mikey Roy made their best players work hard for runs. Ezkenazy (WA U19) completed a patient century and at the beginning of the last session the Australians need 150 with four wickets standing. A great catch from Max Carleton-Smith saw off Eskenazy just as he was looking to take the game away from us. Clever manipulation of the field by Henry Hayes and another couple of wickets (a catch by Teddy James in the deep, a wicket for George FitzRoy) left us needing just one wicket to win with Tom Eckett bowling dangerously... The sustained athleticism of Thorpe behind the stumps had kept us going through 107 overs of mighty effort in the sunshine. Eton 352 CCGS 327-9. Match drawn.

Getting better every day

A really good day today - 352 all out at the beautiful Mount Claremont ground of Christ Church Grammar School. A good start with 78 from Teddy James, striking the ball cleanly around the ground. But the highlight of the day was a fantastic innings of 157 from our captain Henry Hayes, authorative driving and deft deflections of good bowling from the CCGS seamers. The match is really set up now - especially as Jamie Roy had their opener LBW in the only over we bowled in the day. On a good pitch, it's game on. And a swim in the ocean after the day's play...

Adios Adelaide pronto Perth

We leave Adelaide tomorrow morning on the long journey to Perth with many thanks to express to the parents of St Peter's and the cricket staff at Westminster, David Tiller in particular.

Ian Hume Trophy retained by St Peter's

St Peter's won a hard-fought match today at Westminster (the first neutral venue in the 25 year history of the fixture). They batted first and made 184 all out, with good bowling from Mikey Roy (3 wickets) and George FitzRoy (2 wickets), great catching by Henry Hayes, and a wonderful runout by Archie Hammond to encapsulate a strong performance in the field. Eton's reply was centred round another gritty performance from Elliott Charles (32), but we couldn't build the partnerships required and despite some late runs from Mikey Roy (37) and James Tugwell (17) we were all out for 134. This was a performance that clearly showed the strengths and weaknesses of the touring party, and gives us much to build on.

16-16 day plan B

A rain-affected day meant a change of plan - a 16-16 competition day, with the 50 over matches tomorrow. We played St Paul's in the first game of the competition and didn't really come to terms with the conditions or the format and made only 68 despite a good innings of 29* from Halstead. Two wickets from FitzRoy couldn't stop the New Zealanders from reaching our total. They went on to win the competition beating Westminster in the final. So tomorrow we will play St Peter's in a 50 over game and the forecast is for better weather.

Festival 2nd day - NZ downed

Another improvement in our performance helped us to see off the challenge of the boys from St Paul's, Hamilton, NZ. Good early spells from J Roy and M Roy saw off their top order, leaving Tom Eckett to clean up with a great spell of 4-16. A total of 88 was soon passed despite two or three rain delays (covers on, covers off, a manual operation) with strong batting from Teddy James (captain for the day). Elliott Charles was at the wicket with George Fitzroy as George drove the winning four. We are all looking forward to tomorrow and taking on old rivals (and new friends) St Peter's Adelaide for the Ian Hume Trophy. It'll be the 25th anniversary of the fixture, and, truth to tell, the Australians are up in the series.

Festival First Day v Westminster

A lovely day in Adelaide (34 degrees on the barometer, as invented by George FitzRoy's ancestors) and all the boys happily billeted with generous St Peter's families. Today's cricket was much better - we restricted Westminster to 183 all out, with good performances for Jamie Roy - 4 wickets, 3 wickets from brother Mikey, and excellent figures for Frankie Ashworth 1-16 off 9. Good fielding, too, all round, and two catches for both James Tugwell and Freddie Thorpe. Our reply started well with solid contributions from Jamie Abbott and Justin Langen, and an excellent innings of 50 from Elliott Charles who led the way with positive running and judicious shot-making. Teddy James provided some fireworks towards the end, but we ended up just short in a really exciting game.
Rain forecast for tomorrow (25ml at 95%) means an early start to tomorrow's game v St Paul's Hamilton NZ - 8.30 am. Global warming apparently.
Happy Birthday George!

good advice for Aussie rules players (and others)

here is Tuesday's photo

Warming up at Scotch College

Still a long day but

MGS batted first on another windy day, from the Arctic, and made 277-4. Good bowling from the Roy boys and another resilient display in the field made this look a fair target. Alas, alas, alas it was not to be, Hayes and Carleton-Smith batted well together to brighten prospects, but wickets fell regularly after they were parted and we ended well short. Cricket spirit low but tour spirit high as we head off to our first barbie (cue bad Aussie accents all round).

Today's photo has been held up by the hole in the ozone layer.

Long day today

Scotch batted first on a lovely flat pitch and their opening batsman played confidently in the face of good bowling by MacDonagh. Tight spells from Eckett, Hayes and Tugwell skied the scoring rate but centuries from Eldridge and Mitchell took Scotch to 330-3. perhaps this was always going to be too much to chase for a team recently off the plane but a resilient display in the field held out hope. As it was when good balls had done for the captain and Hammond, too many were indeed too far. And the Tom Batty Shield was retained was retained by Tom Batty's men. Conclusion? It might be easier to make Tom Head Master of Eton than to prize the shield from his hands....

Photo currently stuck somewhere in cyberspace

and 28 hours after we set off..

Arrival! 12000 miles away, and at last off the plane. An hour in the queue for immigration and safely away to Melbourne Grammar School for our first practice.

This the plane we took to get to Kuala Lumpur - on Justin Langen's birthday (12 hours shorter than every other birthday he's ever had). Now a three hour transfer - the good news is Ricey's found the bigger font on his Kindle (after curry for breakfast). Everyone still in good spirits.