The 1st XI cricket team have made an impressive start to the season, following a strong pre-season featuring a well-contested fixture against the Old Tonbridgians, a lively T20 day at Merchant Taylors’, and wins over Kent U18 and Brighton. Their Cowdrey Cup campaign is now underway, beginning with a loss to Charterhouse but followed by an unforgettable victory over Eton - one of the great run chases in recent memory - chasing down 307 in the final over. Individual performances have stood out, notably Robert's (JH4) superb 146 against the MCC, a record-breaking 242-run opening partnership between Leo (CH3) (103*) and Rohan (SH5) (127*) in a National T20 match against Sevenoaks, and recent centuries from Leo (123) and George (SH3) (115) in a commanding win over Eastbourne. With such form and depth across the squad, there is much to look forward to in the weeks ahead, including the annual two day match against Bedford on the first weekend of the half-term break.
Elsewhere in the club, there has been a busy succession of successful blocks played in sunshine against Charterhouse, Cranleigh, Eton and Eastbourne with other matches against, amongst others, Sevenoaks, Cranbrook, Claremont, Bede’s and Skinners. The U16As were involved in two contrasting epic wins: a 3 run win in a T20 against Epsom College’s Colts and a 2 wicket win against St Lawrence College’s 1st XI in a 35 over match, with Kevin Fernando to the fore with the bat in both games scoring 78 and 89* in those games respectively. After the Junior Colts’ productive pre-season tour to the UAE, they have gone on to pick up a pleasing close-fought win against Cranleigh, whilst the U14A team have made good progress in their Kent Cup and are unbeaten in their Saturday fixtures so far this season.
Most importantly, the weather has enabled us to play a huge amount of cricket in this first half of term and the school has fielded up to 18 teams on some weekends, showing the desire of Tonbridgians to represent the School, even during such a busy stage of the academic year.
Robert Stephen
Master in Charge of Cricket
Adam Sixthsmith
1st XI Coach
