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Kingham Hill welcomed 6 of the schools recent old boys back for a cricket match against the Barings team.

Thankfully Mr Humphreys knew the old boys well and arranged for 13 players to be available on the day.  He therefore gave them two “soon to be old boys” to even up the teams. Barings batted first and Mr Humphreys, full of confidence, opened the batting with player of the season Jan Sindhar. Ryan Whitakers first over went for 12 and the innings was well underway. Things didn’t get a lot better as he dropped Mr Humphreys at gully the very next over. Ryan commented many times that he had driven a long way for this game and  so proved the drive was worth it as he removed Barings dangerous batsman in his very next over.

This saw the start of a mini collapse and the old boys soon had Barings down to 42 for 6. The old boys being very gracious in their dominance were offering kind gestures such as giving us 50 runs and offering a second innings “to make a game of it”.

Thankfully Mr Lane ignored most of this banter and soon began to silence the opposition as he discovered the joys of batting with a top quality bat. He managed to lose 3 balls in the Kingham jungle undergrowth around the cricket pitch.  He continued to the end seeing Barings to a respectable score of 117.

The 8 old boys realised this wasn’t the walkover they were expecting. Bodge Kelly and current sixth former loaned to the old boys, Ed Frape, opened the batting and got off to a tentative start. Mr Harewood had them in all sorts of trouble as they struggled to work out the exact width and height the ball would be projected towards them.

Due to the shortage of officials the number 3 batsman, Cameron Kelly, had to stand and umpire from square leg before he came into bat. Most batsmen would be very keen to get in against the mediocre Barings bowling attack, but having presented Cameron with a blatant opportunity to remove Ed Frape stumped, he turned the appeal down.

Barings managed to get Cameron to the wicket when current year 10 Peter Juckes bowled ex first team captain Bodge Kelly. Cameron then came in and gave an exhibition of batting and maturity which showed his level of progression since leaving school. He and Ed Frape saw the old boys home with a few overs to spare, both boys scoring 42.

This was an excellent match which we hope next year will be played for a “cup” to be presented at the end of the game. It was a great time to meet up with old students and friends and banter over the cricket. 

R. Humphreys