22nd May 2009   Issue No 471

MIXED
Monday 18th May
* Shooting v St Andrew’s and Holmewood House – Our team went to Eastbourne on Monday for our termly match with St Andrew’s and Holmewood House. The match was for Year 7 and younger so slightly lower scores than usual were expected and we were also without our team captain. We made a modest total of 360 out of 400, which was enough to beat Holmewood House (356) but not enough to beat St Andrew’s who scored an amazing 383. Our highest scorer was Henry Davies with 96. Well done to all who shot and a big thank you to Mrs Linda Beasley who drove the team to Eastbourne College.

BOYS
Monday 18th May
* 1st VI and U11 Boys’ Tennis v Vinehall - On a very blustery evening the boys took on Vinehall School in their second match of the season. They continued their winning ways and the U13's and U11's produced some very good tennis to win every single set played. The seniors had four pairs and won all eight of their matches winning 48 games and losing only 11! The junior boys did similarly well winning all six matches and managing 36 games to 13. Very well done to all the boys who played in the rather difficult conditions and a special thank you to Mrs Cloke who kindly helped serve the boys their tea!
Result: MHS won 14 - 0 in matches

Wednesday 20th May
* 1st XI Cricket v Bethany – The first XI took on a confident Bethany side in perfect conditions on Wednesday. Bethany had recorded 3 strong wins and confidently went in to bat in a 30 over match after winning the toss. They made a steady start and after 8 overs were on 22 for 1. Then our boys made some breakthroughs and wickets started to fall regularly. Some good figures were achieved with James Meddings 3 for 14, Ollie Kent 2 for 4, Hamish Cloke 2 for 8 and James Lunshof 3 for 28, all bowling well. Lewie Parry took a stunning slip catch, low and to his left, and in general the fielding was sharp and positive all around the field. They were bowled out for 82 after only 26 overs. Ollie Kent and Toby Russell-Vick went in to open and made a steady start against some fierce bowling. They managed to get to 13 before the first wicket fell, but they saw off the best bowler. Toby Russell-Vick was unlucky to be given out LBW soon after on 8. Our boys settled again and a rapid 17 from Lunshof, a 28 not out to Cloke and 11 not out to Meddings resulted in an easy victory after only 16 overs.
Result: MHS won by 7 wickets

* 4th Cricket v St Ronan’s – On a fine afternoon, MHS went in to bat first with Henry Davies and Miles Machin (Captain) opening the batting. The St. Ronan’s openers were fast and, on this ‘bowlers’ wicket, got the better of Henry (unluckily caught behind by a very good catch) and Miles (bowled). The rest of our batsmen found the wicket challenging and our top scorers were Dominic Chester (run out for 7), James Weighell (caught mid-on for 6) and Gus Edmondson (bowled for 6). A hefty crop of wides and no-balls bought the MHS score, after 20 overs, to 59 for 7 wickets. At first St Ronan’s looked like making the runs quickly but MHS bowled with accuracy and consistency and a combination of sharp fielding and hesitancy from the batsmen saw a number of wickets fall. Charles Gellett, Callum Shepherd, Charles Snelling-Colyer, James Weighell and Henry Jex all bowled particularly well and James Harris was solid behind the wicket. With a short boundary, St Ronan’s were able to push their score along with a number of fours and with 5 overs to go brought their score level on 59 runs. This spurred MHS on – Charles Snelling-Colyer took a fine catch and then a fine run out – and suddenly, with St Rona’s only having 2 wickets in hand, a draw looked possible. However it wasn’t to be but a very enjoyable match was had by all!
Result: St Ronan’s won. MHS 59 for 7, St. Ronan’s 60 for 8 with 5 overs in hand.

* U12 6-a-side Cricket Tournament at Sutton Valence – After a disappointing placing last year, we were looking forward to putting the record straight! The groups were drawn and we had the challenge of St. Michael’s and Sutton Valence B, playing St. Michael’s first. We lost the toss and were put in to bat. With some poor bowling and some steady batting we amassed 79-0 off our 5 overs. Ed Stewart with 23* and Charlie Hunter Blair 11* with the telling contributions. With some tight bowling from all our boys we restricted St. Michaels to 61. Our second game was against Sutton Valence B. With this team labelled as the weakest of the 6 teams we had high hopes and after winning the toss we decided to bowl first. Again after some extremely good, tight bowling we restricted them to just 27 from their 5 overs. Ed Stewart and Charlie Hunter Blair opened the batting and again were both not out - this time reaching their 25 with no effort and had to retire after just 2 overs! This made way for Leo Danczak to make the most of the bowling and he reached 27 from the last ball of our innings. After our 5 overs we reached 89-0! Having won both games we finished top of our group and had to play the second placed school of the other group.
It was then Yardley Court in the semi-finals and after losing the toss again we were sent in to bat. We got off to a steady start with 10 off the first over. In the second over we came up against the over of the tournament with one of the Yardley Court boys dismissing Ed Stewart, Charlie Hunter Blair and Leo Danczak all in the same over. At 10-3 off two overs things were looking quite bleak! Cue Henry Petch! A fantastic 20 not out, whilst facing some very decent bowling; he helped get us up to 49. This was obviously way below anything we had achieved in our previous two games. Again all the boys bowled extremely well with Henry Petch 7-1 and Charlie Hunter Blair 8-1, we managed to scrape home by just 2 runs!! So we were through to the final which is a fantastic effort from all the boys involved. We were against St. Michaels who had been playing some fantastic cricket since we played them in the first game. We lost our 3rd toss and were again put in to bat. With no strong performances with the bat, some very good bowling proved too good for us this time and unfortunately we were restricted to just 39! St. Michaels made a very good start and reached their target in the 3rd over. Even though, after the final, it was disappointing not to have won the tournament, there was no disgrace in coming second. The boys all did the school proud and have earned us a well respected invite to next year’s tournament...Let’s go one better next time!

* Years 5 and 6 Inter-House Cricket – The House Matches were keenly contested, but undertaken with good sportsmanship throughout. Whilst Awdry battled well, they finished runners-up to Hawkings, who won all 3 of their matches, one by a massive margin of 85 runs. Congratulations to worthy winners Hawkings, and to the best players in the other houses, Oliver Santini (Awdry), Fox Parker (Egan) and Patrick Boland (Dunbar).

GIRLS
Thursday 14th May
* U13/U12 Tennis v Mayfield –The senior girls’ tennis team played away at St Leonard’s, Mayfield and had a successful afternoon. There were several pairs of St Leonard’s girls and MHS played all of them, amounting to 18 matches and a total of 84 games! Apart from in four of the matches, there were victories all round. There was some excellent play, with some consistent serving and volleying and reliable baseline play to support each other. First pair, Katie Hewitt (capt) and Cissy Wooley set a good example by winning all of their matches, two of them as ‘love’ sets. Well played girls.
Result: Matches played: 18 MHS won 14 – 4
Katie Hewitt (Capt), Cissy Wooley
Played 4 - won 4
Pippa Harries, Lucy Baddeley
Played 4 -won 3, lost 1
Jessica Fox, Sophie Walters
Played 5 - won 3, lost 2
Sophie McGee, Clemmie Plummer
Played 5 - won 4, lost 1

Tuesday 19th May
 1st & 2nd Girls’ Tennis v Vinehall – Fighting the blustery conditions on Tuesday, our U13 and U12 teams coped very well, playing some excellent tennis at Vinehall. The U13 team comprising Katie Hewitt (Captain), Cissy Wooley (Vice Captain), Pippa Harries, Lucy Baddeley, Anya Holweger, Emily Bostock and Alice Woods came out on top, winning 5 out of 9 matches. The U12 team comprising Jessica Fox, Sophie Walters, Sophie McGee, Clemmie Plummer, Rose Down, Natasha and Phoebe Gale also won, winning 6 out of 7 matches. The most exciting match was Rose and Natasha coming from 4-1 down to win 7-6 in the tie breaker! Well done everyone!
Results: U13 - MHS won 5 – 4 in matches
U11 - MHS won 6 – 1 in matches

Wednesday 20th May
* U13 Rounders v DPS - The U13 rounders team played away at Dulwich on Wednesday and won convincingly. As it was a lovely warm afternoon and time was on our side we were able to play an ‘all out’ innings. MHS batted first and Cissy Wooley, Romy Saville and Katie Hewitt were on form scoring several whole rounders. They were well backed up by the rest of the team and by the end of the 25 minute limit (as the opposition hadn’t managed to get everyone out) we had scored 22 rounders. By half time, and having got the DPS players out, they had scored 11. In a second innings, the scores were much closer and Chloe Bird, Polly Bennett and Pippa Harries added to the whole rounders total and MHS won again. There was a total of 10 catches taken – Katie 1, Verity Sayer 1, Lucy Baddeley 1, Cissy 2 and Romy 5. Player of the afternoon was Verity who gallantly took on the role of backstop in the absence of Tati Lindars, whose position as captain was taken by vice captain Ailsa Russell.
Result: MHS won 33½ - 21

* U12 Rounders v Benenden School - The girls had a fantastic afternoon of rounders on Wednesday. They controlled the game from the outset, scoring 9½ rounders in the first innings. Jessica Fox was outstanding hitting 3 rounders off 4 balls. We then went in to field and got out 7 girls from 10 balls. Clemmie Plummer and Sophie Walters had a fantastic partnership between back-stop and first post and managed to get several players out. We stopped Benenden scoring any rounders at all so went into the second innings with a very convincing lead. We worked hard and Jessica again scored off each ball. Jemima van der Gaag also scored some great rounders to help take us to a score of 11. Benenden pulled back in the second innings but not enough to win.
Result: MHS won 20½ - 7½

* U13/U11 Rounders v Benenden School U12 – With little opportunity to practise as a team, we went in to bat first. With some confident hitting and running, we scored 8½ rounders with Anya Holweger scoring 3 of them. Our first fielding innings also went well with some sharp fielding preventing Benenden from scoring full rounders. However, they still managed to score sufficient half rounders to be just half a rounder behind at half time. We batted with increased determination and confidence in our second innings to score an impressive 13 rounders with Louisa West scoring 3½. Our backstop to 1st Post combination then proved very effective with Anya and Kitty Skinner stumping out five of Benenden’s players. With accurate bowling from Polly Forbes and Katie van Kan we managed to get their team out after 20 balls and pulled off a 21½ to 12½ win. Well done, girls!
Result: MHS won 21½ - 12½



* U11A Rounders v Rose Hill – MHS lost the toss and so Rose Hill had the advantage of batting second. Our girls knew the Rose Hill fielding would be good so they were a bit unsure when to take risks and didn’t put any pressure on the fielders. They then fielded well but the Rose Hill girls definitely took their risks and this meant they got themselves an unassailable lead with the score at half time being 1½ to 9. The second innings was a role reversal with MHS winning 6½ - 4½. After a half time talk the girls were determined to better their score from the first innings and try and stop Rose Hill from scoring as many as they had and they managed this on both counts. Some good interplay between Connie Taylor-Young as Backstop, Phoebe Gale in the first innings and Natasha Gale in the second innings on first post. Great catches from Elizabeth Weighell (2), Natasha Gale (1) and Isobel Taylor (1) with Rose Down working well under pressure stumping 4 girls out during the last few balls of the innings taking their risks to see if they could score half a rounder. A good fight back, well done.
Result: Rose Hill won 13½ - 8

* U11/U10 Rounders v Rose Hill – Each side had 30 good balls per innings, our girls lost the toss and batted first. They started off slowly, but Bea Icke soon lifted their spirits by scoring two super rounders. Play then picked up and Cornelia Bentsen and Isobel Spence each scored a rounder and Kitty Ive scored a half rounder. Bea, the Captain for the day, hit the ball well, managing to score another rounder, bringing the total to 5½. Rose Hill didn’t bat particularly well, but ended the innings with 3½ rounders. In the second half, Sarah Bird scored two rounders, Lucy Smith 1½ and half rounders were scored by Charlotte Ross, Eloise Plummer and Kitty Ive. The hitting was much better and it was unfortunate that the girls weren’t able to get to second or fourth post more often. Rose Hill then batted and took advantage of some rather weak fielding. Bea took an amazing catch, but other than that, MHS didn’t look too threatening. Rose Hill managed to score 7½ rounders, making the final score 10½ to 11 in Rose Hill’s favour. It was a close finish and the girls seemed to enjoy their match.
Result: Rose Hill won 11 - 10½

* U10 Rounders v Rose Hill - The girls batted first and got off to a steady start scoring lots of safe half rounders at second post. Their fielding last week was top quality so it couldn’t really be improved upon this week. They went out to field and, again, some excellent, accurate throwing and some brilliant catching prevented Rose Hill from scoring many rounders. Rose Meddings took two brilliant catches and surprised even herself! The girls’ batting in the second innings was even better than the first and they managed to take some great risks resulting in whole rounders being scored. They scored a total of 15 rounders, which was very impressive. The girls continued to field well in the second innings and, even though Rose Hill’s batting was much stronger this time, the girls did not lose focus and managed to continue preventing rounders being scored. A great performance girls, well done!
Result: MHS won 15 – 6½