A
t the beginning of the Easter
holidays, 26 boys and four
members of staff embarked on an
epic 12-day tour to the Asian paradise of
Sri Lanka. The two teams, the Leopards
(Under 17s) and the Tigers (Under 16s),
had prepared for six games of high
quality cricket against local Sri Lankan
schools and clubs. We left Heathrow on
Thursday 21st March, and after a tedious
long-haul flight followed by an uphill,
windy coach journey, we arrived at our
first hotel, Amaya Hills (The Palace in the
Hills). This hotel offered a pool, bar, gym
and squash courts, and a much used
table tennis table, plus of course the
entertainment of watching Mr
Butterworth slowly eat his way through
the buffet each evening!
On our first full day in Sri Lanka, the two
teams had a training session at a local
school (where the Tigers would play their
first two matches). This gave us a chance
to acclimatise to the boiling conditions,
and also to take our first look at the sort of
pitches we would be playing on. The
session was very useful, and afterwards,
everyone had a well-earned swim in the
pool. The afternoon was spent either
looking round a local tea plantation (an
early chance to buy some souvenirs) or
resting by the pool in the hotel.
The next day saw the two teams both
have their first games on Sri Lankan soil.
The Leopards took on Vidyartha College
and won, thanks to some good batting
from Harry Parkin (84) and Sam
Underdown (66). They were backed up
by good bowling from Liam Redrup and
Sam Venn. The Tigers also came out
victorious with the star of the show being
Charlie Brain who scored 87 not out.
The evening's entertainment included a
cultural dance performance!
Both teams were in action again the next
day - the Leopards were again victorious,
this time against Kingswood School, with
Sri Lanka
cricket tour
by Gabriel Counsell
28