St Andrew’s edge Peterhouse in fascinating duel in Makhanda

St Andrew’s and Zimbabwe school Peterhouse produced a fascinating contest to kick-start the Makhanda Cricket Festival last week, with the former taking the honours in a first innings duel.

Nicholas Anderson hit an excellent century (104) for Peterhouse to power them to 275/9, but St Andrew’s were up to the task and an extremely impressive batting performance, led by sixties from Samuel Scheckter and Mitchell Coventry, saw them respond with a total of 297/6 declared.

William Beamish (3/11) and Jack Oliver (2/6) then got among the wickets, but Peterhouse held on to reach 96/8 at the close of the two-day encounter.

Graeme College also showed good batting credentials in their clash with Trinityhouse Academy.

Enrique Strydom top-scored with 74 and Ashton Williams made an unbeaten 51 in their total of 211/6.

However, Trinityhouse batted with determination in their reply, making 113/2 in a drawn encounter.

St Andrew’s continued to impress on the second day when they outclassed Muir by 209 runs, Roman van Zyl running through the opposing batsmen with remarkable figures of 5/10 as the Kariega side were dismissed for 30.

Earlier, the Makhanda school made 244/6 declared, William Beamish hitting 82 and Mitch Coventry 70.

Scott Miles then took 3/5 as Muir slumped to 39/5 in their second innings, which constitutes a full innings in schools cricket.

Graeme and Kingswood scored first innings victories in their matches against Hellenic Academy and Peterhouse respectively.

With Murray Tyson hitting 64, Graeme comfortably passed Hellenic’s first innings of 126 and declared at 193/7.

With Daniel Makings adding an unbeaten 36 to his first innings of 32, Hellenic showed good resolve in the second innings, making 55/2.

Jaryd Botha top-scored for Kingswood with 71 as they made 193 against Peterhouse, and then their bowlers came to the fore to dismiss the Zimbabwe side for 145.

Matt Loon (4/24) and Jack Collett (4/33) were the destroyers-in-chief.

Peterhouse, however, hit back to enjoy their best day when they defeated Graeme College in a thriller after the home team had made 199.

With the tension building, Ryan Moyo proved to be the hero for Peterhouse, hitting an unbeaten 43 off 51 deliveries to take them to victory by one wicket.

The St Andrew’s batsmen went on the rampage against Dale, William Beamish leading the way with 105 as they smashed their way to 361/4 in 50 overs.

Mitch Coventry contributed 55 in a century stand for the first wicket with Beamish and powerful contributions from Murray Wilson (47) and Samuel Scheckter (73 not out off 47 balls) ensured there was no respite for the Dale attack.

In the face of a daunting challenge, the Dalians then collapsed to a miserable 23 all out, Alistair de Kock taking 6/11.

Kingswood, meanwhile, suffered a narrow loss to Trinityhouse after being dismissed for 182 as their opponents delivered a workmanlike bowling performance.

Sohail Seonath took centre stage for Trinityhouse, contributing almost half their runs with an excellent 91 as they got home by three wickets.

Kingswood fought all the way and Matt Loon took 4/43, but they just did not have enough runs on the board in the end.