Senior Cricket team dominate every aspect of the game to win the Championship

This year’s house cricket saw a change with the move to a 20/20 format. There were two groups of 3 teams with each team playing each other. The winner of each group then progressed to a final. We were drawn against Latham and Priory in our group, luckily missing the big names of School and Cross. We opened our account against Latham on the square and ended up batting first. Matt Hodges and Freddie Greatrex opened and got off to a good start before Greatrex was run out for 8. Hibell then joined Hodges at the crease but only for a short while as Hodges (29) was run out. Declan Blackwood (58) joined Hibell (32) and the two put on 82 as we started to control the match. Other contributions from Waters and Arnold took our final total to 170 for 5. We went out to bowl with Hibell and Greatrex opening the bowling. Some tight bowling by Hibell at the start put Latham under pressure and support from the other bowlers meant that the game was won fairly easily by 74 runs.
Our second game took place a week later against Priory, with many of our starting players away with hockey commitments for part of the match; we recruited some fielders, who, to their credit, did very well. We won the toss and put Priory into bat. Blackwood and Greatrex opened the bowling and bowled a tight opening spell restricting the opening batsman much shot freedom. After a short flurry by the opening batsmen, the game swung our way with some good bowling by Congiu and Hibell. Priory were bowled out for 133. The start didn’t go as planned with the loss of Greatrex for 1. However a strong batting performance by Hibell (33) and Hodges (51) put Orchard in a winning position. All that was needed was a late flourish by Blackwood (30 not out) to secure a win and a place in the final.
The final took place on the 1st Xl square against a strong Cross team. Cross batted first and got off to a flying start with a number of boundaries. However soon the calm resumed and the loss of Ikin and Fenton swung the game back in our direction with the knowledge that Cross didn’t have much to come after those two. Some very tight bowling restricted Cross to 133 all out. With a relatively small target to chase, Greatrex and Arnold strolled out to wicket with the confidence that we could knock this off and win Senior House Cricket. We started well with runs being scored freely but with the loss of Greatrex, Arnold and Hodges for few runs, we were under pressure but the cool Hibell took control of the situation and hit a match winning knock of 31 scoring at around a run a ball. With some quick boundaries scored by Congiu at the end, victory was ours. It was a great effort by everyone that took part and a great achievement for the house.