Over the half term holiday a lucky group of U14 cricketers, accompanied by Mr. Clinton and Mr. Brooker, escaped the dreadful British weather and headed to sunny South Africa. Mr Brooker writes:
Our first match was against Rondebosch, one of the top Schools in Western Province. On arrival, the opposition commented on ‘how pale our boys looked’, but as the temperature crept up into the 30’s our rustiness showed and we were bowled out for 93 in 36 overs. The opposition went on to win by 10 wickets. Things could only get better and on day two against Bergvliet we scored 116-9 in 30 overs, and made the opposition work hard to reach the target, taking 7 of their wickets.
Day 3 was a trip back to Western Province to play their development side and we improved yet again, restricting them to 143-6 in 40 overs. Unfortunately, we were bowled out for 108 but felt we had played a lot better.
All the grounds we played at were very picuresque, but none more so than Somerset College. Here their Headmaster informed us that 1652 (the year Colfe’s was founded) is also a significant date in their country, as that is when South Africa was first established as a nation. In the game that followed we had our best performance to date, restricting the opposition to 109-9 in 30 overs and then knocking the runs off to finish 110-4 in 27 overs with Harry Furze on 44. 
Our next match was against Paarl Gym near Stellenbosch, which is one of the best sporting schools in the country. Our captain, Harry Furze, took 3 wickets and was ably backed by the rest of his bowlers who managed to contain the opposition to 126-8 in 30 overs. The winning runs were hit by Sean Walsh who scored 22, including two huge sixes which almost cleared the adjacent rugby pitches! Our second victory1
After this we travelled to Paarl’s big rivals, Paul Roos College. When their 1st XV’s play each other at rugby, it is not unusual for 10,000 spectators to turn up to watch the game. Our spectators numbered far less, but none-the-less we were very grateful to the parents who travelled out to support, help score and umpire! We started a little late, which meant that the last few overs were played in darkness. At this stage the umpires decided that enough was enough and as both sides were on 150 runs, a draw was declared.
By now we had played six games in six days and were starting to feel rather jaded. Unfortunately, one of our best players, Matt Stiddard, broke his wrist whilst fielding, and there were still a few burnt faces despite the sun hats and sun screen.
In the last few days we enjoyed a tour of the Langa Township followed by a game against their development side. In the penultimate match we scored 186, with Max Collett scoring a fine 94, and then bowled them out for 74 with Sam Winter getting 3 wickets for 5 runs. However, our final match proved a game too far against the best school in the Cape, Wynberg College. By this time we were counting the walking wounded and did extremely well to bowl them out for 143, but only managed 75 in reply. 
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