Head's Newsletter 6 March 2020

Uae cricket tour 2020

It gives me great pleasure to tell you about what was a magnificent week in eve- ry way. During the spring half term, 28 stu- dents and 5 staff members travelled to the UAE on a cricket tour to remember! To take students away to play cricket in condi- tions some of them may never play in again and expose them to a completely different culture, in sport and life, and to see them grow was a great privilege. Two years planning filled with risk assessments, itinerary tweaking, kit orders and training was all worth it.

more competitive fixtures, again under lights, and the boys showed signs that they

were adapting to the style of cricket with some hard hitting of their own, most nota- bly from Alex Holmes (37) and Sam Jenkins (41) in the U14s and Jaiveer Johal (46) in the U15s. With nets sessions and beach cricket squeezed in between games there was al- ways something to look forward to. Two matches highlighted how special this tour was, both played on first class grounds. The first came at Sharjah Stadium, which holds the world record for the most amount of one-day games played at one venue. The boys made full use of the home

With storm Ciara in full force departure was touch and go but we eventually set off and were Dubai bound. What followed was four days of cricket for both the U14 and U15 side in some jaw dropping settings. Our first venue the Vision Cricket Centre was an oasis of green grass surrounded by rolling sand dunes and state of the art floodlights lit up the ground in the cool de- sert night. The boys were introduced to the hard-hitting, loud and abrasive nature of the pitch and opposition and both teams came off second best. The second game was played at the Ajman Oval in two