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16 SPORTS
Queenswood Tournament Gold
Phoebe Collins and Alina Schumacher took part in
the prestigious Independent Schools East Region Girls
Championships held at Queenswood School on 29
June and emerged as the champions.
Pairs play as a team and each round begins with two singles
matches. If both players win or both lose then the match is over, but
if it is 1-1 then the two players join up as a doubles pair and play a
Championship Tie Break to 10 points to decide the winners. Many
of the top tennis schools in the region took part and en route to the
gold medals, Phoebe and Alina defeated Bedford School, New Hall,
The Leys and Queenswood.
This was a marvellous achievement for the Bancroft’s pair and caps
off a wonderful tennis season for both girls, who were rewarded
with their Senior Colours – Alina for the first time and Phoebe for
the third time!
Thirds’ Essex
Cricket Tour
Mr Martin Flaherty
The U12 cricket squad started
the summer with a cricket tour
that took in the delights of West
Grove, Chelmsford, Colchester and
finished in Newport. In total, seven
matches were played and the team
recorded five victories and two
defeats (although the opposition
unfortunately had to withdraw
from the Great Baddow match at
short notice).
In terms of high points, the batting belonged
to captain Navneeth Vijayakumar who
accumulated 248 runs at an average of 82.7
runs per wicket. He was ably assisted by Ismail
Patel who scored 144 runs and there were
also contributions from Max Pollard (67),
Momin Ali (66) and Rohan Krishnamurthy
(61). Elsewhere, Daniel Caton emerged as
the leading bowler with 9 wickets, helped by
his figures of 5 wickets for 4 runs in the final
match against Joyce Frankland Academy in
Newport. However, there were also meaningful
contributions from Karan Jethwa (6 wickets)
and from Anthony Wright and Navneeth (5
wickets apiece). In terms of fielding, Max
contributed five dismissals, Ismail four and
Hasnan 3 catches/run outs.
In all, a good time was had by all and the U12
squad learned a great deal about competitive
cricket and personal conduct over the course
of the week. The tour also ended on a pleasant
note when Max Pollard presented Mr Flaherty
with a delightful bottle of Bourgogne as a
gesture of thanks for arranging the tour and
giving so generously of his time on behalf of
him and his parents. Mr Flaherty agreed to
savour it over the course of the summer whilst
recalling some of the high points.
Bancroft’s Cricket Captain
Recognised at Lord’s
Congratulations to Angad Nijjar, our captain of cricket 2017, who
was presented with an MCC engraved shield by Matthew Fleming,
this year’s President of MCC.
Each year MCC recognises outstanding performances by school cricketers in the
annual match between MCC and the school side. A player who scores 100 runs
or takes 5 wickets in the match is invited to Lord’s Cricket Ground for a special
presentation which takes places on the field of play in front of the Lord’s pavilion
during the tea interval of a test match. This year the ceremony took place on the
Sunday of the test match between England and South Africa.
This year fourteen cricketers from schools around the country were recognised by
MCC for their achievements in 2016. Angad took 6 for 49 for Bancroft’s v MCC in
2016, a great performance. Previous Bancroftians to attend this presentation were
Gareth James and Nigel Jacob in 2010 and 2011; however Angad will be the first
Bancroftian to be recognised twice! He will return again to Lord’s next summer
following his score of 130 for the School in the 2017 match v MCC.
Making his 1st XI debut in the L4ths, Angad has had a long and successful cricketing
career both at Bancroft’s and for club and county. He captained the Essex County
team from U9s to U15s and was the Essex County U14 player of the year. He has
recently started at Cardiff University reading Geography.