Christian Brothers College (Bulawayo) Report, 2000

During the first term the season was severely curtailed by rain with very few practices able to be held and only one game played, against Plumtree. This game was lost by one wicket, with the batsmen failing to capitalize on a good opening stand while the bowlers gave away far too many wides and no-balls, and hence lost the match. Matches against Falcon, Petra and Milton were cancelled due to rain. A train derailment caused the cancellation of the match against Eaglesvale, while the game against Prince Edward was cancelled because of the fuel shortage.

Practices resumed during the August holidays in preparation for the annual Prince Edward festival in the last week of the holidays. In this festival three matches were played; the last was won while the first two were lost. My thanks go to Mr K. Heywood for doing all the arduous umpiring while I was involved in selection duties.

The festival was immediately followed by the inter-provincial games at Eaglesvale, with R. Bullivant playing for Matabeleland. C. Coventry and M. Townshend were unavailable for both the festival and the inter-provincials as they were selected to play for the Zimbabwe Development side to play in a festival in Kenya which was held at the same time. After the inter-provincials, C. Coventry and M. Townshend were selected for the final trials for the Zimbabwe Under-19 side, with C. Coventry eventually being chosen for this side. M. Townshend was plagued by injury in these trials, bowling just five overs in total over the two days before limping off the field on each day.

In the third term the team also took part in the annual inter-CBC festival which was held this year in Bulawayo over three days. Just five teams took part instead of the usual eight, with some schools declining to take part. Each team played four 35-over games on a round-robin basis, and the Bulawayo first team won all their matches and clinched the trophy for just the second time in five years. Congratulations go to R. Bullivant, C. Coventry and M. Townshend who were selected for the South African CBC XI.

Also in the third term four limited-overs games were played, with the team winning three and rain causing the final game against Falcon to be abandoned just before lunch.

This year the team played much better as a team. This was particularly evident during the Inter-CBC Festival. Here the players reached a standard that I have long felt they were capable of. There were some very mature batting performances while chasing relatively large totals, together with some economical bowling achievements. Overall the opening attack has not been as effective as I would have liked, which caused pressure on the batsmen to chase large targets in limited-over matches. The fielding this year was not of the usual high standard - something will have to be done to improve this situation next year.

Finally, I would like to thank J. Naik who scored for the team during the third term. He must be congratulated for passing his scorer's examination with an outstanding mark and the scorebook was a pleasure to read. I look forward to his continued services next year.

Detailed match reports are as follows:

The season began one week before the school term did, with the Prince Edward Schools Festival. The C.B.C. First XI did not fare well as they were comprehensively defeated by Churchill, Peterhouse, St. George's and the hosts. Upon their return to Bulawayo, the First XI had a match against Milton High, which they won, although not convincingly.

The next weekend saw C.B.C. play against one of the newer schools in Matabeleland, Petra High. This was also the weekend of the "Double-header" at Queen's Sports Club, between Zimbabwe and New Zealand. C.B.C. won the match by ten wickets, with the undefeated openers Robin Bullivant making 93 and Charles Coventry, whose father Chuck umpired in his first international match that Saturday, 113.

The annual Inter-C.B.C. Cricket Festival was held at C.B.C. Bulawayo this year. Teams were fielded from C.B.C.s at Boksburg, Pretoria, Springs, and Bulawayo's First and Second XI's. The First XI won all their matches, the most exciting of which was against Boksburg, with four runs needed off the last three deliveries. The Second XI, however, lost all their matches, with the First XI's Bullivant making 122 off 81 deliveries against the former. Needless to say, C.B.C. Bulawayo First XI won the tournament, with three players being selected for the S.A. C.B.C. Team - Bullivant, Coventry, and Matthew Townshend. Gareth McMaster, the head boy of C.B.C. Bulawayo, had an impressive batting record, scoring almost three hundred runs in the tournament, but was not selected.

The next match was against Plumtree, at Plumtree. This was an extremely high-scoring affair, with Plumtree, who batted first, scoring the mammoth total of 315 for six in their 50 overs. The head boy, Terrence Duffin, blasted 153 off 137 balls. C.B.C. went into bat, with Bullivant cutting the first delivery for four. Coventry made 49 and Townshend 63, but the day belonged to David Harrison, who made a quick-fire 94 not out and, along with McMaster, unbeaten on 37, carried C.B.C. to victory with 9.2 overs to spare!

The final match of the term was away against Falcon College. C.B.C. were sent in and reached 182 for the loss of 6 wickets before the rain washed out the match.