The St Andrews‘ captain was greeted by a wonderful setting on arrival at the Valley of Peace – manicured outfield, flags and stumps in, match ready. What he was then greeted by was a steady stream of keen Christchurch Boys High School cricketers all looking a little more youthful than his own…quote of the day from his squad was “this has all the hallmarks of a Veterans vs Emerging Veterans fixture…”.
On the line was the Sammy Guillen Trophy. A remarkable man who played test cricket for both New Zealand and the West Indies – and the StAC side was lucky enough to have his grandson Courtney Van Beek playing with us (as it transpired we could’ve also used Courtney’s brother Logan who was playing in that amazing Netherlands team who beat South Africa at the Adelaide Oval on the same day!).
The winning started for CBHS Captain Phil McKay with the coin toss, choosing to bat, and match terms agreed to at 40 overs per 10-man side. The StAC opening bowlers Capt. Dougald Munro (7.4-2-26) and Liam George (4-1-17) made an excellent start, Liam literally breaking the leg stump of Adam Percival (2) in his second over. Munro then managed to find the edge of Jack Harris (16) in his 4th over. This brought to the crease the most accomplished CBHS pairing of Cameron Rattray (35) and Jared Percival (30) who took a shine to the StAC second and third-string bowlers in Courtney Van Beek (7-2-45) and Andrew Letham (8-3-36) until Percival was caught in an outstanding running and diving outfield effort from Dougald Munro.
The ball followed Dougald all day, and he managed to hold 3 catches in the deep and catch another one before stepping over the line for a “Valley 4“. Very good effort in the field by all in the StAC team managing to dismiss CBHS for 144 after 29.4 overs. Special mentions to Nick Rennie who hit a hard 28 at #7 and their skip Phil McKay who came in, got his eye in and then swung. The silence of the ground was only broken by the wind swinging past his bat during his 24 off 17 balls.
Great lunch in the sun (thanks to Scott Cartwright and helpers) and the StAC team padded up with expectations still relatively high. These were quickly wound down as our openers Josh Blackmore (4) and Frazer Offwood (3) both managed to get out to Billy Georgeiff (6-2-23). We went on to suffer runouts, very poor shot selection and some excellent bowling from Josh Taylor (4-3-24) and NPC superstar Louie Chapman (4-0-5) especially. StAC lost wickets regularly with the highest individual score going to Andrew Letham (22*) and the Rev. Cameron Pickering (19) being the only scores of note (extras exclusive). StAC went on to be dismissed after 29.1 overs for 105.
A special presentation was then held beside the scorer’s box as Sammy Guillen’s wife, Val Guillen, presented the trophy to Phil McKay and the CBHS squad. She spoke of her own cricketing past (having played for Canterbury for many years) and her love of seeing people enjoying the game so much in the spirit in which it should be played. A lovely end to another great game of cricket at the Valley of Peace.
Special thanks to James Munro (https://itch.co.nz/) for the images from the day also.
Matchday photos can be viewed via Google Drive – St Andrew’s vs Christchurch Boys High School at Valley of Peace, 2022
Short Scorecard
CBHS 144 all out in 29.4 overs.
C Rattray 35, J Percival 30, N Rennie 28, P McKay 24. A Letham 3 for 36, D Munro 2 for 26, C Van beek 2 for 45.
StAC 105 all out in 29.1 overs.
A Letham 22, C Pickering 19. N Rennie 3 for 18, J Taylor 3 for 24, B Georgieff 2 for 22.
Christchurch Boys’ High School beat St Andrew’s College by 40 runs
Written by Jesse Tritschler
