On January 7th, we left Dublin on our three legged voyage that would end twenty-three hours later at Glenwood High School, Durban, South Africa. Accompanied by Brían O Rourke myself, Neil Rock, Andy Brawders and Stuart Jackson were all travelling to Durban while Harry Archer, Aaron McGuire and Ryan Tobin had different destinations in South Africa. Our first leg of the journey was to Heathrow followed by the longest flight of them all Heathrow to Johannesburg. From Johannesburg, we would get on our last plane to Durban where Mr David Munro who had been teaching and coaching cricket in Glenwood for many years greeted us. We soon reached our home for the next three months at the Glenwood boarding establishment known as Gibson House where we met all the school Prefects and House Masters who welcomed us into their school and showed us our new surroundings.
The following day consisted of a high performance training camp that would last for the next two days from 9am to 5pm with a 30-minute break in between for lunch. This training camp really helped us four get used to playing high intensity sport in the humid, sweltering 34-degree heat that none of us was used to. These two days proved very tough and long but under the watchful eye of Mr Bucks we trained hard and had quickly acclimatised to the harsh conditions.
The next three days saw us start school in Glenwood and Brian move onto Muir College in the Eastern Cape where Aaron and Harry were both staying. Our normal daily routine now consists of waking up at 6am and having breakfast in the boarding establishment and the at our morning registration no later than 7.30am. From this, we have 55-minute classes in blocks of two with break, lunch and the end of school after each block of two. We then finish school at 2.30pm and are soon out on the pitch ready to train at 3.30pm. Two weeks from now the Cricket Academy is also starting. This will allow us to have more high quality training from quality Natal provincial coaches such as Mr Bucks and Mr Chetty. This Academy starts at 6am, finishes at 7.15am, and will mean we are training twice a day three times a day and at least once a day twice a week with weekends free to train amongst ourselves and to play matches.
Stuart and I are both born in 2001 meaning we play in the ‘U16’ category while Andy and Neil are born in 2000 meaning they play in the ‘Open’ category. Although Stuart and I are yet to play a game, both Andy and Neil had a game against Eshowe Cricket Club on Sunday, January 14th. With Glenwood winning the toss and electing to bat, they finished on 189 off their 50 overs, which seemed very defendable on a very slow pitch and outfield as well as very large boundaries. With Neil top scoring with a very impressive 72 that turned into a match winning knock. Glenwood eventually bowled out Eshowe for 145 in the 45th over with some very tight bowling from Andy who only went at 3 an over for his ten over spell.
With the weekend ahead sees all boys in action against big rivals Kearsney College. We are all enjoying our time here at Glenwood High and are very grateful for the opportunity we have been given and we are all looking forward to the weeks that follow.
Richard Bisgood
Merrion CC/St Gerard’s College