View Wynberg’s Peninsula Cricket Festival match photo collection on Flickr
The return of the annual Peninsula Cricket Festival was organised by Rondebosch Boys for their 125th celebrations, with the local school hosting our visitors from the other provinces. Played from 11 – 15 January on our Jacques Kallis Oval and the Silverhurst A Field, the event enabled our 1st XI and U15A to test themselves early in the season against some of the best cricketing schools in the country.
The festival began with two declaration matches, two 50 over matches, and then a T20 on the last day.
1st XI
Day 1 vs Pretoria Boys’ High
Wynberg Boys won the toss and batted first declaring on 243/5 in 64 overs with Paul James (68), Ryan Coetzer (63), and Daniel Lategan 56.
Pretoria Boys, after a steady start, were rocked by Cullan Larkin’s superb swing bowling whose figures of 6/30 proved the decisive spell as Pretoria were bowled out for 145 affording Wynberg a comfortable 98 run victory.
Day 2 vs Affies
The 2nd declaration match against Affies proved to be the closest contest of the week. On a slow and difficult wicket, Wynberg managed 139/10 after 60 overs and with Affies in the driving seat at 110/4. The 1st XI showed tremendous spirit in clawing their way back into the game with thanks to a fine spell of bowling from our spinners Yasseen Moos (4/30) and Naas Beets (4/34). The momentum swung back and forth over the last hour with Wynberg eventually snatching a very entertaining and nail-biting 6 run victory.
Day 3 vs Hilton College
WBHS welcomed the formidable Hilton College for a 50 over match and Hilton looked set for a massive score as they approached 98/1, but the introduction of Umayr Davids (3/30) and Naas Beets (3/16) quickly changed proceedings with a collapse that saw Hilton bowled out for 126.
Kyle Williams controlled the Wynberg chase cautiously with a valuable 61* to ensure a 5 wicket win.
Day 4 vs St David’s
A 50 over encounter with St David’s where Wynberg batted first after winning the toss. Once again Kyle Williams provided some stability with 43 to get the total to 196/7.
St David’s were 124/8 ensuring a 72 run victory for Wynberg.
Day 5 vs St Charles College
WBHS and the JK Oval welcomed St Charles for a T20 match. Wynberg, batting 1st, scored a very impressive 171/1 with Daniel Lategan scoring his maiden 1st Team century of 112 off only 68 balls in his 5th match. Paul James supported well with his score of 44 off 37.
Despite a very solid start from St Charles, the introduction of spin slowed things dramatically and Beets, Moos, and Davids combined well to restrict St Charles to 119/7 and deliver a very clinical 52 run victory for the 1st XI and 5 out 5 wins in the festival.
A very good start to 2022 for this young Wynberg team who were without their Captain Juan James who was away at Cubs week.
U15A
The u15A squad also took part in the Festival where they won 2 drew 1 and lost 2.
The boys made very good progress over the course of the week and are starting to show some promising signs as a unit with captain Hilton Botha leading by example. They showed resilience after the 1st day to keep themselves in many of the games despite not having the upper hand.
Day 1 vs Grey College
WBHS 119/10 – L Kleinsmith (40)
Grey College 121/4
Grey College won by 6 wickets
Day 2 vs Affies
Affies 254/9 in 65 overs – Mo Ameen Schroeder 3/28
WBHS 159/5 in 55 overs – M Gabriels 69
Match Drawn
Day 3 vs Hilton College
WBHS 169/9 in 50 – Aneeq Williams 70*
Hilton College 172/7
Hilton College won by 3 wickets
Day 4 vs St David’s
St David’s 112/10 – Tait David 4/11
WBHS 116/4 – Storme van Rooyen 40*, Moosa Gabriels 38
WBHS won by 6 wickets
Day 5 vs St Charles, T20
WBHS 133/10
St Charles 117/9 – Hilton Botha 4/17
Wynberg won by 16 runs
I would like to thank the staff who assisted with this festival and who gave up much of their last week’s holiday, and the parents who supported the boys and also did a great job in hosting teas and welcoming our guests from all around the country. Our boys were certainly blessed to be able to play against and measure themselves against some of the top cricketing schools in the country.
Andrew Wylie
WBHS Director of Cricket
