bowled too quickly and lacked consistency. Dhiren Joshi bowled his leg-spin steadily and deserved more success. He still lacks confidence when bowling the googly, but with perseverance at practice he could take a lot of wickets. James Duggin had immediate success when he joined the team, but he lost the ability to swing the ball and switched to bowling off-cutters. He showed promise, but needs to practise regularly if he is to learn the trade. The most successful bowler was the keeper Tom Archer, who bowled his medium-pace seamers accurately and late in the season opened the bowling on occasions. The standard of the fielding was satisfactory, but no more than that. Tom Archer, who won the Fielding Cup, set a fine example and greatly impressed the county selectors. Matthew Dodgson was a reliable wicket-keeper and David Hancock had the opportunity to keep in a number of matches. He should benefit from the experience. The Senior House final was won by Temple by ten wickets with the Kay brothers in great form. The Manor did not deserve to lose by such a wide margin and were weakened by an injury which prevented Nick Ogden from bowling. An exciting Junior final ended in a tie between Clifton and The Manor. This year's festival was held at Rossall and we are grateful to them for hosting the festival out of turn, as Ardingly were unable to run it this year. My thanks to Keith Mohan for all his help and coaching. After being far from well during the winter it was great to see him back in good form. We were very grateful to Guy Shuttleworth for coming out of retirement to run the 2nd XI, and what is more an unbeaten 2nd XI. His experience was a great help to the boys and myself. Thanks to Robin Scarce and his groundstaff. The pitches this year were better than ever and our boys are indeed fortunate to play most of their cricket on such a good surface. Thanks also to Christopher Heaton, who scored in most of the 1st XI matches. The cricket committee has continued to give splendid support, organising annually two enjoyable functions, a Dinner/Dance and a Sportsman's Dinner. This year they provided us with an artificial net pitch which has already proved a valuable asset.
CRICKIET Retrospect The 1995 season was disappointing and frustrating. The prospects for the season were good, but the 1st XI fell some way short of its potential. It is true that injuries, illness ar d various other reasons deprived us of players in all but two matches. Indeed in the last week of term when we had three matches, as many as eight of the first team squad were missing. It was all the more disappoir ting that in several matches we played ourselves into a winning position and then were unable to press home the advantage. Individually all the players had good days, bui: effective team performances were rare. Tom Archer did an enthusiastic and efficient job as captain and deserved more success. The leading batsman was Nick Ogden. Always solid in defence he had the ability to score quickly, but it was only late in the season that he started to dominate the bowlers. It was good to see him score his first century against Loretto and continue his impressive form for Yorkshire Schools. He and Tom Archer are to be congratulated on their selection for the Yorkshire Schools XI. Tom had a disappointing start to the season, but when he moved down the order to No.4, he played several valuable innings. Andrew Kay moved up the order to open, but all too often he was dismissed just when he seemed to be established. His 100 at Pocklington was a fine innings and I hope to see him score well next season. Nick Kay had a very good first season in the 1st XI. He played several aggressive innings of quality and impressed a lot of spectators. Inexperience cost him his wicket on a number of occasions, but I am sure that he will learn from his mistakes. Scott P. Bradley started the season in fine form and it was a tragedy both for himself and the team that illness prevented him from playing in the second half of the season. He hit the ball hard and scored his runs very quickly; certainly the team missed his aggression. He deservedly won the Colin Bosomworth Cup for the most-improved player. James Reynolds was always looking to attack the bowling and played some useful innings, but he will have to improve his defence if he is to be a force next year. Matthew Dodgson played well in the middle order, once he had gained confidence from his excellent innings at Barnard Castle. Simon Leveson showed promise on occasions, but has some technique problems to sort out in the winter, as have several other later batsmen in the team. With limited opportunity late in the season James Dougherty showed that he has ability and a good temperament.
Finally there was one success story which gave Keith Mohan and myself immense pleasure. After scoring for the 1st XI during his first four years in the school, Edward Lindley ended his school career by taking ten wickets in the last two 2nd XI fixtures, including 6 for 16 against Worksop. His love of the game, his enthusiasm and his keenness at practices have been a pleasure to see and how lovely it was that he finished so well. More talented players could learn a lot from him. D. Kirby
On the whole the bowling was inconsistent and lacked penetration. Peter Batty bowled well at times, but although he had the pace and height to be really successful, his length ard direction were poor. The other opening bowler position was between Neil Forshaw and Nick Riggall. Nick swung the ball considerably, but lacked pace and direction. Early in the season Nick bowled too many loose deliveries, but later he learned to swing the ball into the right-handed batsmen and became a much more threatening bowler. Nick Ogden was never at his best. After attending county net practices in the winter, he
The following players represented the 1st XI: t*T. J. Archer (captain) 1993-94-95, t*N. J. Ogden 1993-94-95, *S. P. Bradley 1995, *M. C. Dodgson 1995, *D. Joshi 1995, *A. L. T. Kay 1994-95, *N. J. C. Kay 1995, *P. T. Batty 1994-95, *J. E. Reynolds 1995, *N. D. Riggall 1995, N. Forshaw, J. A. M. Duggin, D. J. Hancock, S. J. Leveson. t = Cap * = Colours 65
