On Wednesday of this week, the 12 boys signed up to next Easter’s proposed Barbados Cricket Tour spent a fantastic afternoon at Haileybury College using their state-of-the-art equipment under the guidance of Haileybury’s Director of Cricket, former Dutch international Daan van Bunge. It was a super couple of hours with our boys facing two bowling machines – one bowling away swing and the other being the famous Merlyn machine, designed specifically to help the England cricket team combat the leg spin of Shane Warne ahead of the 2005 Ashes series! As well as this, there was a bowling net where boys got immediate feedback from ‘pitch vision’ as well as a speed gun as to the pace of their deliveries. The third group had balls fired at them from a third machine to work on their ground fielding and agility catches, often ending up in a crumpled heap on a crash mat! All groups rotated with about 40 minutes spent on each element of the game. We were then treated to tea, pool and table tennis in one of the boarding houses within the stunning Haileybury grounds. Well done to the 12 boys who represented the school so positively and my huge thanks to Daan and all those at Haileybury who made us feel so welcome and gave us such a privileged and productive afternoon.
Steve Bloom