Campion dominate day one of urban U16 cricket final

IT WAS a massive show of red force during day one of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Urban Area U16 cricket final yesterday at the Kensington Oval as Campion College put St George’s College to the sword.

Batting first, Campion College racked up a massive 377-7 declared from 61 overs while in response, St Georges ended the day at bat with 103-7, trailing Campion by 274 runs.

Campion started poorly when Jonathan Fuller was dismissed for a duck. Still, the red bridge from Old Hope Road showed their fortitude when captain Abraham Waugh and Zachary Buchanan combined for a double-century partnership.

Waugh was the first at-bat between the two and tallied 126 runs from 95 balls in his shift, including 15 fours and a six. He was eventually caught and bowled by Geovanni Grey.

Buchanan followed closely in his captain’s footsteps with a century of his own, putting 125 runs on the board from 144 deliveries, with 14 fours making up his tally. He was sent back to the team’s dugout with a leg-before-wicket (lbw) dismissal from bowler Jahdai Gray.

Zachary Taylor was the next best man at bat for Campion with his 73 causing trouble for St George’s before Xavier Charvis accounted for his wicket.

Taylor’s dismissal brought about a flurry of wickets with Neo Xavier and Leandro Phillips failing to trouble the scorers, while Jadon Smith could only add four. Antoine Campbell, 13, and Rhys Williams, nought, were both not out at the time of declaring.

With a title on the line, St George’s response lacked potency with only two batsmen getting to double digits at the day’s end.

Mickel Francis was the first to do so with his tally of 22 runs from 38 balls, but he fell lbw to Waugh.

Having taken the most wickets for St George’s, Charvis could not replicate that form with the bat, sent packing for two when he was bowled by Campbell.

Grey proved St George’s main man with his breezy unbeaten 65 from 63 balls providing some respectability to the innings.

There was some drama at the end of the day with Campion asking the umpires to continue play after the 6 p.m. cut-off. St George’s players were livid that the umpire would consider the fielding team’s request under the circumstances.