The Ashburton College 1st XI might have endured a tough day at the office, but there were plenty of positives to come out of two lower grade matches on the weekend.

Up against the cricketing power of St Andrew’s College, the AshColl first team were humbled, losing by 10-wickets – however, it wasn’t all doom and gloom with the batting line-up managing to survive the entire 50 overs.

After winning the toss and electing to wield the willow, the College side put in a good fight with the bat in hand against a strong bowling line-up.

The Jemmett boys, Angus (25) and Lachie (26 not out) both put in strong efforts out in the middle – facing a combined 150-odd balls.

Isaac Bazeley chipped in with a solid 26 off his 55 ball-innings – but the tail failed to wag and AshColl limped through to 130-9 off their 50 overs.

In reply, St Andrews had no problem in chasing down the moderate tally, and did so without losing a wicket to claim maximum points from the match.

Mitchell Leath looks to line up a shot on his way to 51 for the Ashburton College Year 9 & 10 team on Saturday. Photo supplied.While the first team was in action the school’s 2nd XI was doing battle with St Thomas of Canterbury College in a 40-over match.

Asked to field first by their rivals, the AshColl team heaped the pressure on with only two batsmen making it into double figures – thanks in large to a five-wicket haul from Adam Shears who finished with 5-13 off his 7.4 overs.

St Thomas made it through to 67 before they were all out in the 29th over.

In reply, AshColl made reasonably light work of the run chase, scoring 71 within 16 overs – spearheaded by 31 off 19 balls from Seb McMillan.

There was also a dominant victory for the Ashburton College Year 9 & 10 team on the weekend.

They claimed victory by 146 runs in their match against Weedons Rolleston Youth Cricket at the Ashburton Domain.

Batting first, Ashburton College made an imposing 213-6 off 35 overs with Mitchell Leath (51) and Tom Rosevear (59) both raising the bat for half centuries and top-scoring from the middle order.

The defence with the ball in hand didn’t prove to be too much of a difficult task for the College side, who rolled their visitors for 67 in 24 overs.

Dale Burgess led the bowling attack with 3-9 off his three overs while Newel Buenafe and Rosevear both chipped in with two wickets of their own.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 4 November 2020