We said goodbye reluctantly to our luxury accommodation in Windhoek early in the morning ( breakfast at 06.15 ) for the drive 200km SE into the desert on the Windhoek HS bus - all mod cons as you would expect from a bus built in the early 1970s!!! We saw more animals en route ( it took over 2 hours ) than we saw cars - kudu, imphala, springbok, donkeys, warthogs to name but a few. We arrived at the remarkable cricket field on the farm owned by Mr Jan Ackerman about 9.45. In the middle of his farm (45,000 acres no less with approaching 5000 sheep) he has created a cricket field with its own irrigation system ans water bore hole. It is not Lord's, the grass peters out before the boundary into sand which means aerial shots can stop in a bunker, but the articial wicket is good and the african huts around the ground ( in which the boys slept) give it a feel almost as unique as Lord's. The uniqueness is rounded off by 4 trees wiuthin the field of play where the local rule is that you can be caught of the tree ansd if a ball gets stuck you can carry on running - something Tom Kopelman took advantage of when he scored a 9 (11 being the record ) !!
Windhoek HS batted first and clearly knew how to make the most of the conditions scoring briskly with very un english style aerial shots. They scored 299 all out in 42 overs. Our bowling toiled in the heat (42 degrees), Rahul Patel took 3 wickets, only Simon Macleod was economic going for 40 off 9 overs. H Marx scored 132 for the opposition. When we batted we took time to adapt to the conditions and their fielding in the heat was more energetic than ours. Visakan Balakumar scored a maiden 1st XI 50 and batted effectively, supported by Rishabh Shah, 34. Others made reasonable scores but we fell well short being bowled out for 208. (nb Tom Kopleman's 9 in one shot must be a new school record of sorts!!.)
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