A glorious afternoon at Newfield saw our Form 7 boys play Heriots, Stewart's Melville and Edinburgh Academy for the Mendl Trophy, named after a former EA teacher who dedicated 25 years of his life to coaching cricket at the school and passed away in recent years. I suspect he would have been proud to see the standard of cricket on show today with some tremendous catches, run outs, bowling and batting displays from all the teams.

We started our challenge for the trophy against Heriot's on the large, middle pitch at Newfield. We elected to bat first and our captain, Archie, shot out of the blocks quickly with a terrific 26 from his 15 balls he was allowed to face before retiring. Unfortunately, Rafa fell first ball when he chipped a slightly wide of off-stump delivery to mid-wicket but Monty built our score up with a very competent 18 to set Heriot's a tricky chase of 94 to win from 10 overs. Rafa redeemed himself with the opening ball of the innings with the pink ball skipping rapidly off the astro wicket surface to smash the bales up in the air. Economical bowling from Wilfred, Theo and Alexander and then further wickets from Archie (2), Alexander, Tristan, Monty and a terrific caught and bowled from Harry followed by a wonderful run out from him moments later, ensured a comfortable 46 run victory. 

Moving over to the smaller pitch behind the pavilion via collecting our sausage roll, cereal bar and crisps, we faced a Stewart's Melville side who had narrowly lost their opening match to the hosts who put in a terrific run chase.
Again, we won the toss and Archie elected to bat with a different partnership opening. Alexander and Rafa got the score board ticking over very quickly with a few sixes and twice as many fours and both reaching the mid-twenties before Rafa was bowled on 26 and Alexander retired on 24. Jamie put together a respectable 13 not out but the highlight of the match was Archie's 43 from 13 balls including 26 in one over. The boundary was small but you still needed to get bat on ball and the skipper led with intent meaning we posted a terrific 118 for 2.

It was reachable on the small pitch and the team in black, red and gold, having lost an early wicket to a super caught and bowled from Jamie, had a good second wicket partnership where both players scored exactly the same runs as our openers. Therefore, we needed the likes of Charles who opened his bowling account with an absolute peach of a delivery clipping the top of middle stump and that was the only other wicket in this match. There would have been another immediately after had his foot not gone over the crease for a no ball. Whilst we didn't take any more wickets, what won us the match was our accurate fielding with Dexter's flawless performance behind the stumps with the gloves and Harry's super over going for only 1 run meaning the run rate was out of reach with two overs to go but they still scored a highly respectable 83.

In our final match, coincidentally becoming the unofficial "final" given both sides went into this one with two wins from two and therefore one hand on the trophy, we remained on the small pitch and this time, were put in to field first. This was unfamiliar territory and it didn't start well with our first ball going for 4 bye runs having gone through two sets of fielder's legs. That set the tone for the next couple of overs where we were rather sloppy in the field - possibly due to the heat and concentration levels being severely tested but the hosts played some super shots. Once they had been retired, the runs began to dry up thanks to our sharp fielding and the ball being fizzed back in from the outfield from Theo especially. Monty got a crucial wicket and James took two in two balls including another caught and bowled. James and Tristan both got run outs and EA reached a total of 78 runs which we felt was achievable if we kept our composure with the bat and didn't give away any cheap wickets. Alexander and Rafa once again paired up to open and Alex batted confidently with loud, clear calling and playing some lovely forward drives. Unfortunately, he smashed one in the air back to the bowler who made no mistake in taking a wonderful catch - the best of the many caught and bowls we had seen today as it came so fast to her. However, our opening batters had built a solid platform with them all reaching double figures and that allowed Monty and James to play some nice quick singles to get us over the line with 13 balls to spare. 

Well done to the team who secured the Mendl Trophy for the first time and thank you to EA for their hospitality and all the players for showing how strong the cricket is on the Edinburgh schools' circuit.