The end of year 2000 saw the departure of Mr Peter Whalley from St John's College. Mr Whalley has for many years been a leading light in Zimbabwean schools cricket and indeed in cricket at St John's College. The College takes this opportunity to wish Mr Whalley well in his future in the United Kingdom.

Cricket at St John's College continues however to develop from strength to strength. For the first time in many years there are four senior sides and also A, B, C and D teams in the age groups. This is an extremely healthy situation and the College is doing all in its power to encourage continued growth. To this end several outside coaches including ex-schoolboys have been invited to come in and coach. Notable amongst the outside coaches are Mr Bill Flower and Mr Kevin Curran who have offered their services and will be used throughout, offering advice and coaching at all levels and to all cricketers. There is no doubt to that all boys at St John's will enjoy and indeed benefit from the great knowledge and enthusiasm of these two coaches.

The 2001 season started in earnest with the opening of school on 16 January. Despite constant rain interruption almost all sides were practising during the week. The first weekend fixture was to be played against Lomagundi College. However due to extremely heavy rain at Lomagundi the fixtures were turned about and those `A' teams and the first team who were supposed to play away played at home. A sharp shower during the Friday afternoon at St John's ensured that the wickets were lively at the start of all home games. Unfortunately all the College captains managed to lose the toss and were sent into bat. In the case of the first team the two openers showed real commitment, carrying on to make 49 runs before the first wicket fell. However the difficult conditions meant that extreme caution had to be exhibited and the run rate never got above 2.3/2.7 per over for the first 30 overs. As the day progressed the wicket remained very difficult; however a good 49 from Richard Caldecott and 22 from Warwick Calasse saw St John's reach 156 at the end of their allotted 50 overs.

Lomagundi then also began very slowly, losing three wickets in the first eight overs before lunch for a mere seventeen runs. Their innings was however stabilised by some aggressive batting from T. Benade and B. Henwood. The latter went on to score a very fine 74 not out and indeed lead his side to victory. Lomagundi finally ended on 161 for seven with seven overs remaining. Although several chances were offered St John's were unable to exploit these opportunities and therefore Lomagundi certainly deserved their win.

The other two games were similarly low scoring affairs. Lomagundi managed to win the Under-16 A game and the College the U15 A game. Neither game really had highlights worth mentioning, the boys nonetheless thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get out and play despite the diabolical pitches.

This weekend the College takes on Peterhouse in a full range of fixtures. A great and healthy sporting rivalry exists between these two schools so weather permitting some outstanding cricket should be played.

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