SHEBBEAR College Prep’s netball team were crowned champions of the Holsworthy High 5s League earlier this month.

They sealed the title, their 9th victory in as many games with a 19-2 win over St Giles Primary School.

In rounders, the under-15s started their season in ominous mood for the rest of the division after resounding victories over St Joseph’s and Mount Kelly. In the first game, an excellent fielding performance meant that Mount Kelly were all-out within 12 balls before some clean striking meant they won by a massive 14 points (16-2).

In their second game, Shebbear thrashed St Joseph’s 15.5-5 with some high quality fielding led by Holly Nancekivell who was awarded player of the match. This was demonstrated by the fact that St Joseph’s were restricted to scoring just half a rounder in their second innings.

While the under 15s started with emphatic victories, the under 14s were gallant losers in an exceptional match with St Joseph’s who squeezed home by half a rounder off the last ball. With Cara and Jess working well in tandem at backstop and first base, the fielding was of the highest order, but the first innings of the game proved costly as Shebbear could only muster three points.

While the under 14s were narrowly on the wrong end of their game, the under 13s had to settle for a 15-15 draw with Budehaven despite an excellent all-round team performance led by Hazel who starred with bat and ball and a fantastic first innings batting performance but were ultimately reeled in for a share of the spoils by a resilient Budehaven side.

The second Shebbear v Bude encounter of the week saw Budehaven claw back a first innings deficit to win by1.5 rounders in a high-scoring thriller. Shebbear were two rounders up at the halfway stage before Bude showed their class to ultimately pip the hosts to the points.

The under 12s started their cricket season on Saturday, May 7 and lost by 79-runs to a well-drilled Mount Kelly side who took advantage of a number of missed chances to score 131 of their allocation of over’s. With the bat, Shebbear were always up against it facing a good total against a decent bowling side they were soon all out for 52 despite some impressive resistance from Harry Arden and a few lusty blows from Jacob Luxton.

Two days later, they were back in action again against Uffculme and again their batting struggled on a lively artificial wicket to be bowled out for just 43, Harry Brown top-scoring with 9. The hosts weren’t in the mood to hang around and romped home to a ten-wicket win despite some good bowling by Luke Maxa and Joe Faulkner.

There was a run-fest on Saturday, May 7 at Mount Kelly as the under 13 cricketers lost off the penultimate ball despite an incredible hundred by Rivaldo Clarke. Opening the innings, he and Werrington Cricket Club starlet Freddie Stevenson put on a half-century stand before a mini collapse saw them languishing on 90-3 with just five over’s remaining. However, Clarke then proceeded to bludgeon seven sixes to race to 110 not out as Shebbear finished on 159-3 off their 25 overs. In reply, Mount Kelly were tied down by some excellent opening spells from Cameron Young (2-26) and Stevenson (2-32), despite some tidy bowling from Dan Shaw (1-14), a poor fielding display and some excellent batting from their skipper saw the hosts squeeze home in the one of the best games of cricket likely to be seen at such a young age.

While the Shebbear juniors have been out wielding the willow, the schools’ hockey coach Alan Muller has been in Australia playing for the England Over 65s team in the World Cup.

Playing six games in 12 days presents a pretty hard schedule, but despite this they managed to reach the final where they lost 1-0 to the Aussies. In the semi-final, Muller scored the first goal from a penalty stroke as they beat New Zealand 4-2 before ultimately having to come second fiddle to the Green and Gold.

Despite the disappointment, Muller will have been heartened to learn that under 16 hockey stars; Cara Phillips and Kitty Scrambler, have been selected to go to the West Junior Regional Performance Centre to continue their hockey education.