Grootbos Foundation

Shropshire U 13s Vs Grootbos Foundation XI - Match VII 20:20

An early departure from Picardie, bound for Aquilla Game Reserve , a journey which took us through stunning mountains, then steep pitched hillsides with vineyards in their valley bottoms and finally to rolling open countryside. A second breakfast at Aquilla and then all boarded open sided vehicles. Over the course of the next two hours, as these trucks trundled along dirt tracks, we gained close up views of elephants, zebra, rhino, wildebeest, springbok, giraffe, a hot looking lion and the nostrils of a submerged hippo or two. Lunch, some mucking about in the pool and then onwards to Hermanus where a jolly evening meal was had in Fabio’s restaurant. The following morning a quick bus ride eastward along Walker’s Bay and we arrived at Gansbaii, where happy times were had at the Grootbos Foundation. Here the boys played in simultaneous games of football and cricket. The football was played in mixed teams and Messrs Bland reported the Grootbos boys to have ‘talent, remarkable engines and a decent goalie’. As for the cricket, this was played on an astroturf pitch and when batting most of the Grootbos boys did so without either helmets or gloves. In their innings Shropshire made 151 for 3. Sam Davis scored 26, Oscar Cooke was retired on 22 whilst Josh McDonald crunched 42 at a rate of more than 2 per ball. In their response Grootbos’s opener Christiano (45) put on a fine batting display whilst those about him came and went in quick order. When the full 20 overs had been bowled the score was 121 for about 16. Jovan Uppal returned to the boundary with a grin – he’d bowled 3 overs and taken six wickets for zero runs!

Back in the shade of the sports hall we all enjoyed hot dogs, Ed Ashlin made another characteristically inspiring speech and Wendy said some heartfelt words as the bags of kit we’d collected in the UK were presented to the Grootbos Foundation. All of our boys then, without any prompting, took off their tour shirts and handed them to their counterparts. The tour has proven enriching in many ways: There have been occasions aplenty when one and all have had cause to pause and reflect. That which we witnessed at the Grootbos Foundation proved one such occasion.