A big hello from Fionn Hand, Sam Murphy, David O'Connor and myself here in South Africa! We will be staying in Uitenhage, Port Elizabeth for the next two months attending school at Muir College and playing cricket at a more than decent standard. We're loving the challenge of playing in a new environment, from the scorching sun to the fast wickets here at Muir.
We train four times a week, twice with the team and then twice with each other. Fionn has adapted well scoring 23 and a 50 last week against York, he has also picked up five wickets. Sam scored an impressive 42 against York. David bowled very well the first week, he took one wicket and kept the runs down to a minimum. Unfortunately David picked up a foot injury the second week and was not able to bowl in the last game. I have taken five dismissals as wicketkeeper for the seconds. We have all started very well and are keen to keep up the good work.
In school we attend English, maths, CAT (computers), EGD (Tech Graph) and geography. School starts at 7.45a.m. and finishes each day at 2.00p.m. The staff and pupils are very welcoming at Muir College. We are making lots of new friends and enjoying school life. We met up with Adi Birrell recently, Thomas Anders (Phoenix player and former Muir student who is playing in the local leagues this winter) and Runeshan Moodley who was part of the Leinster coaching staff on last year’s U’16 tour to the Eastern Cape.
Mr Du Plooy and Mr Suiti (both staff members at Muir) brought us to St. George's Park where we saw South Africa take on West Indies in a thrilling ODI match. Everything is going so well here, we have played matches over the last three weekends. Hope to write with an update soon.
Mark Donegan