In the past weeks since the 18th of January both Max and myself have started playing cricket on Sundays for Benoni Cricket Club. This is the local club to St Benedict’s College and is also the club in which Mr Robey, the Head of Cricket at St Benedict’s plays at. When not playing cricket, our days have consisted of video calling our UK teachers and joining in with classes whilst also keeping up to date with Preps set by our teachers at St Lawrence College.

Amongst this we have also joined a few more South African classes with the new friends that we have made since joining our Exchange Programme. We have cricket training three times a week in the afternoons and we are also taking advantage of having an extra two sessions a week at 6:00am in the morning before school starts. Recently both Max and I played against Jeppe twice in one week, where I was very proud to take 4/49 off of 10 overs in my first 50 over match of our exchange. We have now been to three SA20 games one at the Centurion in Pretoria and two in Wanderers in Johannesburg. This was an amazing experience and we also got to see many of the cricketing global superstars of not only South African cricket but also English cricket too.

We also had the opportunity to go to the SA20 Schools competition, at Willowmoore Park, where we played big schools like Affies and Garsfontein. This was a wonderful experience where we got to play in the main stadium that was also used for the U19 World Cup in 2024. We continue to both have a fantastic time in Johannesburg and we are constantly learning all the time about our cricket skills and overall game. We are very grateful to be given this opportunity and we continue to make the most of our time here at St Benedict’s College.

Both Max and I hope to return back to St Lawrence College with plenty of wickets and runs under our belts, and to hit the ground running as they say for when our cricket season begins at home.