Sir Garfield Sobers Visits Caterham School to see the 1st XI Play MCC
Caterham School hosted a wonderful cricketing occasion on Tuesday 19 June. The 1st XI played a very competitive match against an MCC team that contained some high quality cricketing talent including Old Caterhamian and former Surrey professional James Benning and Simon Jackson – Jamaica’s opening batsman. In a well fought contest, the MCC posted a very respectable 232 declared. Despite some valiant batting, including 49 from Ross Powell, the Caterham students were all out for 171.
Towards the latter stages of the match, the players were delighted to see that Sir Garfield Sobers, one of cricket’s greatest ever all-rounders, had come to visit the school and watch the match from the newly refurbished Leathem Pavilion.
Assistant Head, David Clark, said: ‘Sir Garfield Sobers stayed for several hours to watch the cricket and chat with students. He kindly gave a short speech and then signed copies of his book and students’ cricket bats. I suspect that some bats are now too precious ever to be taken onto the cricket pitch again. With so much disruption to the cricket season this year, the visit of such a great cricketing legend proved a real tonic to the young players.’
Photo – Jai Patel (First Year) with Sir Garfield Sobers.