Schools get in swing of Pearson Festival
EASTERN Cape schoolboy cricketers will get to fire some early warning shots when 10 teams compete in the annual Pearson Festival, sponsored by Powerade, starting at the Summerstrand school on Thursday.
With the fourth term being so short thanks to exams starting next month, Pearson have attempted to create a few more cricketing opportunities and their tournament has proved popular in recent years.
This is the sixth year they will be holding the festival and they have attracted teams from Grey High, Woodridge and Alexander Road to play this time.
Even though manyschools have just completed their rugby programmes, there should be some entertaining cricket at Pearson, with Marlow Agricultural and Union High adding another dimension.
There will be a variety of formats, with two Twenty20 games on Thursday, a declaration game on Friday and a 50-overs game on Saturday.
Last season, Framesby had arguably their best season ever when they won the Eastern Cape schools T20 competition and it will be interesting to see what sort of form they produce this week.
The competing teams are: Marlow Agricultural, Union High, Framesby, Westering, St Dominic's Priory, Victoria Park, Grey, Woodridge and Alexander Road.
The fixtures are:
Thursday, T20: Pearson v Alexander Road, Pearson A; St Dominic's v Woodridge, Victoria Park B; Westering v Framesby, Westering A; Victoria Park v Marlow, Victoria Park A
Match 2: Pearson v Woodridge, Pearson A; Marlow v Invitation XI, Pearson B; Victoria Park v Grey, Victoria Park A; St Dominic's v Framesby, Victoria Park B; Westering v Alexander Road, Westering A
Friday, declaration format: Pearson v Grey, Pearson A; Alexander Road v Union, Victoria Park B; Victoria Park v St Dominic's, Victoria Park A; Framesby v Woodridge, tbc; Westering v Marlow, Westering A. Saturday, 50-overs: Grey v Union, Old Grey; Pearson v Marlow, Pearson A; Westering v St Dominic's, Westering A; Victoria Park v Woodridge, Victoria Park A; Framesby v Alexander Road, Pearson B
THE Pearson U16A boys have had a highly successful soccer season, losing only two matches in their regular programme.
The highlight of the season was winning the Eastern Province U16 Knockout Cup, beating Woodridge U16A, Grey U15A and St Andrew's U16A on the way to the final.
In the final, they came up against Grey U16A in a match that was deadlocked at 0-0 until the final 30 seconds when Pearson's Bradley Gouveris slotted the winning goal.
This year, Pearson had Eastern Province representatives in the form of Meldon Clark and Joshua Smith (EP U16A), and Bradley Gouveris, Wade van Zyl and Brendon Gauld (EP U16B).
