With the Academy currently away in South Africa, Glamorgan\'s Head of Talent Development, Richard Almond gives us the low-down on their first three days on tour.
TOUR UPDATE - DAYS 1-3
The Academy boys have had three excellent days in South Africa the highlight being an excellent victory today over the Hampshire Academy.
The accommodation and facilities at Hilton College have been first-class and the weather so far has not disappointed. There are some very red interesting tan lines on some of the players and coaches.
After a very long 30 hours of travelling the tour finally started on Friday with a beautiful sunny hot day for some nets followed by a pool session and a BBQ just to ease the boys into there new surroundings. The easy first day was followed by a double training day with nets and fielding in the morning and a middle practise in the afternoon in preparation for our game against Hampshire on Sunday.
Batting first on an excellent surface the innings got off to a solid start with Chris Matthews (21) and Muji Ilyas (35) putting on 62 for the first wicket. This solid platform allowed Tom Bevan (61) and Alex Horton to play with freedom and they put on a superb partnership of 93. The young Horton playing his first Academy game at just 14 years old played with great maturity to top score with 77 in our total of 227 off 40 overs.
Some tight new ball bowling from Luke Cheshire and Kazi Szymanski put Hampshire under some early pressure and the bowlers were rewarded with two early wickets. By the time the spinners came on to bowl the run rate had climbed to over eight and some good bowling from Muji Ilyas (3 for 27)and Tom Bevan (2 for 29) at the end of the innings meant Hampshire were all out for 205 resulting in an excellent win by 22 runs.
Tomorrow sees a return to the nets and then on Tuesday the boys are really looking forward to spending a night out in the African bush on the very impressive Hilto College Estate.