Langa Township - the final curtain

All the Twyford party had tours around Cape Town townships in the morning and were duly chastened and informed by the poverty, inadequacy of habitation and yet many positive rays of hope of the thousands, who live in these most basic of homes.

Langa sports stadium, surrounded by a high wall, offers several sports pitches, nets and a vital clubhouse centre. The ground slowly filled with many locals, who came to support their team. The atmosphere was lively and  noisy; throw downs to the Twyford batsmen turned into fully fledged secondary games of cricket and Alison Fulton initiated a popular paper-plane airshow.

Once the mole-hills were temporarily flattened, the game began. Oscar won the toss again (I think we won all of them on this tour) and put in the township team. They seemed to vary dramatically in size (from bigger than Max to about the same size as Rory), in age (rumours of 19) and also possibly a girl in the team. Many shared bats and gloves passing them across as one batsman was out. Some did not have helmets. None of this diminished from their enthusiasm and commitment.

Batting technique may have been cavalier rather than "elbow high", but runs and wickets came in fits and starts. Rory was pick of the bowlers with three wickets, and Oscar picked up a couple. We got them out for 116, which was more than it looked at one stage and less than it might have been at another.

The Langa bowling was enthusiastic rather than disciplined, but their fielding was high energy, with many great catches and several direct hits on run-out attempts. Twyford made hard going of things, and it was Charlie and Gregor who had a great stand with zillions of singles, run out scares, overthrows and bold hitting, which swung the game our way; Charlie making a fine fast-pace 44.
Sadly, the late order could not quite match the run rate, and to hysterical jubilation Langa won by a dozen runs. Perhaps Twyford should have shown the discipline to win, but the team with the biggest heart on the day pulled it off - that is the joy of cricket.