A Thunderous Finale to Four Days In The Valley.

After enjoying our last view of the sunrise over the Kasese plain from our breakfast table, we loaded up the bus and headed out for festival day in Kalembe. Yesterday had given us some idea of the sheer volume of cricket mad kids in this area, but I don’t think anything could have prepared us for what lay in wait. Just as we started to feel that we had things under control with around 280 children present and arranged by school in the middle of the field, the vans, buses and one literally named “School Truck” started to disgorge even more children – our final official count was 483!! Luckily most were here just to cheer on their schoolmates in the days competition, and the atmosphere they provided was electric throughout the day.

After organising our longest Mexican wave yet, we divided the playing area into four pitches, trying to orientate the strips to minimise balls going over cliffs, or into ‘Black Mamba’ territory. After some rocks had been removed from a length, most of the pitches played true enough for some enthralling competition. The knockout rounds for U11 and U13 saw some closely fought matches and some very competitive teachers, but passed off in good spirit throughout, with many notable performances, including from the ‘Kasese Lara’ – who hit 2 sixes before being clean bowled the ball after Ross had christened him!

After lunch we moved onto the finals, started in fine style by the seniors of Kasese and Kalembe secondary schools. A boisterous crowd ringed the boundary, loudly cheering and jeering the performances of the players. I feared for some of our group in amongst the Kalembe ‘Ultras’, camped behind the bowlers arm and easily the loudest supporters on display – invading the pitch when their team won the game and carrying their batsmen shoulder high on a victory lap before performing individual victory dances.

Next were the U11 and U13 finals, that were both going down to the wire, whipping the crowds to fever pitch. After a genuine tie the U11s were just about to start a super over, and the U13s had just 3 balls left when the unthinkable happened – After 3 days of scorching heat and sunshine, the heavens opened and down came the rain. Thunder and lightning rumbled all around the valley, and sadly play had to be abandoned for the day as we decamped to an unlit school hall on the boundary for the prize giving, where SJ had to contend with several hundred children enjoying the echoing acoustics as she tried to award the prizes.

On top of all the excitement of the tournament, the HIV testing station provided for us by Mr Charles and AFODE had tested over 290 children and parents by the time we left, which is a really huge proportion of those present, which we hope mean that the testing message is really getting through.

All in all a fantastic few days in a cricket mad mining valley, which I was really sad to leave.

At the end of the day it was all back to the bus for the (relatively) short journey to Fort Portal, where we all look forward to seeing what awaits us tomorrow.

Richard Armes