Welcome to this week’s Wizzy News – our weekly roundup of news and events at Wisborough Green Cricket Club.

Lots to report on as usual including a very special fielding award and a number of pics of our First X1 Captains and Vice Captains. If you missed last week’s edition of Wizzy News, please click here

The game of cricket

Many of our readers may be new to cricket and may not be familar with the terminology used in the game, so we thought it would be useful to post a weekly video which explains some of the frequently used terms in the game. This week TV personality and cricket enthiusiast Stephen Fry explains the wide ball. Please click on the link below for this informative video

Honours Boards

This week it’s one of our fielders who deserves a special mention for his exemplary services to the club. Duncan single-handedly managed to find over 100 tennis balls at Club President Steve Calder Smith’s tennis court, and following much negotiation with dad Alen, mum Heidi and sister Ella agreed to loan all 100 tennis balls to the club for the rest of the season. A really big thank you to you Duncan for going above and beyond for the club – a worthy addition to our honours board this week.

Congratulations to all the other players who made it onto our honours boards this week – including that fella Josh Dixon who just can’t stop taking wickets.

First X1 vs East Preston

Meet the captains and vice captains ..

It was a warm Saturday at the home of cricket, where visitors East Preston arrived to upset the apple cart and put the Green off their perfect start. It was the first time that the 1st team had been at home this season and Captain Farmer had to first move all the cattle off the meadow to make the green ready for action.

East Preston won the toss, and took a while before deciding to bowl first (FA Cup Final foremost on the skipper’s mind).

Out strode SCS (aka Steve) and Jimmer (aka James Newman) , and it was pretty much the perfect start. Steve was put down fairly early and capitalised on the error. The pair both quickly realised the ball was holding up in the 8 inches of grass and went on to be more aggressive, with Jimmer in particular taking down the leg side boundary.

The score reached 109 when drinks were called. Steve cleaned his glasses and before most had taken their seats he was walking back to the pavillion after having notched up another fine 50.

With the score still on 109, Raggy and Jimmer pushed on with Raggy falling next. It was then that for some reason everyone thought that the only way to play on the green was to aim for the public toilets. Jimmer did his best by spanking the bowlers all over the place, but it was Lucy Uncles who did him with a slower one and cleaned him up for a fine 75.

Tarnie and Farmer tried to calm things down, and it was Tarnie who was clicking, smoking the bad balls and lofting a lovely straight 6 down the Ken Vickery end. Cue another funny 5 minutes. Tarnie called a quick single only for Farmer to turn it down, and leave his man short. The next ball Farmer then got his favorite long hop and could only pick out square leg. 169/5 and the 250 that everyone was hoping for suddenly become a big ask.

Kleiny and Jnr (aka James Rainford) managed to rebuild and take the score just over 200 before Nick fell to a good catch. The final wickets tumbled as slogging was apparently the way to go when just finding gaps was probably the better option – 211/9.

Our first Tea of the season and Daniel Vickery put on a fine spread, aided by Mrs Farmer’s famous sausage rolls. Dan is on day 4 of his pasta rations.

With the team fueled and wanting to push for 3 out of 3, Jnr yet again led from the front with the ball. Our chief statto and First team umpire Peter Mattock confirmed that only 4 of Jnrs 48 balls that were bowled went for runs – a dropped catch being one of them . He only took one wicket but it was the pressure that was applied that got the Green off to a great start, finishing his spell with figures of 1 for 8 off 8.

East Preston however were patient and moved the scores onto 71 before Nick Klein entered the 2022 wicket charts. He bowled a fine spell and removed the 3 danger men that normally do very well against the Green. Farmer chipped in at the other end with the score on 96/5.

East Preston were not done – their middle/late order swung from the hip and made it nervy for the Green, not helped by some dropped catches. The Wicket keeper was a fine young player and he started to unleash his shots. Luckily for us his partner closelined him when running the second and Jnr fired one over the stumps for Vickery to do the rest.

Captain Farmer had to play all his cards, and with Frank Vickery coming up the hill it was looking desperate. Frank’s first over was as he promised – tight line and length and Farmer took a fine low catch to all but secure the victory.

Newman and Franky then had other ideas – to drop it short and be dispatched into the trees. Luckily one final chance went up and SCS was under it to make it 3rd time lucky.

Victory for the Green, 3 out of 3, a first for many years. The train moves on to Chichester and the beautiful Goodwood Ground

Player of the match – Jnr for his key late runs, tight opening spell and run out.

Jonny Farmer

Click here for the full scorecard

Second X1 vs Crawley Eagles

• 10 man Green travelled to Crawley Eagles picturesque pitch in Turner’s Walk on a hot Saturday afternoon
• Skipper Chris Marshall won the toss and elected to bat
• Jack Dixon and Chris Marshall got the innings off to a brisk start on a fast outfield notching up 30 in the first 6 overs
• Jack Dixon seeing the ball very well , hammered a number of square cut boundaries
• Juan Vorster looking in good form, took his cue from Jack and batted well for his 26
• Jack Dixon finally caught behind for a well played 50.
• Mick Hollands and Harry Hunter played a few good shots but were out too soon
• Wickets tumbled quickly as the innings petered out
• Crawley Eagles set a target of 132 to win
• Harry Hunter and Juan Forster opened the bowling . Both had the batters in trouble without claiming a scalp.
• Josh Dixon carried on taking taking wickets for fun as he bowled two (one around his legs) and claimed one lbw.
• Crawley Eagles reached the target in the 21st over with seven wickets remaining
• A dissapointing day for the Green but it was good to see George Andrews playing again alongside son Arthur

Click here for the full scorecard

Under 14’s vs West Chiltington & Thakeham

WGCC lost the toss and were put into bat on an overcast rain threatened morning. Overs were reduce to 20 and a rain delay later in the first innings reduced the overs 18 each innings.

Rafferty Finn and Dexter McCullen opened against a strong bowling attack. Rafferty was bowled to a fantastic ball for 5 before Dexter and Xander Boyce went on to each reach retirement scores of 34 and 31 respectively.

Alex Greaves (capt) grafted well for his 8 with George Redgrove (6 not out) and Lukas Graham-Cloete (1 not out) seeing out our innings.

After 18 overs we gave West Chilt 111 to chase.

We started well in the field with Rafferty taking a stunning catch off the bowling of Archie Gray to remove their opener. Xander picked up the wicket of their second batter and Lukas took 2 fine wickets for 18.

West Chilt played their strongest batters in the middle order and we were unable to stem the tide of a flog fest that saw West Chilt get over the line with 2 overs to spare.

A well spirited game in tough weather conditions where again our mainly U13 side gave a hugely respectable performance against an all U14’s opposition.

Jon Finn

Click here for the full scorecard

Under 12’s vs Southwater

The under 12 team faced an experienced Southwater XI, bowling first against a strong batting line up.

Despite an early wicket taken by Jackson the Southwater top 4 made quick progress finding the boundary regularly on a fast, if large, outfield using the pace of the Wisborough attack. Henry produced an excellent late spell taking two wickets and consistently hitting the perfect length for the pitch. Wisborough produced an energetic fielding performance keeping their concentration well, with a tidy performance behind the stumps from Gus.

144 was the target which was always going to be tricky. Some excellent technique was shown by the top order but runs were hard to come by with many fine shots finding fielders rather than open spaces. The second half of Wisborough’s reply saw the batters run some quick singles putting Southwater under some pressure and Harry Richardson provided some real impetus with an aggressive 20. The chase fell 30 short with 6 of the 7 wickets falling to just two of their bowlers.

Great character and team spirit was shown throughout and Joe captained the team well. A few things to work on as we prepare for another away game against Horsham Trinity.

Thanks to Tom and Kirsty for umpiring and scoring.

Phil Maggs

Click here for the full scorecard

Under 10’s vs Horsham

Well done to our under 10 team who came up against a formidable Horsham team consisting of 4 Sussex Pathway players in the hot sun. It was such a pleasure to see such a positive attitude from the whole team who never gave up trying.

Special mention must go to Aofie who bowled well for her first time in a match and Eva’s bravery to face such fast bowlers in also her first game of cricket.

Wilf and Tommy did brilliantly – putting 100% into everything they did and were always in the hunt for more runs and wickets.

It was so good to see new player Charlie in action for the first time – he showed a great deal of technique and ability with the bat.

Joanna, our skipper for the day, who always puts 100% into her bowling, is getting faster and improving every game.

Joshua batted and bowled superbly and deserved to take far more wickets than he ended up with.

Max looked very good and in control at the crease and made some great cricketing shots and runs.

Coco was as cool as a cucumber and calm with both bat and ball and made a great all round cricketing performance to be proud of.

Last but by no means least – Neve – who despite an injury kept smiling throughout the game and lifted the spirit of the whole team.

Congratulations to all the players – you never gave up and made us all incredibly proud of you .

George Nicholls

Senior Team selection for Saturday

Please click here to view the senior team selections for this Saturday

Used club kit

Do you have any used club kit lying about that your children have grown out of including whites, pads, cricket bats, golves , etc etc ? If so please do drop it off at the Pav. Children grow out of their kit so quickly and it would be great to pass on used kit to other children who could make good use of it.

Interested in learning how to score ?

Do you know of anyone who is interested in learning how to score ? Scoring is such an important part of the game and learning how to score gives a real depth of understanding of the game itself . We are in the process of creating a Whatsapp group aimed at suporting scorers, so please do get in touch if you would like to learn how to score, or know someone who may be interested in learing how to score.

Parent helpers for Friday evening training

We are always looking for parent helpers to assist our coaches at our Friday evening training sesions. If you are able to help out in any way please speak to your child’s coach or to our head of Junior Cricket Jon Finn via email jon.finn@icloud.com or mobile no 07801 140975

RunWisborough 2022

Well done to all those who took part in RunWisborough – it was great to see so many familiar faces on the course !

The results of the 5k and 10k races are available on the website and photographs of the day are currently being uploaded so do check out the RunWisborough website https://runwisborough.co.uk/

Platinum Jubilee celebrations on the Green

Please do join in the festivities on Green for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations from Thursday 2 June to Sunday 5th June.

WizFest – Friday 3 June

With the Race night very nearly sold out, come and join the fun to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee at Wizfest. The countdown has begun with just two weeks to go….

Wizfest brings together all ages of the village from 13 upwards for an exciting evening of entertainment, food and drink. We welcome Pizza Trullo and Ox Burger for you to enjoy while listening to local bands. Brook Saunders has been busy brewing with a Jubilee special of Royal Blood Pale Ale from Wisborough Green’s very own Brolly Brewing.

….and finally – spotted out and about

Please click here for the ‘Accountant needed’ Youtube clip

That’s it for this week

If there is anything we need to know – you know where to find us !

Have a great cricketing week

#UptheGreen

Cheers

Wizzy