Welcome to this week’s Wizzy News – our weekly roundup of news and events at Wisborough Green Cricket Club. If you missed last week’s edition of Wizzy News, please click here

Junior cricket training

Just a reminder that Junior cricket training on Friday evenings has officially finished but the Under 8 and above age groups will continue to train throughout the summer holiday period. Please speak to your age group coaches for further details.

We are having an end of season event for our Juniors on Saturday 10 September so please do make a note in your diary.

Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games has just started and its great to see that Ladies T20 Cricket will be featuring for the first time. Matches will be live across the BBC channels – see the match schedule below and click here for the BBC Commonwealth Games page for more information

Holiday Camps for children aged 4-12

Just a quick reminder that West Chiltington are hosting a number of Holiday Camps for children aged 4-12 from the end of July through to the end of August. The sessions are all fun based and cater for children of all abilities, so please do send your children along if they would like to enjoy some more cricketing activities.

Please contact Tim Van Noort on tel 07734 115 482 for further details

Honours Boards

Congratulations to all those who made it onto our Honours boards this week

Match reports

First X1 vs Chichester Priory

After an eventful trip to East Preston last week and winning ways restored, the Green army were hit with a minor setback – for the first time in my lifetime the green was unfit for play and was looking more like farmers’ field mid-harvest. So, with great thanks to Dan Vickery and some frantic searching, we found ourselves hosting Chichester 2s at Witley near Godalming, a lovely scenic ground, now known as the ‘Wisborough Bowl’.

At the Bowl, Farmer chucked the coin up and continued his fine form of losing the toss and being stuck into the field on a nice hot afternoon.

Having spoken with both opening bowlers (March & Klein) it was discussed who should run down the meandering hill, and vice versa up. But the pair decided against their captain’s wishes, and cue the most bizarre of exchanges – with Nick opting to bowl to DJ directly at wicketkeeper and to ignore the cut strip, and Hugo struggling to find his lines. Chichester raced to 39 within the first two overs, with Nick’s only straight ball confusing the batsman and getting him struck in front, adjudged LBW.

The score was around 80 off 10 overs when Will Dixon joined the attack and bowled with great control. It was adjudged that the number 3 was caught behind – even if the Green did appeal for LBW, a slightly lucky one but it was their umpire after all ….

Jimmer (James Newman) and Will were creating chances and it was probably the only part of the day the Green were in control with the ball. They both chipped away and removed the middle order.

The score was around 140/5 when Farmer, Hopkins and Klein tried to limit the earlier damage, but stand-in Chichester Skipper Heavon played and missed early, and soon got into scoring mode and with some large hits kicked Chichester on. Sadly Jimmer wasn’t able to hold on to one of his flat hits off Hoppo’s first over – his next was then punished for 23, an I owe you moment… Hugo came back and bowled with better control as the green tried to reduce what would have been a large total. Nick finally removed Skipper Heavon for 77, after he had a nice seam tattoo stopping one straight back at him hit at some force. Chichester finished on 244/7 off their 40.

Teas were kindly delivered via John and Linda Newman (thankfully not James or they would have been on the floor), with Jenny Jones also on hand to help get them over the brick wall safely! Thank you all, the team dug into a delightful spread.

A new opening pair were heading out as Steve was on his first Saga holiday and a younger model stepped into his place. A debut for Ran Dawson in the 1s, but sadly with the ball hopping around early it was difficult for him to settle and he was removed without scoring.

James and Ash, the league’s top two scorers, had quite a lot on their plate. Jimmer again got the ball away early off the pace, but when spinner Toft came on, the pitch was very receptive, and as he went to leave one the ball hopped up and ricocheted off his gloves on to the stumps for 26. 45/2 and the Green were in a spot of bother.

Martin coming off his quick fire 40 against West Chilt was at the crease with Ash, but a loud call for 2 over the hill saw Martin misjudge his pace, and he was out by half the pitch.

Jnr still playing as a batsman really needed to earn his keep, and he found his stride but could only find a leading edge on 17 and the score was now on 84/4 – Wisborough were now really on the back foot.

Captain Farmer was next in, with Ash just starting to tick, some quick running, well-timed shots from the pair got the score moving quickly before Farmer fell on 132/5.

Will Dixon sadly came and went, and at 141/6 Chichester were in control of the game.

A certain Nick ‘I’m not feeling it today Farmer’ Klein strode to the crease – not the words we wanted to hear. But with a young leg spinner on, it was his time to make up the runs off his bowling. With one full toss aimed towards his head, he duly sent the ball on its way, and repeated this several times to put some pressure back on Chichester. Ash continued to stroke the ball around and continued his fine season. With one final roll of the dice, Chichester brought back on both openers. Nick played his best shot of the season, a dabbed defensive block behind point that raced for 4, but sadly this shot was attempted on one of the stumps and he fell for a fine 38. 208/7 and 37 needed off around 40 balls, 3 wickets in hand. Hugo entered the crease, worked the ball around with Ash, and the rate kept ticking along: 226 and he fell.

The game was on a knife edge, Jimmer well and truly on edge, the ferret couldn’t sit still. DJ kept out the straight ones, and Ash continued to dominate. This was another memorable innings and his only chance he gave the opposition had the whole of the Green team holding their breath as the fielder couldn’t make the dive and hold on. With 9 balls to spare Ash nailed the boundary and was 104 not out. One of the great innings in a WG shirt, and even the opposition said that the knock deserved to be on the winning side. Relief for the WG bowlers, who will be up against it at Horsham next weekend, but a batting line up that is starting to purr. A real cracker on the cards. #upthegreen

Jonny Farmer

Click here for the full scorecard

Second X1 vs Southwater

Disappointing result for WGCC 2nd XI away vs Southwater

• Another glorious afternoon, away at Southwater where the wicket looked dry with a few sizable cracks and the outfield flat, brown and cut low
• WGCC won the toss and elected to field (mainly due to the threat of losing 2 players at 6:30pm) and as it transpired this proved to be a big mistake!
• With the opening bowlers of Oscar and Ollie Warmington beating the bat regularly and early wicket followed with George Redgrove taking a great catch behind the stumps from Ollie’s bowling
• The danger batsmen (Nick Baker) soon followed with a catch by Chris Francis off Ollie’s bowling
• Oscar not wanting to miss out then forced an edge from their No. 3 batsmen and thanks to the lightening reactions of Ollie Stott the ball was bumped into the air for Tarni Dixon to take the easiest of catches – great teamwork behind the stumps.  At this stage Southwater were 55 for 3 and The Green were in ascendance
• Both Oscar and Ollie bowled impressive opening spells and thereafter the intensity and consistency of the bowling attack lowered.  Juan Vorster bowled well without much luck whilst Ollie Stott and Harry Hunter struggled to find their line and length
• The Southwater Captain and the no.5 bastmen then started to build a solid partnership by batting simply and defending the good balls and attacking the bad balls
• The partnership continued such that the Captain sailed through to 50 and then to 100 whilst his partner slowly crept up to 40. 
• The important breakthrough came as Josh Dixon was put on to bowl (the second big error from the WGCC Captain who should have brought him on earlier!) and their Captain was caught well by Ollie Stott on 100 – at this stage Southwater were 216 for 4.
• WGCC then had a new lease of life with Josh Dixon putting the ball on the spot from one end and Ollie and Oscar finishing off their spells ferociously from the other end. 
• On the last over of their innings we bowled them all out for 254.  Impressive bowling figures for Ollie (9 overs 3 wickets for 59), Oscar (9 overs 3 wickets for 41) and Josh (8 overs, 4 wickets for 22)
• Wisborough then strode in confidently after tea with the opening pair of Tom Dawson and Oscar Warmington.  They built a good start and we were at about 50 for 0 off 8 overs when Oscar was bowled. 
• Tom continued to bat well in the face of some unpredicable bounces off the pitch which made the timing of the ball difficult.  Chris Francis came and went quickly.
• Tom and Ollie Warmington then started to build a partnership when Tom was bowled after a well-earned 41 runs
• Ollie W and Juan Vorster steadied the ship briefly with some impressive running between the wickets until Juan was judged LBW.  Ollie Stott was next in and then soon suffered the same fate as Juan.
• The sad Wisborough Green collapse continued with George Redgrove getting a good ball on his first ball, Harry Hunter running himself out and George Andrews scooping the ball up in the air
• Tarni Dixon and Josh Dixon were left to fight it out and rather pathetically Tarni did not commit to a cut shot and it went straight to point for the simplest of catches.  We ended 148 all out after 32 overs.
• A disappointing end to a game we could have won if we had batted first and got 2 more wickets earlier on.  You live and learn and we will be out next Saturday with renewed enthusiam and vigour

Tarnie Dixon

Click here for the full scorecard

Under 14 vs Slinfold

This week’s match report was written by George Redgrove – under 14 player

We all arrived at wisborough green on sunday july 24th. When i say all i mean everyone except Xander whos’s father Bobby Boyce once again let him down by oversleeping and getting him to the match late, luckily for us Xander joined the team in time to bat in his number 5 place.

Will Reed walked out onto the wicket to do the toss against the slinfold captain. We won the toss and opted to bat first which was the beginning of a day of dominance. George Redgrove and Joe Reed went out to open the batting on this nice sunny day. George and Joe started very strongly with a solid run rate. Joe Reed got retired at 42*. When Joe retired his brother Will Reed joined George at the crease. George got out shortly after Joe’s retirement after getting a quick 20 runs. Then Alex Greaves, our number four walked out to join Will. During this stint an extremely hard hit shot sailed over the boundary looking down the throat of several parents one of these was Simon Gray who was tumbling out of seat desperate to get away from the ball (He ended up on the floor.)

The batters both posted a very impressives score of 39, and were both 1 run away from retiring. After they got out Xander Boyce and Rafferty Finn both took up the mantle. Xander got out for 21. Then raff was impressive and got 34* runs. Dexter also got a nice 18 who joined the wicket later. All together we posted a score of 245.

The second half of the game consisted of us bowling. After a very impressive batting display from everyone that walked out onto the wicket it was time for Rafferty Finn and Archie Gray to open the bowling. They both posted impressive figures as Rafferty was 13-0 and Archie was 2-1. After an impressive start from our openers Ben Gwilliam and Dexter our 3rd and 4th bowlers made the breakthrough on their 3rd batsman Ben getting the wicket. After them our usual wiki Alex Greaves had a bowl bowling his unusual off spinners where he took stats of 2-0 of two overs keeping that run rate down. At this point in the game slinfold were in trouble as they couldn’t keep up with the run rate we had set for them. Bowlers like Joe Reed, Xander Boyce, Seb Scrase and Luc Trench bowled impressive overs to finish slinfold off as they could not reach the total we had set for them in time and could only put a score down of 102.

George Redgrove

Click here for the full scorecard

Thanks for these great pics Sam Boyce

Under 12 vs Slinfold

A perfect Saturday morning saw Wisborough Green host Slinfold in a friendly fixture. Slinfold fielded a full-strength under 12 side which was always going to be a tough challenge for the 8 Wisborough players, only two of whom were U12 the rest being U11’s.

Wisborough were sent into bat and set about building a total. Some fine strokeplay from Henry and William T in evidence as they persevered against some tight bowling from Slinfold. As always, Joe hit some heavy shots with Sam also taking the attack back to the bowlers. Layton produced a confident performance with excellent running between the wickets. All the batters showed real resilience in the face of some aggressive bowling. A total of 83 was reached with all but 3 balls of the 20 overs completed.

Knowing that this score was on the light side the Wisborough 8 were determined to take wickets and it was great to see the opening pair of Joe and Harry roaring in from the Ken Vickery end taking a wicket apiece.

Good spells of tight bowling from William Smith, with one wicket, and Tommy with two wickets threatened to swing the match back in Wisborough’s favour. Alas Slinfold’s batting order was deep and they reached the target with several overs to spare.

Throughout the match the players enjoyed the encouragement of their teammates and aside from a few sleepy moments the fielding was precise with no overthrows conceded and some tricky catches held.

Well captained on the day by Harry the team earned the respect of their opponents showing courage and tenacity.

Phil Maggs

Team selections

Please click here for our senior team selections for this weekend’s senior games.

Spotted on the Green

Spotted out and about …..

That’s it for this week.

Thanks again to all our sponsors for their support . Please see offer from Savills below.

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

Have a great cricketing week

#UptheGreen

Cheers

Wizzy