Welcome to the new season
Welcome to the 2022 cricket season ! For those who are new to the club a very warm welcome, and a particular welcome to Wizzy News – our weekly roundup of news and events at Wisborough Green Cricket Club. Regular readers will know the format of Wizzy News – a bit of news about cricket, information about what’s going on in the community , and a good old chuckle about this and that. We don’t take ourselves too seriously at the club and we enjoy having a dig at players and personalities at the club, so if you’re important enough to be a target of our humour please take it as a compliment !
First things first
We would firstly like to thank all those behind the scenes who have made the cricket season possible this year. A huge effort has gone into preparing the Square which is in the best shape it has been in for many years and we would like to thank Richard Mellor, Tom Wood, Lee and the team in particular, along with the Wizzy rollers (not to be confused with the Bay City Rollers) for all their efforts. We would also like to thank Andy Burbridge, Mike Gadd, Tim March and the fundraising teams for the work they put into the outfield over the winter. As many know the outfield was levelled and drainage was installed over the winter and a massive effort has gone into preparing the outfield for the summer’s activities on the Green. The weather sadly conspired against us and the rain stayed away , but the green is nevertheless looking very lush and inviting and we are looking forward to a great summer of cricket.
Remembering Ken
For those who are new to the club and may not know, we sadly lost one of our Wisborough Green legends Ken Vickery earlier this year. Ken played cricket on the Green for over 50 years and was an integral part of the club for many decades. You only need to read the comments in our ‘Remembering Ken’ tribute ( please click here to view the tribute) to recognise what he meant to the club and the village. As a lasting memory to Ken, the top end of the Green was named ‘The Ken Vickery end’ and bowlers bowling down the hill are now bowling from the ‘Ken Vickery end’
Fixture card
Our fixture cards have just arrived from the printers and are available in the Pav for anyone who needs a hard copy. Please click here to download an electronic copy . This year the front cover includes a ‘spot the ball’ competition which we hope will not be missed. For the first time in the club’s history we have ladies and girls friendly games on the Green – details of which are included in the fixture card. A very special thank you to Sarah Meurer for her energy, drive and passion in getting the girls and ladies section up and running. The future of women’s cricket at Wisborough Green is very bright !
Honours Boards
Every week we recognise some of the top achievements at the club and publish the names of the players on our honours boards. Congratulations to all those who feature on this week’s boards.
A very noteworthy performance last week deserves special mention. Josh Dixon, one of our senior players, took a career best 6 for 20 in the Second X1 game against Pagham. What made the performance particularly significant is that it now ranks in the top 11 all time bowling performances in the history of the club since results were recorded in Playcricket. (Please click here for the list of top bowling performances on the Playcricket site). Josh who has only recently turned 20, is a proud member of the Sussex Disability team and is one of the nicest lads you could ever wish to meet. Congratulations Josh.
First X1 vs Stirlands
- Wisborough win the first game of the season away at Stirlands
- Stirlands win the toss and try and post a total on ever reliable pitch.The ever reliable pitch, however, is a minefield with the ball misbehaving off a length at regular intervals.
- James ‘Jnr’ Rainford opens up with a great spell to remove both openers, while Ash sweats out his Blossom Hills.
- Farmer and Klein bowl a great middle spell of bowling as Joey and Jimmer blow away the tail.
- Harry Hunter takes sublime catch over the shoulder to remove the dangerman while Chairman Tarnie takes one in the gut!
- Klein, with no luck in terms of wickets, fires a run out.
- Stirlands end on 81 all out.
- SCS and Jimmer Newman start off very steadily as WIsborough look to close out a quick victory.
- SCS yorks himself and leaves the field.
- Newman back from America, plays a streaky innings as Ash shows his class. Edgey Newman ends not out on 27 and Ash a controlled 19
- Wisborough secure 30 points and leave Stirlands with Nil Poi.
- Joey ends up with the player of the match with his spell of 2 for 3 off 6
- Onto West Chiltington away…
Click here for the fulls scorecard
Seconds X1 vs Pagham
Every week one of the players will be writing the match report. At the end of the season there will be a vote for who wrote the best match report. This week’s report has been compiled by Oscar Warmington, one of our junior players.
The 2nd XI got on really well this weekend with a win at home. At the toss the opposition Pagham won the toss and elected to bowl.
The innings got off to a good start with Oscar Warmington and George Nicholls opening the batting putting on an opening stand of 27 before some comical running from Oscar Warmington gave a wicket away to the opposition. Juan Vorster steadied the ship batting at 3 taking Wisborough to 66-2. After that Matt Ritchie came in and made an excellent and patient 48 not out. Oscar made 49 making sure he was buying no jugs for the evening after the game. Mick Hollands also made an excellent 41 not out making sure Wisborough get to a solid 230/6.
In the second innings it was the Josh Dixon show taking an excellent 6/20 off 9 overs and after the game giving a very modest walk off the pitch whilst everyone was congratulating him. Oscar, Frank Vickery and Matt Ritchie also chipped in with one wicket each.
Overall a very dominant display from Wisborough and Player of the match goes to Josh Dixon with an excellent bowling display.
Thanks to Pagham for coming along to play with us at the Green this weekend and good luck to them for the rest of the season.
Click here for the full scorecard
Under 14 vs Loxwood
Sunday morning at Wisborough Green CC saw the highly awaited first match of the season against Loxwood CC.
Our captain for the match, George Redgrove, won the toss and elected to bat first. Some nice line and length bowling from Loxwood saw a few early wickets. Will Reed and Xander Boyce then steadied the innings with some lovely shots and good running between the wickets. As their innings progressed boundaries started to flow with Will ending up on 50 retired not out and Xander 51 retired not out. Archie Gray then took over and made a fine 23 not out supported by Cosmo and Joe Aspidin. Wisborough Green ended up on a formidable total of 220/4 off 25 overs
Wisborough Green took to the field knowing that bowling a good line and length would secure a win. They all bowled and fielded exceptionally well. Congratulations to our wicket takers Joe Aspidin, Lachlan Rae, Cosmo Witheridge, Xander Boyce and Archie Gray who all took one wicket each. In reply Loxwood managed 159/5 off overs.
A fantastic start to the season with a 61 run win
Well done to George who did a great job as captain and a special thanks to the Under 12’s Jackson McCulloch and Joe Aspidin who played in the match and did a great job. All in all a great team performance.
Ben Reed
Click here for the full scorecard
Under 12 vs West Chilt
A tough loss to a strong West Chilt team on Saturday. Unfortunately due to some unlucky wickets early on (two quick lbw’s and a run out from a superb throw by their WK) we just didn’t get enough runs with the bat which was always going to make it hard.
With the help of some errant bowling by the opposition we ended up 98 all out with only 2 balls remaining. Going in to field we started really well with some early wickets and accurate bowling keeping their scoring rate low for a while. Their middle order managed to hold firm however and in the end they reached the required runs with three overs to spare.
It was though a really encouraging team performance with everyone battling hard until the end. Special mention to Harry Richardson for a brilliant job as captain and star player goes to Joe Aspidin for his exceptional innings long stand.
Looking forward to the next game against Three Bridges
Dave McCulloch
Click here for the full scorecard
Senior Team selection for Saturday
Please click here to view the senior team selections for this Saturday
Friday evening training
The girls groups will be starting their training on the Green on Friday evening so its going to be a very busy Green. Long may it continue !
Please dont forget that burgers and hotdogs will be on sale during the course of the evening. Many thanks to James Pound and Mark Meurer for stepping up and helping with the BBQ
Village Mini bus drivers required
The village has a very valuable Mini-bus service which is able to help non drivers in the village from time to time. There is a shortage of volunteer drivers at the moment and the Mini-bus Committee are looking to recruit and train volunteer drivers who would be able to help out for a few hours a month. If you are in a position to help out or know of anyone who is able to help, please contact Dave Wallace via email Wallacedave@outlook.com or telephone 01403 700320.
RunWisborough 2022
We’re just over a week away from RW2022 and plans are all coming together for what looks likely to be a warm and dry event! Last year broke all records in terms of entrants, race records (33 minutes for the 10k!) and money raised. Each year we raise about £7,500 for your sports facilities and in the last year RW generated funds contributed about a quarter of the total cost of the drainage works. Looking ahead funds will be used to build the new Pavilion.
There’s still time to enter (www.runwisborough.co.uk), but if you don’t fancy running you can still support your club by helping out on the day – please email chair@wisboroughsports.org if you can – we need helpers!! If you can’t run or help then please come and eat lots of burgers and pizza!
….and finally – spotted out and about
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