Welcome to this week’s Wizzy News.

Some great games to report on this week including some pics of the First X1 game against Burgess Hill. We have also included some pics of some of our cricketers taking part in the RunWisborough event on Sunday

Training on Friday evening

Training for the Under 12, Under 14 and U13/15 girls teams will commence at 7:15pm on Friday (rather than 7pm) to allow a small gap between the earlier and later training sessions.

RunWisborough

Congratulations to all the runners who took part in the RunWisborough event on Sunday morning and well done to the orgaisers – Mike Gadd and the team for putting on a great event thoroughly enjoyed by all

Honours Boards

Congratulations to all who made it onto our Honours Board this week

Match reports

First X1 vs Burgess Hill

Another Loss for Wizzy at home to Burgess Hill 2s.

Wiz won the toss and elected to bat.

The innings started well with Chris Douglas and Hoppo ticking along nicely until Chris drove one to cover only for it to pop up neatly in the fielders hands and throw down the stumps. Hughie Ragg returned to the side and struck the bowlers cleanly to all parts. Hoppo was doing nicely before also being run out.

Unfortunately, being set up nicely, the lower order failed to capitalise and faultered to 224 from our 45 overs. A good 30 runs below what we thought was par

In reply Jnr took the wicket of one of the openers, however it was the other opener who played a series of fine cricket shots. The bowlers were rotated in the hope of finding g some control, however runs flowed too freely with every bad ball punished.

A couple more wickets fell but it was all too little too late as the away side cantered to victory with 18 overs to spare and looked like they could’ve chased 300+

A disappointing loss and proof once again that it’s a step up in standard and getting the players that brought us here available will be vital.

Notable performers, Hughie Ragg, Hoppo, Chris and Sizzy in his first game back

Please click here for the full scorecard

James Rainford (Junior aka JR))

Many thanks to Chris Marshall for some great pics

Second X1 vs Kilnwood Vale

WGCC 2s dominated by Kilnwood Vale 1st XI

The WGCC 2s team arrived at a new cricket ground in Forge Wood in the outskirts of Crawley on a blistering afternoon with 9 confirmed players.

This was the first season that this ground had been used for cricket and at first glance it was difficult to differentiate between the square and the outfield and it had been rolled for the first time ever just 2 days before. The wicket with its patchy tufts of grass and less than flat surface was most likely to favour the bowling team. There was an impressive newly built pavilion which was disappointingly locked up. Our numbers soon rose to 10 as Steve Cullen’s (Dexter’s Dad) volunteered to play and fortuitously had his kit with him. Peter registered him with the league with 10 minutes to go before the start of the match.

WG won the toss and elected to bat. Tarni Dixon and Juan Vorster opened and started steadily hitting the bad balls to the boundary and defending where necessary. Sadly, Juan soon succumbed to a short ball which found an edge to the wicketkeeper. Harry Hunter strode positively to the crease buoyed by his recent form with the U16s however was soon heading towards the locked Pavilion after missing a straight one with a flamboyant swing. The wicket did some strange things with balls rising sharply and keeping unusually low. Dexter McCullen and Tarni started to develop a partnership however this was cut short when Dexter (12 runs) was caught and bowled by the left-arm spinner. Tarni was then bowled on 42 by a ball that barely left the ground and sent his off-stump tumbling. Pete Aspdin defended courageously before being caught LBW and the wickets continued to tumble with little resistance from Peter Klein and Josh Dixon.

A last man stand between Darren Hunter and Joe Aspdin (U14), playing in his first senior match, proved fruitful with both scoring 5 runs before Darren was bowled. WGCC ended up with 72 all out after 19 overs.

Kilnwood Vale clearly had some other important commitment going on in the early afternoon as they decided to take a swing at anything that was close to the block hole from the first ball. Their skipper played straight and hit the ball hard and despite Josh Dixon bowling 2 of their batsmen out the balls continued to be dispatched to the boundary to the extent that they reached 73 for 2 off 6.4 overs. This was a powerful batting performance where using your feet to avoid the uncertainty of the pitch clearly paid off.

A learning lesson for the 2s against a good Kilnwood Vale team and a difficult wicket.

Please click here for the full scorecard

Tarnie Dixon

Under 16 vs West Chiltington

A memorable win for the Under 16’s team against a strong West Chiltington team

Please click here for the scorecard

Under 14 vs Ifield

After the disappointment of conceding last week and a convincing defeat away at Southwater the week before, a strong U14’s side travelled to Ifield, on a very warm Sunday morning, determined to get their season back on track.

An inspection revealed a wicket that could best be described as “bloody awful” however Wisborough decided to bat first having won the toss.

A very strong start from Raff Finn and George Redgrove saw Wisborough race to 37 for no loss from 3 overs against some accurate bowling. Raff then smashed a six and had to retire on 33 from 22 balls after a marvellous knock which also included 6 fours. Wisborough were looking on track for a big score as George R (perhaps unadvisedly for the superstitious amongst us) mentioned to Jon Finn at umpire.
What happened next however was a bit of a blur. George was out to a good ball and catch 2 balls after Raff retired and then 5 of our middle order came and went for a total of zero runs from 8 balls.
5 ducks and we’d gone from 43-1 to 44-6.

Our tail end did well and managed to stay out there for a few more overs and score a few more and that, with the addition of some less than accurate bowling meant WG were all out for 80 after 14.1 overs.

It was always going to be a tough total to defend but to give our boys the credit they deserve, they kept their heads up and went out there and gave it their best in tough conditions. Good energy, plenty of chat and some great bowling from Raff, Harry M, Freddie and Seb plus some really great fielding from Buddy, Raff and Joe meant we at least got a few wickets and had an enjoyable spell in the field.

Post match debrief focused on the positives but also the need to be properly prepared to go into bat and to take it easy on the first few balls faced, especially when time is on our side.

So a disappointing result from a winnable game but as always an enjoyable morning and we go into the next game determined to improve.

Please click here for the scorecard

Dave McCullagh

Under 12 vs Roffey

Wisborough Green win low scoring classic with a complete team performance.

A warm humid morning saw the U12 team arrive at Roffey’s Faygate ground for what was anticipated to be a tough encounter. Roffey have a reputation as a highly competitive club who play to win, their Senior 1st XI are in the Sussex Premier League and are current champions.

Winning the toss captain Henry Foden opted to bat first.

Runs were difficult to come by with the Roffey bowlers combining well to hit an accurate line and length. Seeing that the going was tough the Wisborough batters worked hard to run the singles on offer and slowly build a total. Oscar top scored with 17 and Tristan hit a couple of well-timed boundaries. At one point it looked as if they would be dismissed for under 100 but useful late runs from Lucas and an energetic last wicket stand of 25 between Henry and Harry took the score to 115. Although slightly under par as a first innings total the team knew they were in the game.

The players were fired up as they entered the field and determined to do all they could to defend their score. The opening bowlers of Hector, Freddie, Harry and Henry were very good with Tristan and Wilf also sending down fine spells. After the first 10 overs Wisborough had kept the score to 38 and sensed they had their noses in front. The next set of 10 overs saw the Roffey batters having to chance their arms and although there were a few moments where they built some momentum the Wisborough XI managed to keep a lid on the scoring.

There was some very good fielding with players backing each other up and only the odd error and overthrow as the temperature soared. Highlights were a wonderful diving stop from Freddie at mid-wicket which saved a certain boundary, a direct hit from the outfield by Oscar to run out a well-set batter and several chases right to the boundary edge from Josh and William that turned near certain boundaries into two’s or even just singles as the batters were convinced they had the runs in the bag. In a low scoring match it is often these moments that lift a team.

In the end Roffey finished on 98-5 with wickets claimed by Hector, Harry and Tristan and two run-outs.

A special mention to Buddy who kept wicket with his normal chirpiness maintaining his concentration well in pads, gloves and a helmet on a day of stifling heat. Even the spectators longed for a cooling breeze, it never came.

In many ways this was a near perfect cricket match, every player batted and every player bowled. Without exception all contributed to a winning team performance in a tight match played between two evenly matched teams.

Thank you to Kirsty for scoring and also to Peter for umpiring.

Please click here for the full scorecard

Phil Maggs

Upcoming Fixtures this week

All of our age group fixtures are available on the ECB’s Placycricket website – please click here for list of all of our fixtures. A hard copy of the fixture card is available at the Pavilion – please do grab a copy. Please click here for an electronic copy

A busy week of cricket ahead :

• Our First X1 are at away to Crawley at 12:30 on Saturday and our Second X1 have an opportunity to recharge their batteries as they don’t have a game this week.Please click here for the team selection for the First X1 game
• The Under 10’s are away to Storrington at 9:00 am on Saturday and our under 12’s are away to Slinfold at 9:00 am
• Our under 14’s don’t have a game and our under 16’s are playing at home on Sunday at 9:15am
• Our under 11 girls have away gam against Southwater next Wednesday

We are expecting very hot conditions this weekend – players need to ensure that they drink plenty water before, during and after their matches, and apply lots of suncream

Spotted out and about

That’s it for this week.

Have a great cricketing week 🏏😊

Cheers

Wizzy