Welcome to this week’s Wizzy News.
It’s been a busy week of cricket on the Green this last week – fingers crossed that weather continues to behave itself this next week.
History was made at the club this last weekend when our Women’s X1 played in their very first Women’s League fixture against Fernhurst and Petworth on Sunday. It was a proud moment for everyone concerned – congratulations ladies and thank you to all those behind the scenes who have put Women’s cricket on the map at Wisborough Green – most notably Sarah Meurer whose tireless efforts have made the dream become a reality.
The ladies will be playing on the green on Sunday afternoon at 2pm – please do come along and support them if you can.
The ladies have all deservedly been named on the Honours Board this week. Please see the match report of the game below.
Honours Board
Congratulations to all who made it onto the Honours Board this week
Match reports
First X1 vs Felbridge and Sunnyside
After initially being called off, sunshine and 1st XI prevail.
A beautiful sunny day on the green was the setting for the first game for Wisborough Green of 2023. The outlook day before was ominous as a overnight downpour led to the game being called off on Friday morning. However, new 1st team skipper, Junior, wanted a game and with improving weather on the horizon put the game back on. Lunch dates and Tee times were cancelled, train tickets were rebooked but the game was ON!
Felbridge and Sunnyside were the opponents and with a soft top in drying conditions the toss would be crucial. Fortunately, Wisborough won and put the visitors in to bat.
It was Junior and Nick Klein, who were tasked with making the most of the pitch and it was Nick who made the breakthrough, sneaking one through the gate in his first over.
After missing his length on a couple occasions, then heckled by his teammates, the showman Klein proclaimed :WATCH THIS ONE!” before running up and cleaning up another batter to the hilarity of his teammates!
Junior added to the early wickets finding a feather of glove snaffled up by new keeper Alex ‘Groot’ Newton, who was standing up.
More excellent hands from Groot, as Klein strayed down the legside only for it to take a thin edge off the bat on its way through to the keeper. Joey CalderSmith was 1st change coming from the Ken Vickery end and made great use of the whole wicket as batters struggled to time the short ball. One particularly aggressive batter cutting it straight to DJ in the covers and another dismissed with ball comically bouncing off the bat on to pad and rolling on to the stumps.
Runs were hard to come by for the visitors with James Newman continuing to keep things tight as Joey picking up a total of four wickets at the other end.
With the score at 63-9, the green were well and truly on top, however, no.10 and 11 proved difficult to dismiss showing how to dig in on a tricky surface. A few loose balls and extras later it was Nick Klein who ended the innings with his first ball of his 2nd spell, matching JCS with 4 wickets, the total on 92.
Although 92 was modest, there was no guarantee the surface would get any easier to bat on. A good start would be needed but that’s not what Wisborough Green got with James Newman bowled first ball to a turning delivery. Martin Hopkins joined Dan Vickery at the crease and both dug in early against some initially threatening bowling.
Soon both players were able to take advantage of some bad balls and rotated the strike well albeit not totally risk-free as they aren’t quite as quick between the wickets as they once were.
Dan was the next to depart for 14 bringing the former captain Jonny ‘the Wall’ Farmer in. He continued in similar fashion building an Important partnership with Hoppo; both keeping out the good balls, waiting patiently for bad balls and frustrating the bowlers.More extras would tick the total along nicely with a couple of lusty blows and before you knew it most of the work had been done.
At 90-2, Farmer decided he would finish it in style with a big swing of the bat, alas he missed the ball and he was bowled. A brief stint in the middle for Alex Newton, his only blemish of the day brought Nick Klein in who wasted no time in hitting the winning runs to the delight of the home fans watching!
A great performance with 30 big points for the Green a day after the game being called off is a brilliant result. A few standout performers, Nick and Joey with ball. Commendable knocks by Hoppo, Farmer and Vickery and some incredible glove work from Groot.
Please click here for the full scorecard
James (Junior) Rainford
Women’s X1 vs Fernhurst and Petworth
Sunday 14th May was the first ever league game for the Women’s team against last year’s top of the league Petworth & Fernhurst, and Wisborough Green ‘showed up’.
Winning the toss WG elected to field first on a damp pitch, likely to favour batting in the second innings with the sun forecast to appear.
Hannah opened the attack, settling nerves and bowling consistently at pace. With a maximum of 3 overs per bowler, Hannah, Ann, Sam, Fiona ‘Fluff’, Bex and Tessa ‘stepped up’ to the task. Sharp fielding from WG kept the vast majority of runs to singles. Kirsty was kept busy at fine leg, chasing down the ball and stopping multiple boundaries, and Sarah put in a sterling performance at wicket, not letting anything past.
Against a capable batting side WG restricted the oppo to 118 runs from 16 overs, and although without a wicket we showed huge improvement in bowling and fielding across the team, seeing economy rates of 5 for Bex, 6.7 for Hannah and 7 for Sam.
Set a target of 119 to win, WG turned to batting. Sarah and Sam set us on our way with a steady run rate against well-practised bowling. 2nd pair Kirsty and Hannah continued apace adding a further 13 runs. Ann and Tessa put in a solid performance as our 3rd pair, with Bex and Fluff bringing the batting home. Pushing for runs, and with decent calling, WG secured a steady rate. However experience showed and the oppo gathered a handful of wickets, and with sharp fielding secured a few close run outs. The scoreboard settled on 54 runs in total – 19 runs for Bex, 8 for Sam and 7 for Hannah.
Despite coming 2nd WG showed a solid performance against an experienced side. All in all, an encouraging first outing for the Women. Thanks as ever to Peter for umpiring, to Brooke for her expert scoring and to Petworth & Fernhurst for hosting, and for opening the bar mid-morning! It seemed rude not to show our appreciation.. 😊
Bex Samuelson
Under 14 vs Horsham Trinity
Please click here for the full scorecard
Under 12 vs Rudgwick
At last the weather held so the Under 12’s could complete their first fixture of the season.
Captain on the day Henry Foden won the toss and despite a damp pitch and overcast conditions elected to back his strong batting line up and bat first. The Wisborough batters made a steady start running hard between the wickets as the wet outfield ensured boundaries were difficult to come by. The highlight of the innings was a wonderful 28 not out from Bella, who timed the ball well finding the boundary with some sumptuous shots.An impressive score of 135 was amassed and at the half way point Wisborough knew this would take some chasing.
All outfield players bowled and the game management was impressive. The fielding performance was committed with all players reading the game well and not a single overthrow conceded. At the end Rudgwick were 20 runs short which was a fair reflection on the game.
Please click here for the full scorecard
Phil Maggs
Under 11 girls vs Haywards Heath
The under 11 girls travelled to Haywards Heath on a warm Wednesday afternoon with a somewhat depleted side . Haywards Heath kindly offered us two of their players who became honourary Wisborough Green players for the afternoon and we ended up playing 6 a side game – with each pair batting for a total of 6 overs.
Haywards Heath were a very skillfull and experienced side having played 4 matches prior to this game .
One of their players was a Sussex opening bowler whose runup started from the boundary . We didn’t take a speed camera with us but there was little doubt that she bowled at over 100 miles an hour.
Despite the torrent of fast and accurate bowling our batters stood their ground and played some lovely strokes taking advantage of the odd loose ball. There was some good running between the wickets which kept the scoreboard ticking over.
After the break it was our turn to bowl. Despite her initial reluctance to bowl Eva T stepped up and proved what a good bowler she is bowling a good line and length. Lucy bowled very consistently and straight and Eva S and Joanne also bowled some good balls.
Haywards Heath were clearly the better side and they are further down the road on their cricketing journey than we are. We are a young side with lots to learn and we look forward to developing our batting, bowling and fielding skills in the next few weeks . The game was a good experience for the team and we look forward to welcoming Haywards Heath to ‘ Wivbrough Green’ (as they affectionately called us) in the return leg in a few weeks time.
Training on Friday evening
The weather prospects dosn’t look too bad for Friday but please do keep a lookout for updates on our website tomorrow. Please click here for the link to the main page our website
Parking on Friday evening
Just a quick reminder about parking. We are expecting a large number of children at training again on Friday and with this comes pressure on parking around the Green. We therefore ask you to walk to the Green if possible and be considerate when parking avoiding the verges around the playground area and Butts Meadow. Please also be mindful of the implication of your parking on the flow of traffic around the Green – we obviously want to avoid any unnecessary risks caused by the build-up of traffic. There is additional parking to be found in the Village Hall car park, so please do make use of it if you can.
Many thanks in advance for your help with this which will be much appreciated by the wider village community
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 weekend of cricket ahead :
- Our First X1 are away at Chippingdale in Worthing and our Second X1 are at home to Petworth on Saturday morning. Please click here for the team selections
- U10 : away vs Southwater on Saturday morning at 9am
- U12 : home Southwater on Saturday morning at 9am
- U14 : away vs Southwater on Sunday morning at 9am
- U16 : home vs Steyning on Sunday morning at 9am
- Womens X1 : home vs Chiddingfold on Sunday afternoon at 2pm
- Under 11 girls : away vs Rudgwick on Wednesday at 6pm
Spotted on the Green
How it started…..
And finally – Spotted out and about
Click on the video below
Some things just had to be done …
That’s it for this week.
Have a great cricketing week – keep those fingers crossed for good weather 🤞 🏏☀
Cheers
Wizzy
