Welcome to this week’s Wizzy news which includes our usual match reports and some great pics of our Girls and Women’s tournament on Sunday
Friday night training
Just a quick reminder that this Friday is the last session of the season for our Under 5, 6 and 7 age groups. Our under 8 and 9 age groups will continue for one more week.
Under 10’s and above – please refer to your coaches to confirm when your last session of the season will be.
Under 11 girls : Many of the girls will be at the Wisborough Green school leavers party on Friday evening. Training will continue for those girls who are available – they will be able join the under 10 or under 8/9 age groups at 5:30 pm as usual.
Girls and Women’s cricket festival on the Green – Sunday 16 July
A fantastic celebration of cricket on Sunday morning as we welcomed 7 other under 11 teams to the tournament. It was so good to see our two girls teams showing off their skills and winning games- they have come so far in such a short space of time – we are so proud of you !
Many thanks to Sarah Meurer for all her efforts in putting together a most memorable tournament and thank you to all those who helped behind the scenes
Ladies festival
The ladies continued the festival after the girls tournament had finished and we welcomed Petworth, Chiddingfold, Southwater and Slinfold to the Green for a series of women’s games.
Many thanks to Sarah Meurer for her passion, drive and energy in getting girls and Women’s cricket off the ground at the club and for organising the hugely successful tournament.
Family Fun day – Sunday 23 July
The Family Fun Day is on the Green on Sunday from12pm. There will be an inflatable assault course, bouncy castle, croquet tournament and plenty of summer games. There will also be a cricket match in the afternoon so please do come along with the whole family for a great day out
The weather is not looking too promising on Sunday so please do look out for updates on our website www.wisboroughgreencc.co.uk to confirm if the event is going ahead or not
President’s Day – Sunday 6th August
President’s Day planning is being finalised and we look forward to welcoming The Kenyan Kongonis to the green on Sunday August 6th . The club has its base in Nairobi and will be celebrating its 100 years in 2027. The club’s diaspera are spread far and wide with many residing in the UK. Ex WGCC president Neil Trestrail is responsible for their annual tour to Sussex, and we are delighted that they will play us on President’s Day. We hope that this will become the annual celebration of cricket in Wisborough at future President’s Days. In 18 years, we will be able to recognise at least 300 years of cricket on the green so, whilst we might claim to be an older club, we probably can’t match the sartorial elegance of the Kongonis. Perhaps its time to organise a WGCC blazer. Any takers?
All involved in the club and their families are welcome to attend and we look forward to a fabulous day of meeting old friends and celebrating what is so good about our wonderful cricket club. We hope for sunshine and the plan for the day is as follows :
- Please arrive from 11.30 to mix and mingle
- There will be a relaxed bbq lunch from midday for players
- Cricket will start at 13.00
- All to enjoy their lunch from 13.00 onwards
- Cricket tea will be provided for the players and our Kongonis guests
- BBQ will be available for purchase of food throughout the day
- Game will finish at 19.00
During the day there will be the third Century Club draw of the year so for those who aren’t involved please click on the following link and join in the fun : Century Club info
We look forward to seeing you and your families on the day
Honours Boards
Congratulations to all those who made it onto the Boards this week
Match reports
First X1 vs Felbridge
After last minute dropouts with fear of things getting too wet, the green took a trip to Felbridge and Sunnyside.
Wisborough won the toss and bowled. It then rained, dried up and rained again. But fortunately not for long and we were back on.
Felbridge scored 175 all out on a tricky wicket. Some great bowling throughout not rewarded with a number of drop chances, which could’ve reduced the score further
In response Wisborough got off to a good start with Dan vickery getting 65 and Chris Douglas ably supporting him. Dan would then get run out, followed soon after by Chris also run out. Jnr was stumped, Will was then the third man to be run out and Oscar got a shooter. Eddie Ragg and Debutant Tim Palmer steadied things and took it deep. A couple more wickets fell but Eddie continued to bat on brilliantly. Needing 10 off the last over Green fell 4 short as the popping pitch proved too much to get bat to ball. Drop chances, drip outs and dumb run outs! That’s Wizball!
Please click here for the full scorecard
James Rainford
Second X1 vs Crawley Eagles
The mighty Second X1 hosted Crawley Eagles. With the weather forecast nothing short of a storm, we were in for a turbulent afternoon.
Credit to Franky for rolling and helping finalise the pitch, pointing out the extremely wet patch at the top of the square and advising that it would be a great day to bowl first.
Cue the Crawley Eagles Captain winning the toss, and conflabbing with his team (not really seen that too many times or think it’s something you do – but so be it …) and then making the obvious decision to bowl.
Plan A (Thanks Rob Knight) was to send the form man Matt Watts in as the enforcer and Franky rolling back the years as the anchor (I’m sure he’s been called something similar before). They got Wis off to the perfect start as the Crawley Eagles openers bowled with good pace and control on an extremely tricky wicket with balls popping off a length. Both dug in and it was Wattsy who popped one up to mid-off, after not quite committing to the shot with the score 29. Harry Hunter strode to the wicket – promoted to number 3 after some fine innings for the U16s and senior formats. Franky sadly fell shortly after and Wis were 34-2.
Captain Farmer joined Harry, and only had to rotate the strike as Harry was in the mood to put the bad balls away to start putting the pressure back on the Eagles.
It was the Eagles Captain who managed to get the scalp of Harry with his miscued shot – the only thing about it was that the Eagles bowler had an action that would resemble a world class Yo-Yo Champion. A little suspect as the evidence from the last match revealed but you be the judge ( Click here for an action replay from last year – reported to the league for their attention)
Farmer was joined by Dave G, and with the overs ticking by, Farmer tried to put the pressure back onto the Crawley bowlers and hit the bad balls. The wicket was very sticky and the slower the bowler the harder it was to get away with very inconsistent tennis ball bounce… These two moved the scores onto 147 and it was Farmer who went for a big drive down the ground and missed the straight one – out for 61. Dave G ,after a few dot balls, found his form and was joined by the free flowing Juan Vorster – the man who is just about to become a father again. Juan was in the mood to enjoy his last game for a while, and smoked a quickfire 35. Will Andrews got the score past the 200 the green wanted – 202 on a difficult pitch was a good first innings total.
With a slightly panicked Tea (The Crowns forgot) , the new chef knocked together a great selection of sandwiches and fries to fuel the boys to push on.
With the new ball in hand, Kit steamed down the hill, but anything off line the Crawley players took a liking to, and it was the same with Juan up the hill. With winds excess of 50mph Wisborough umpire Peter Klein had a cunning plan – dip the bails in water to gain weight as they may just stay on. His walkie talkie was playing up all afternoon with 90’s love songs being heard throughout the village.
Farmer turned to his slowest of slow bowlers, with Joshy apparently unpegging the Dixon’s tent a day early on holiday so that he could get a game in. But it was Franky who struck first, with the batsman trying to smash his first ball out of the ground, Farmer had other ideas as he ran around to his left to take a tidy grab. Joshy followed suit as he bowled the number 3 who again tried to launch him to the Pav.
It was Wis who then dominated the next 10 overs, with Frank and Joshy bowling well in tandem. Joshy striking with two in two balls both going onto hit middle, and rightly given out LBW. The Crawley experts, as you would expect, had something else to say (my advice would be to simply play with a straight bat). The number 6 came in and Joshy found his edge. Sadly for Franky at slip, after 3 juggles it popped over his head and landed on the floor.
With both Frank and Joshy’s great spells coming to an end, it was young Joe Aspdin, and Farmer’s attempted off-spin that the Crawley Eagles batsmen started to put away, anything short and wide being slashed at.
The ground with all the wind had certainly dried out, and the Crawley batsmen tucked in. Farmer resorted to seam and removed the top scorer to give Wis a glimmer. Will Andrews also removed the other mainstay for 40.
Crawley continued in their style of FlapBall, but sadly the ball continued to land in gaps. With 18 required off two, it was the self-proclaimed MVP points hunter Matt Watts who Farmer turned to. Sadly it wasn’t to be his day – 16 going off the last, as the Eagles Captain threw the kitchen sink at his shots.
Crawley Eagles won in the last over, and it was a great effort by the team with every man contributing. The toss did have a big impact on the result but credit to Crawley Eagles for knocking off the runs.
Please click here for the full scorecard
Jonny Farmer
Under 16 vs West Chiltington
The oppo won the toss and chose to bowl first on a slow, moist wicket. West Chilt are always a decent side so the Wiz had to perform.
Will and Harry opened the batting and saw the slowness of the wicket early doors. Harry was dismissed early by a very good delivery from their opening bowler. This lead to Dexter to come in and join Will to build a partnership. A few boundaries hit by both batsmen rebuilt the Wiz innings. Will fell from getting Yorked by a spinner and so did Dexter.
West Chilt carried on the momentum by ripping through our middle order. They bowled well and some avoidable wickets caused the tail to wag. Buddy, Harry and Seb (all playing up) chipped in with crucial runs at the end which turned out to win us the close game. All three batted very well and led Wisborough to a total of 97, a sub par score.
The Wiz had high morale going into bowl as we knew this was key to win. Oscar and Matthew opened the bowling as usual. Both had fantastic spells and took crucial wickets, ultimately keeping us in the game. The West Chilt number 6 and 7 applied with some resistance with the bat hitting a few boundaries off wayward deliveries.
The momentum was in their favour until a great piece of fielding from Matthew Ritchie led to the run out of their number 6 batsman, who was smoking it. Wis were back on top. However, their batsman still scored to the rate bringing back the momentum for the oppo. Then, an unreal catch from Oscar Warmington caused the wicket of their final decent bat which favoured Wiz’s chances hugely. West Chilt needed 8 runs with only one wicket left. Luckily the batsmen left for Chilt were not up for hitting it off the square so Will picked up the final wicket bowled.
A very tense game which Wiz came out on top. The result could have easily gone either way but the Wiz bowled and fielded very well leading to a satisfying victory.
Please click here for the full scorecard
Will Dixon (under 16 player)
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 home to Chippingdale at 12:30 on Saturday and our Second X1 are away to Petworth Park away at 1pm. Please click here for team selections
- The Under 10’s are away at 9:00 am on Saturday to Horsham Trinity and the under 12’s have a training game on the Green
- Our Under 16’s are away to West Chiltington on Friday (brought forward from Sunday)
- Our under 12’s have their Sussex Festival games from Monday to Thursday next week – good luck to them as they take on Findon, Crawley Eagles, Arundel and Petworth.
Spotted out and about
That’s it for this week.
Have a great cricketing week 🏏😊
Cheers
Wizzy
