Welcome to this week’s Wizzy News – our regular newsletter about news and events at Wisborough Green Cricket club. If you missed last week’s edition please click here
Hope everyone had sight of the Northern Lights last weekend ? Many thanks to Tim Palmer for this great pic taken on Friday night across the Green towards the Cricks
Honours Boards
Congratulations to all the players who feature on this week’s Honours Board. Great to see three players on the board twice each – fantastic achievement !
Kit now in stock
The Club kit shop is open again for business with lots of fantastic new items this season along with bright new colour options! Please click here to go directly to the online store
Note. Senior men and women’s playing shirts are sponsored and will be provided to fully paid up playing members.
Our ‘Ordering Kit ‘ web page has lots of additional information on local stores to purchase kit from and some useful videos on how to choose the right junior bat, how to choose the right bat size and how much you should spend on a junior bat. We have also included details of helmet sizes and a pads size guide.
Caps
Caps will be on sale at the Pav on Friday evening . We would like all players to wear the new Wisborough Green caps for our matches which enhances our identity as a team and a club. We have slightly different colours for juniors (£10) , ladies (£12) and senior men (£15)
Juniors
Just a reminder that we have a lot of useful information for each of our age groups on our Juniors web page. Please click here for more info
RunWisborough – 9 June
The countdown to the very popular RunWisborough event has begun – only 3 weeks to go. The event is attracts fun runners from far and wide and many fun runners from the local community as well, so if you would like to take part please click here and sign up for the 5km run, 10km run and colour run for the children
As with all events of this nature there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and the race organisers are looking for help with marshalling and a number of other activities on the day. If you are able to help in any way please contact Michelle on tel 07540 546638
Upcoming Fixtures
Lots of games coming up this next week
- First X1 are away to Horsham Trinity First X1 on Saturday afternoon at 1pm
- Second X1 are at home to Horsham Trinity Second X1 on Saturday at 1 pm
- Women’s team are at home to Fernhurst on Sunday afternoon at 2pm
- Under 14’s have a training game on Sunday morning
- Under 13 girls have a match against West Chiltington on Tuesday evening
- Under 12’s have a home game against Roffey on Saturday morning
- Under 10’s have their first game away against Barns Green on Saturday morning
Please click here for all of our age group fixtures on the ECB’s Playcricket website. Fixtures are also listed in our official Fixture card, copies of which available in the Pavilion. You can also download an electronic copy of the fixture card by clicking here.
Team selections for this week
Match Reports
First X1 vs Crawley
Saturday was an important day for me in many ways. It was my first game as Wisborough Green 1st XI captain. Following in the footsteps of my Dad by captaining the 1st team fills me with pride – its a huge honour and a responsibility that I don’t take lightly. So whilst the result didn’t go our way this day will always be special for me.
Having lost the toss and been stuck in we got off to a reasonable start with both Stevie and me finding the boundary early. Unfortunately, Stevie got a bit of a stinker and had to depart LBW, he was quickly followed by Ran “Ranbo” Dawson who edged to gully for a smart catch. This bought DJ to the crease to stop the rot. Whilst DJ dug in nicely, facing so quality bowling from the Crawley overseas, I was taking the attack to the bowlers. We managed to get us to around the 40 mark, having ball by ball coaching from the Crawley wicket keeper (thanks Coach!), before I spooned the worst delivery I had faced all day to cover for an easy catch. It was an innings that reminded me a little of how Dad used to play – no doubt Kenny would have gone on – something I am not renowned for, yet!
DJ was joined by James “JR” Rainford, and took advantage of some looseners following a change in the bowling attack. Unfortunately, what followed was a collapse where we lost 4 wickets for 1 run, leaving us at 40 something for 7. Credit where its due, this collapse saw a hatrick from Sohail, well bowled!!
This brought together Farmer and Marchy, back from a trip to Wales with a swing in his step (who knows why – a gentleman never tells!), who started to rebuild. The rebuild was going well, until Marchy got run out and Farmer was bowled by their spinner. There was no wagging of the WG tail this time round and WG were all out for 91 – a tough one to defend.
After an exceptional tea, thanks again to the Finns, WG took to the field. Coached opened the batting for Crawley and to be fair to him scored a big chunk of the 92 required before edging Hugo behind to DJ with a smartly taken low catch. Jr picked up the other openers wicket with a solid catch by Ranbo at Mid On. Our last wicket was a little fortunate with an optimistic appeal for a catch down the leg side, with the umpire giving a Mattock esq nod before raising his finger much to our surprise. With 4 and 5 at the crease and only a few needed, despite them looking scratchy at best, the game was wrapped up with another fortunate boundary.
It wasn’t the captaincy debut I had hoped for but its only the start of the season. We will pick ourselves up and go again next week…
Please click here for the full scorecard
Dan Vickery First X1 Captain and Club Captain
Second X1 vs Crawley Eagles
Eagles away, Sunny day. Council ground. Dodgy track. Long grass.
Lose toss.
Bat first. Hard work. Tarni bowled. Alex caught. Captain rubbish (again). Hard work (again). Regular wickets. Harry Hunter. Charlie Maunder. Dig in. Slow scoring. Charlie out. Harry Maggs. Senior debut. Harry and Harry = Batting masterclass. Ticking over. Phil Maggs. Father/ Son. Lovely moment. Overs batted. Innings ended. 108 .
Still sunny. Drying pitch. Nagging opener. Regular wickets. Big slogs. Joshy Dixon. 4 wickets. Harry Hunter – great catch. Juan Vorster. And another. Nail biting. Wizzy fighting. Eagles hitting. Eagles edge it. Disappointing day.
Kodak moments. Hunter’s mojo. Maggs family. Josh’s smiles (again)
Go again. Wizzy Green.
Please click here for the full scorecard
Tim Palmer – Captain
Sunday X1 vs Believers X1
Sunday cricket returned to the Green last weekend, with a new fixture between the Wisborough Green Sunday Supplements and Believers CC. Believers are a travelling side from London who emailed us asking for a warm up game before their next fixture against the Slovenia national side. Clearly we were the obvious choice.
Often I’m scratching around for a Sunday side right up to the morning of the game. This time, a full starting XI was established mid week. The forecast of sunny weather certainly helped. An hour before the game I had a text from Peter Klein saying that there were eleven U14s keen for a game if we were short – having just played their own game. Great positivity coming through the club.
A quick chat with their captain on the way to the toss, confirmed that we were very much on the same page. Today was about giving as many people a go as possible, a beautiful ground and a top quality tea. The day did not disappoint on any of those.
Wisborough batted first. The lovely thing about Sunday cricket, is that players can say what number they want to bat, and roughly – that’s where they bat. If they want to bowl, everyone can have an over. The pressure of league points is replaced by a want for everyone to go away knowing they had a go. We play to win a game of cricket, but if players go away wanting to play in the next Sunday game, that’s a win of a different sort.
Raff Finn and Jackson McCullagh opened the innings – both having grown significantly since last summer. They looked very comfortable against a decent opening attack, playing carefuly with the odd bit of flair. Jackson was keen to rectify a disappointing U14 performance earlier that day, and took full advantage of his second start. A swashbuckling innings (including a 6 towards Mrs Pegley) showed he is a batsman to keep an eye on. Raff (10), ,Jackson (20) and Oscar Warmington all made great starts before falling to good balls or decent catches. New keeper Nick Reed and Harry Maggs played some nice shots against a team full of players twice, thrice or even four times their age. Somehow, however we found ourselves at 50-5, and the much anticipated Mia Finn tea was in danger of having to be made in fast forward.
Enter Rupert Warmington and Mick Holland. Two silver foxes with ample experience needed to steady the ship. They did so with a mix of solid defence mixed in with a flurry of boundaries. Rupert made a respectable 12. Dave McCullagh didn’t trouble the scorers, but if he had connected with the ball he swung at (but bowled him), the ball would have ended up somewhere in Pulborough.
Chris Marshall joined Mick at the crease (having initially walked out to bat without his trusty Magnum). He had the best seat in the house, watching Mick carve and smash the ball to all parts of the Green for a fine 50. Phil Maggs hit an excellent 18 not out and Sussex legend Josh Dixon had the crowd on their feet with a punch through the covers for 4. Left on 5 not out, only lack of over stopped Josh adding the further 95 needed for his century.
The Mia Finn tea therefore arrived in good time, and what a tea it was. A selection of sandwiches for every palate (red onion in the tuna mayo was a welcome upgrade), home made cakes and cookies. A good tea is as important to the game as a century or 5 wickets. This was a proper spread worthy of the highest praise, and Mia can proudly raise her bat.
Set 165 to win, the Believers started slowly. Raff opened the bowling with Joshy. Both bowled with great accuracy, Raff removing the stumps of their opener, and Josh bowling two of their top 4. Josh was in a rhythm and his 7 over spell was vital in keeping their runs to a mimimum. The rest of the bowling was shared between the young players who wanted a go. Special mention should go to two juniors – Josh Braddock and Buddy Edwardes who were so keen to play, that they forced Rupert and Mick to step down for our session in the field. Luckily for them the Arsenal game was on tv and they reluctantly agreed! Josh bowled well at a batsman with his eye firmly in, and while I couldn’t get Buddy on this time, their enthusiasm in the field was second to none. Nick Reed is a top quality keeper and at 14, we need to sign him up on a 10 year contract. He was magnificently tidy behind the stumps.
Jackson McCullagh added to his much-improved day with a tidy bowling display. Which brings me to his wicket and a catch at slip that I feel uncomfortable about talking about….
…. but seeing as you asked: their number 3 slashed at Jackson outside off stump and the ball flew at 100mph between the keeper and first slip. I happened to be that slip and leapt like a salmon to my left. It stuck. (I felt like I was horizontal but may not have been). Some say it was like watching Jonty Rhodes, some say Mark Waugh. Will Dixon referred to it as one of the “best grabs ever seen on the green”. Kind, but probably not true. I heard that a certain J.P Miller took a blinder under the trees in about 1791.
Oscar Warmington, unable to bowl at pace due to back problems, tried his luck as an off spinner. It seems he can do that just as effectively. He turned one from outside off that removed the leg bail. Wickets fell at a steady rate until suddenly they were 7 down needing 15 to win. Just when I kept promising Buddy a bowl, things got “Sunday Serious”, and there was a danger this might go down to the wire. Buddy maturely offered up his chance of a hero-making over for the wise head of Phil Maggs and Raff to guide this final stage. Phil bowled as well as he had batted and rounded off a superb display with 2 late wickets.
Suddenly 9 down, needing 4 to win – the Believers looked anything but. As their number 11 smashed the ball to silly mid-off, Oscar stuck out his already damaged hand. If it had stuck, it would have been the new “best grab the green has ever seen’. Sadly it went for 4 and The Sunday Supplements were denied a famous victory.
Regardless of the result, it felt like a win. A win because so many people thoroughly enjoyed their day on the Green in the sunshine. The opposition had some surnames that repeated 2 or 3 times down the batting order. We too had three father / son combos on the field. That’s what Sunday cricket does. It brings people together that might not have the opportunity to play in the same Saturday side. Playing with your dad, son, mother or daughter is something you’ll never forget.
Please click here for the full scorecard
Chris ‘The Cat’ Marshall
Under 14 cup game vs Horsham
The first round of the Cup saw a home fixture for WG U14’s against Horsham.
Horsham fielded their strongest possible side of U14 players, by contrast WG fielded a team with four U14’s, four U13’s and three U12’s.
Horsham won the toss and elected to bat first.
Overall Horsham played very positive cricket looking to attack all the time. Credit to Freddie (taking a wicket) and Harry (two wickets) for opening up the bowling against Horsham’s U14 Sussex players. Olivia bowled a good spell taking a wicket and Hector was characteristically accurate over his three overs. Special mention to Josh with three wickets, a great achievement for someone playing up 2 years. In all Horsham scored 164 with their three star Sussex players all retiring out and contributing nearly 100 to the total.
This was always going to be a testing total for WG to chase, and credit to Freddie and Buddy for their innings. A total of 55 was reached after 19.4 overs with Buddy not out on 17.
The scorebook tells us that Horsham won by 109 runs, but this was an improved performance by WG. No dropped catches this week, compared to five dropped last week. Well done to Jackson (with 2) and Will for taking their chances, and a good all round performance from Freddie in the field.
Please click here for the full scorecard
Phil Maggs
Under 12 vs West Chiltington
2nd game out at home and the start of a warm and sunny weekend on the Green again. We had a renowned opponent ahead with West Chiltington known for sending out strong squads but Wizzy also turned out an attacking team from both the boys and girls squads captained by Hector Dawson.
West Chiltington won the toss and elected to field first
Batting commenced and there were some great moments during the innings:
Great partnership started the innings with Eli Foster and Josh Braddock scoring 36 between them and Josh retiring on 26 not out
Captain Hector Dawson followed with a great score of 23.
Innings continued well with a dryer outfield this week and players finding boundaries of 4’s (Callum Campbell-Yaxley and Bobby Pettett) and a six (Max Vasadi).
Wisborough’s Innings ended with 123 on the board after 15.4 overs.
After a quick tea and a team talk , it was Wizzy’s turn to bowl and we came out fighting.
Bowling highlights:
Captain Hector bowled 3 overs, took 3 wickets including a super catch by Callum Cambell-Yaxley. Only 9 runs conceded.
Josh Braddock bowled 3 overs, took one wicket, one maiden over and conceded only 10 runs.
Eli Foster also bagged a wicket and had only 14 runs off her bowling
It was an exciting game that had excitable encouragment, gasps and enthusiastic cheers from onlooking spectators, ice packs were called in, a nose bleed stemmed but all effort was rewarded with a significant tasty spread of morning snacks provided by the supportive U12 parents.
Most importantly the team started to work together and we closed with a tight finish. West Chilt took the win 127-5 after 17.2 overs…
Until next time!
Please click here for the full scorecard
Darren Hunter
Other news
A special delivery
Congratulations to Dave and Rowan Griffiths on the birth of Rosie on Wednesday evening. Even more special that Rosie was delivered by none other than Wisborough Green’s very own Rachel Wheatley…
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 🏏😊
Cheers
Wizzy