Welcome to another edition of Wizzy News – our weekly roundup of news and events at Wisborough Green Cricket Club. If you missed last week’s edition please click here

A fantastic week of cricket with some memorable victories by a number of our teams

Honours Boards

Congratulations to all the players who feature on our Honours Board this week

Girls Tournament on the Green

A fantastic Sunday morning of cricket on the Green for the Wisborough Green, West Chiltington, St James Montefiore, Hurstpierpoint and Haywards Heath Under 11 girls teams they competed in the annual pairs cricket tournament. The competition was a closely fought contest with Haywards Heath beating Hurstpierpoint in the final to clinch the trophy for the second year running. Congratulations to Haywards Heath and all the other teams for putting on a fantastic and entertaining display of cricket

Women’s Tournament

A sunny afternoon welcomed Southwater, Slinfold, Ansty and Wisborough Green teams to the Green for the annual women’s tournament on Sunday.

Competition was fierce as each team played three games to determine the ultimate winner….

Many thanks to Chris Marshall for some fantastic pics

Date for your diary

Bank Holiday Monday 26th August is the annual village fete. If you are able to help with the BBQ on the day please get in touch

Upcoming Fixtures

A full house of games coming up again this next week

• First X1 are at home to Horsham Trinity on Saturday at 1pm
• Second X1 are away to Horsham Trinity at 1 pm
• Women’s Softball team are at home to Fernhurst next Tuesday at 6:30 pm
• Under 16’s are at home to Steyning on Sunday morning
• Under 14’s are away to Barns Green on Sunday morning
• Under 12’s have an away game against Horsham on Saturday morning
• Under 10’s have a home game against Steyning 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

Back from holiday with a bump and trying to get a team this week has been somewhat challenging. Thank you to all those that have stepped and those that have tried to help find players. Lets not let these availability difficulties dampen our desire to have fun and playing good cricket. If the players we have got out this week perform to their potential and apply themselves throughout the day (remembering its a long match and you can score more runs in the middle than in the hutch) then I am sure the Wizzy spirit will shine through yet again.

Go well boys, dig in and support each other until the end! 

Match Reports

First X1 vs Crawley

Wiz were away at the magnificent venue of Crawley, a fantastic place to play the game. Skip lost the toss on a pitch nicknamed ‘the Graveyard’ and with no surprise the wiz were put in to bat first.

Steve Calder Smith and Will Crombie opened the batting and were faced with some medium pace from both ends on a very difficult pitch. Steve was first to fall in ‘the Graveyard’ thanks to a rather fast finger in an LBW call from the ‘Grave digger’ (oppo umpire). Will D joined Will C and together played very sensibly. They put on a 60 odd partnership in about 18 overs, a slow rate but was required due to the conditions.

Will C was caught just before drinks for a well made 31. Soon after Will D departed for 30. After this Wisborough experienced a tragic batting collapse due to the combination of ripping spin bowling and the pitch. However, Nick Klein showed some resistance and hit a quick 24 with some powerful hitting making it look easy. It was too little too late however and The Wiz were bowled out for 117 off 32 overs.

With a below par score and a lack of experienced spin bowlers, the Wiz attack knew they had to be tight. Hugo started the team off well with a very tight opening spell picking up two wickets, keeping the Wiz in the game. Dave opened too and was very unlucky. A pea rolling delivery hitting the middle of middle was given not out by the oppo umpire, which was unlucky considering the earlier decision against SCS. This paired with some good batting from Crawley meant they were able to chase to score down only two wickets down. A highlight was witnessing the Chairman (Tarnie Dixon) turning the arm over after many years and allowing the team to get home earlier. Good effort and commitment to everyone involved.

Please click here for the full scorecard

Will Dixon – Captain

Second X1 vs Crawley Eagles

To be perfectly honest there’s not a huge amount I would like to remember from this game – we were comprehensively beaten by a better team and went down without really a whimper. How emotions can quickly change from morning till evening as the anticipation of a strong team avenging a disappointing loss earlier in the season gave way to the bewilderment of just not really turning up.

Tricky toss – promise of rain later on and the batting stats available suggested we should bat.

Tommy Colbran was resolute from the start and dug in against what was a league leading attack. Despite early promise Alex Martin was run out and Watts, Palmer and Farmer all came and went cheaply and without explanation. Our other batters did their best but couldn’t make up for the poor showing at the top of the order. Tommy batted beautifully for his 70 no (without which we would have suffered an even more embarrassing defeat) and also managed to launch a beautiful off driven 6 into the windscreen of a moving car. WGCC lurch to 121 for 9 off 40.

Expectations were still high as we quickly changed over. We thought that getting a few quick wickets would quell their progress. Well, it did, a little. But then we got bashed around the park by 2 precocious 15 year old batters who hit and ran beautifully and knocked off the total with ease in fewer than 25 overs.

Yes, we will claim that the wicket changed a bit. Yes, we will claim that the rain disrupted the innings. Yes, we will claim a few calls from the umpire didn’t go our way . But long and short of it was that some of us didn’t really turn up, didn’t really apply ourselves and, as a result we got punished. The defeat leaves us teetering dangerously on the brink of the relegation zone, which is not really a position that we want, expect or our quality would warrant. But, with regret, it’s where we probably deserve to be at the moment. We’ve lost games we should have won. We tied a game we should have won. We’ve lost against teams that we were better than.

Disappointment is the most horrible of emotions. I am feeling it in spades at the moment. I need to step up. We all need to step up, and rekindle that elation that is only delivered by sitting in the Pav, 30 points to the better, with a glass of something fizzy and cold.

Let’s go and show ourselves, the village and the league that we’re better than this.

Please click here for the full scorecard

Tim Palmer

Thanks very much to Chris Marshall for some great pics of the game

Under 14 vs Slinfold

A warm and sunny morning saw WG U14’s travel to the picturesque Slinfold ground for an important league fixture. Slinfold had beaten us at home in the opening round of league fixtures.

Slinfold won the toss and put Wisborough into bat on a ground with a quick outfield.

A really impressive debut from Will Spiers saw the scoring get off to a good and quick start, he retired on 33 not out.  Runs were added by Josh, Buddy, Bella and Jackson to take the score to 130 after 20. Under normal conditions this is a highly competitive score but with a fast outfield this was a total that would need disciplined bowling and good fielding.

The bowlers all stuck to their task and were supported by some very committed fielding, Bella and Olivia bowled with great economy and Josh picked up two wickets. There were two pieces of individual brilliance in the field, Will Spiers taking a great reaction catch at keeper and Archie with a direct hit for a runout when he only had one stump to aim at.

WG won by 6 runs. Although the Slinfold team was largely made up of year 9 players against our team made up of players mostly ‘playing up’, they were quite evenly matched. Dave and I pondered the differences between the two teams, in the end we decided that we had the edge in running between the wickets and also in the fielding.

Well done to all.

Please click here for the full scorecard

Phil Maggs

Under 12 vs Crawley Eagles

Crawley Eagles this week at home. We lost the game away to this highly respected side last time round and so ideally skipper Josh would have liked to have won the toss, but when we didn’t it was a surprise that Crawley elected to bat.

Seizing the opportunity and a season of improving bowling and fielding capability in the team, we were about to see the finest display yet. Opener Hector would take a 2 wickets first over followed by lightning quick Rupert. The pair would bowl good line and length deliveries to pin the batters back until over 5 when Josh took the next 2 wickets, one a lovely catch from Kai fielding at mid wicket. Rupert took the next 2 wickets.

After 6 overs the score was a bruising 14 -6 for the Crawley Eagles side. Fielding was ultra tight again by the whole team and Lucy continued her consistent wicket taking in over 9, closely followed by a beauty from Archie caught by Harry Maggs. William Bunce opened over 11 with a wicket on the first ball totalling 9 leaving the fielders to take the final wicket with a well coordinate run out initiated by Harry Maggs! Crawley’s innings closed 37 all out after only 12.3 overs! Highly convincing play in the field and by all bowlers.

Wizzy innings commenced and this felt positive for the Wizzy side! Skipper Josh and Zach partnered against some determined and accurate Crawley Eagles bowlers who would take the wind from the sales though. Josh faced a peach for his wicket and William joined Zach. The pair pushed steadily before Hector took up the partnership with Zach in over 7. Score rising to 16 for 3 after in over 8 Buddy joined Hector and suddenly his eye was in with this great bowling, and a 4 the result. Archie in next and this pair would secure a victory, with some excellent joint tactics and a final heart stopping 4 boundaries from Hector! Wizzy innings closed 40-4 after 11.

What a result in light of the last match concluding in a loss by 61 runs! What a monumental difference a season has made to this squad. Jolly well done and bring on the next one!

Please click here for the full scorecard

Darren Hunter and Suzanna Braddock

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 🏏😊

Cheers

Wizzy