Southwick Wanderers Cricket Club

Mayfield v SWCC - Sunday 21st June 2009

Jeremy Preston top scored with 80 as the Wanderers notched up 197 all out against Mayfield, and the fielding response from the Wanderers was equally good with Luke leading the way as the away side won with 4 balls to spare, winning by 104 runs. Hopefully we'll get some more detailed reports coming though soon!

SUNDAY 14th June - Amberley vs SWCC

On a nice and warm Sunday afternoon, Amberley inserted themselves and probably regretted that decision. Luke and Jamie bowled beautifully and it was 5 overs or so before a run was registered, eventually the No2 flicked Jamie for 2, and at the other end Luke had the No1 caught behind off a no ball. The second time that has happened to Luke this season. The Amberley innings continued to stutter a long and wickets fell at regular intervals with Luke, Taylor and Jamie all amongst the wickets. Amberley ended up 73 all out just before the scheduled tea interval, from 2.5 hours batting.

The Wanderers response was swift and sharp, with John (38) hitting 3 fours off the first over, and John and his opening partner, Jeremy (30no) continued to pull and drive their way to 65 before John was brilliantly caught by gully as he advanced down the wicket. In came Mark J (8no) who hit two fours in agricultural fashion to bring about a 9 wicket win in just over 30 minutes of batting.

A fuller report will appear here shortly.

On a very warm Sunday afternoon Jamie lost the toss and the Amberly skipper decided to have a bat in the sun.

Jamie and Luke opened the SWCC attack and started bowling a superb line and length.  In response, the Amberly batsmen resorted to a purely survival mode and it wasn’t until the 5 over that the first run was registered.  The first wicket fell to Luke (LBW) in the ninth over with only 9 runs on the scoreboard.  As the innings continued, the run rate never showed any signs of any improvements as only a handful of boundaries were hit, with wickets continuing to fall at regular intervals.  Full credit for this should go to the SWCC bowling attack, with wickets shared out between Taylor (4), Luke (3) and Jamie (2) all well supported by plenty of dedicated fielding from the rest of the team – a number of times fielders put their body on the line (or in Kim’s case shin on the line) to prevent the score being added to.

Jamie suffered more than most in the field.  First, by stopping a fierce off drive at silly mid off and bruising his fingers; secondly, by misjudging a catch and being struck on the forehead by the ball, which left a seam mark clearly imprinted on his head!!  Fortunately, after stemming the flow of blood from the wound, Jamie returned to the field and even managed to bowl an over of off spin taking two wickets in the process.

The Amberly innings ended after 2.5 hours at 73 all out, just before the scheduled tea interval.

After the tea interval, John and Jeremy began the SWCC response.  As they walked out to the crease they agreed to try and run singles to keep rotating the strike.  The inning didn’t quite go as planned....They both enjoyed the bowling on offer, running only 6 runs in a partnership of 68 before John was well caught in the gully region (for the 2^nd week running).  The fall of the wicket brought Mark Johnson to the crease.  With his unique style of batting, he found the deep mid wicket (cow corner) boundary twice to bring about the victory for SWCC within 7 overs.

A good team performance all round, with man of the match points being dominated by the bowlers with Taylor (5 points), Luke (3 points) and Jeremy (1 point). A special mention has to go to Gemma for stepping in at the last minute and who certainly doesn’t look out of place with the rest of the wanderers.

Three Bridges v SWCC - Sunday 7th June 2009 - Maidenbower

With very mixed weather forecasts leading up to the Sunday, there was a chance this game was going to be affected by the weather - I’m sure the skipper had his D/L sheet ready though.  Fortunately, as Jamie walked out for the toss the sun was shinning and that was the way it stayed for the whole game.  Having won the toss Jamie elected to have a bat and opened proceeding with John and Simeon.

The opening pair had a steady start; however, some tight bowling from Three Bridges started to build the pressure, with the balling swinging and seaming off the pitch.  In the 5th over the first wicket fell as John tried to drive through the covers, only to give a difficult chance to the gully fielder that was accepted with pleasure.  In the next over Simeon had his stumps up-rooted by an excellent in-swinger, restricting the Wanderers to 16 for 2. 

After this mini collapse, Mark and Martin found themselves at the crease with some rebuilding to do.  They both set about the cause well; Martin grew in confidence and began to find the boundary with excellent shots all around the wicket and Mark rotated the strike well backed up by his solid defence.  Steadily the partnership grew to 52 and was only ended by when Martin was well caught for 44. 

With the score at 68 for 3 Jamie made his way to the crease batting number 5.  In a somewhat unusual manner, Jamie started his innings in a controlled fashion, running singles well and somehow resisting the urge to charge down the wicket to a good off-spinner.  However, before long the fielders were regularly searching for balls in the bushes surrounding the pitch as Jamie started batting with the freedom he does in the nets!  He quickly pasted his fifty and continued to accelerate with Mark once again holding up his end well in an excellent partnership of 81. 

As the batsmen tried to increase the run rate, wickets started to fall - with 10 minutes of the innings left Jamie called Luke through for a second run and he found himself wanting and was run out.  This ended what was an excellent inning from the skipper; a career best of 90.  As the rest of the Wanderers applauded their skipper Luke quickly pointed out he didn’t call the second run!!

Shortly after this the inning ended on 219 for 6 at the schedule tea interval.

After an excellent tea from Three Bridges (the chicken wraps and fresh pineapple were especially well received) the Wanderers took to the field. 

Jamie and Luke opened the bowling for the Wanderers and in the early over’s Jamie struggled to find the right length and was on the receiving end of some good batting from the Three Bridges’ openers.  Luke on the other hand started bowling well, finding some movement in the air with the new ball.  Observing the swing Luke was achieving Jamie tried the same by taking some of the pace off the ball.  This was a successful ploy as the first wicket fell to Jamie, getting batsmen number 2 stumped. 

Luke continued his tight bowling and soon begun to reap the rewards, taking another 4 wicket haul for only 31 runs.  He was backed up well with some consistent bowling from Taylor and Dave as well as some good fielding – Dion, Marcus and Darren all took catches.

This resulted in the young number 10 and 11 batsmen having to survive for 5 overs to save the game.  To the batsmen’s credit they did very well keeping bowlers out and even refused to accept bribes from some of the fielders in return for a catch!  Unfortunately for the Wanderers, Three bridges finished on 105 – 9 and the match was drawn.

An excellant team effort from the Wanderers all round, but a special mention for the skippers' inning of 90 and Gemma's debut for the team.

Bowling Figures

The Wanderers got back to winning ways by beating Hammerwood. The Wanderers raced 100 in no time but then faltered to 165 all out just before tea. Dave Noakes top scored with 64. Hammerwood also had a bright start but eventually struggled to reach 90 all out and the game was over by 6.30.

SWCC vs ASHDOWN FOREST

So the Wanderers finally lost a match in Sussex for the first time in over a year when Ashdown Forest came to Plumpton on Sunday. By all accounts it was a battling performance against strong opposition. A more detailed report will hopefully appear here soon.

I suppose it was enevitable that we would lose a match to the weather before too long, the summery start to the season was brought to a shuddering halt by a terrific downpour early on Sunday morning. The game was called off by Wivelsfield early, and then by lunchtime it had brightened up considerably, only to start raining again in the early afternoon, and I don't think it stopped all day from then!

SWCC debuts for Jas Sandhu and Dion Sampson.

Jamie goes out to the middle with the opposing skipper and wins his second toss in a row and decides to have a bowl on what looks to be a very true wicket.

Jamie Hyde takes the ball from one end and starts perfectly with a wicket maiden in the form of an off stump yorker. Luke 'I won't tell anybody about your dolly drop against Brunswick Village last week' Smith shows he still has it and also gets a wicket maiden by forcing the other opener to edge to John standing behind the stumps. Over the next 9 overs the DPBL 3 & 4 struggle to get anything away. With the score on 30-2 Luke works out where the stumps are with his 4th ball of the game to a right hander and bowls the no.3 R.Gardener for 9 leaving D.Ray the skipper for the hosts at the other end. D.Ray a very techical left hander not playing at anything he doesn't need to and at the other end the new bat M.Milmine was swinging at everything. Jamie, after beating the edge on several occations including John taking the ball at head height on a couple of deliveries gives it a break and hands the ball to Taylor who starts with a maiden.

Luke then decides to bowl a beautiful ball and takes middle stump only to find he over stepped the mark for a no ball but he does make up for it the next over and bowls M.Milmine with a legal ball. Paul Lincoln takes over from Lukes end but for some reason can't find his stride and asks to be taken off after only 3 overs. Taylor on the other hand has the batsman in all kinds of trouble so P.Milman attempts a little drop and run but Dion Sampson sprints in with a clean pick up and gets a direct hit only to find the batsman is in and the ball shoots over the boundary for 5 runs, whoops. D.Ray and P.Milman end up putting on 70 when the latter tries to scoop Talylor over the mid-wicket boundary only to find Jamie has put himself there for that reason and he takes the catch, Milman gone for 26. While all this is going on Dave Field (who took over from Paul) is getting his balls to swing all over the place and not giving the batting side much to work with. Taylor finishes his 8 overs and is replaced by Golden Arm Scholfield who for the second week running gets a caught and bowled in his first over, J.Matanley gone for 0.

6-111 with 11 overs left. Dave Field gets the no.4 in all kinds of trouble as he scoops the ball straight down Mark Scholfield's throat and he is gone for 54 well earned runs. Now into the tail with no's 8 & 9 in bat, Dave and Mark are trying everything to finish this off but the no.8 P.Hinds swinging at pretty much everything and manages to edge quite a few to the boundary before his batting partner B.Fenwick scoops the ball straight to Jamie waiting with open hands. Jamie then comes back on to try and finish proceedings but with his final two overs nothing can be done and DPBL finish on 172-8. An excellent fielding performance by all.

After a cup of tea and a Jaffa Cake, Jamie sends John Bird and Anthony 'my name isn't Woody from Toy Story' Higgs to start us off towards the required total. John as text book as ever from one end as Anthony edges one to the boundary for 4 streaky but effective runs. John then starts to open up with a 6 run over. From somewhere Anthony decides to hammer the opener back over his head for a glorious 4. When Anthony faces the other opener his luck runs out and is clean bowled for 4 but he had the right mentality. John is joined by Mark Scholfield who watches as John really starts to open his shoulders scoring at will. This comes to an end as he middles an off-drive only to find that L.Fenwick the 1st change bowler manages to hold on to it for a caught and bowled, John gone for 35.

Kim joins Mark at the crease and things frustratingly for the skipper slow right down as these two hold their ends up but not getting the runs as quickly as needed. Mark after a few overs knows that things need to move now and tries a boundary scoring shot only to miss judge a looping ball from P.Matanley and he is gone for 25 clean bowled. Jamie seeing things start to drift away needing 6 per over so inm true Jamie fashion in 4 scoring shots he gets 13 runs, 6 of which land in the far side carpark. Shame though because he tries another but misses and gets stumped off the next ball. Seven years after his last outing Dion Sampson strides out and has the same attitude as his skipper to try and get these runs quickly but he goes for 1.

Luke soon follows without troubling the scorers, this brings Paul in to try and redeem himself after a less than accurate performance with the ball. He does so partnering the less than fluant Kim at the other end and getting a quick fire 19 only to be given out LBW (John gave it so it was plum). Kim soon followed suit giving P.Matanley his 4th wicket by giving a simple catch away. Hobbling to the crease comes Jas Sandhu in his first game for 13 years, the hobble is due a pulled groin that occured earlier in the game and Luke honerably voulenteers to be his runner. Jas can hardly walk let alone hit the ball but manages a single to bring Taylor on strike, shame it was the last ball of the over.

Then out of nowhere Jas swings the bat in a Caribean cover drive style and the ball goes for 4 meaning the scores were tied with 10 balls remaining but this was to be Jas' last contribution as he is also caught out this time the opener comes back and gets his first wicket. Dave Field come to the crease knowing 4 will win it so he askes if he should give the strike to Taylor but there was no need as Dave skillfully guides the ball to the boundary for 4 and the winning runs. Dave is now asking to be promoted up the order to 10 for the next game.

A close game for the Wanderers but good fun overall. The after match ceremonies consisted of chips sarnies and lager. Perfect way to end a good day.

Skips note - Thank you everyone who played especially to the WAG's Gemma and Claire as they both scored unassisted for the first time as DPBL didn't see the need to score or offer much aide.

SWCC STATS

Bowling

Batting

The 9th Annual Cris Neale memorial trophy was held at Plumpton College on Sunday between Southwick Wanderers and Brunswick Village. Brunswick were looking to regain the trophy after losing it in last years encounter. BVCC batted first and strugled to 115 all out of their full compliment of 40 overs. The Wanderers then knocked of the runs for the loss of just one wicket.

A full report is being written by the Skipper, and Skippers mate! to appear here very soon

And here it is.

On a day with ominous clouds that threatened rain and intermittent sun, which was warm when it did show, new skipper Jamie strides out to the middle with Clive Hawthorn (both in their debut season as captain), Jamie does 'the impossible' and WINS the toss and puts Brunswick Village into bat.

Jamie opens the bowling with Luke and from the off they put the opening bats under pressure, well apart from a couple of dubious wides. Luke with 2 maidens and Jamie with 2 runs off the bat from the first 4 overs. In Jamie's third over he puts his namesake Jamie Barton under severe pressure moving the ball off the seam cutting him in half narrowly missing the top of middle stump. The following delivery is a trademark 'Heinz 57' slower ball which deceives J Barton and he takes a leading edge sending the ball into orbit, so high we expect snow and ice to have formed, the skipper bellows that he has the catch (I think that Tony P heard the call in France) and it is safely gathered. Apart from some swashbuckling antics from the opposing skipper, Luke was keeping it tight from his end while Jamie was moving the ball all over the place with more seam movement than 'Bionic' Barry Hawkins, he hits the leg stump of the other opener W Clifford.

Luke is replaced by Taylor Salerno and straight away the batsmen have trouble figuring him out, mind you if he doesn't know what he will bowl, god knows how they could guess what's coming next. Jamie finishes on a maiden and is replaced by Mark 'Golden Arm' Scholfield who also gives them something to think about, luring them into a false sense of security with a dross wide after a straight drive over mid on for 4. The next ball sees Clive Hawthorn baffled as Mark takes a caught and bowled and Clive is gone for 17 very cheap runs. In his next over Golden Arm keeps the pressure on giving Mark Johnson something to do in the slips, time seems to stop as we all realise that MJ has caught the ball and a pile up ensues, Mark happily crushed at the bottom.

Taylor as tight as ever gets two wicket maidens on the trot, the first comes from a superb catch in gully by the one and only Kim Aspindale. The other an LBW, which Alan Moroney admitted as he returned to the pavilion was “plum”. Mark finishes a great spell and Luke goes all funny as he is asked to bowl from a different end but it worked as he finds off stump, it's a shame that he is bowling to a left hander. Never mind Luke always finds a way, so he decided to bowl the tasty Sri Lankan round his legs. From the other end the 'Oldest Swinger In Town' is tossed the ball and does his usual magic pinning the batsman down, balls swinging all over the place. Luke ends his 8 overs and suddenly Jamie realises he can't count, so in a moment of desperation he calls on MJ. As he is announced to the scorers a cry of “OH MY GOD YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS” comes from the Southwick scorer. Against all odds he started with a maiden which scared the 'you know what' out of the entire Southwick side. In his next over with two wides we all realise he is back to normal. Out of the blue MJ finds the edge and Sim 'The Salmon' Lewis leapt for all his worth and takes the catch. Mr Field from the other end manages to trap the No 10 LBW and with the visitors on 104 for 9 things are looking bad as Jamie comes back to try and mop up the tail, moving the ball all over the place again to no avail, even switching to spin against the No 11. With the final ball of the innings Disco Dave catches the No 11 Casper Jones LBW leaving the Brunswick MOM stranded on 33 not out.

After a lovely tea from the Bird's, messers Bird and Noakes stride out to attempt a target of 116 on a pitch that felt a little unpredictable. Proceedings started with a maiden from the left handed swing of Jez Stevens. Both John and Dave took a little liking to the opening pair and Jez tried his luck from the other end but gained nothing by this. In the midst of beautiful technical boundaries and the pure power from Dave, Brunswick managed to forget the golden rule if cricket, 'Catches Win Matches'. They dropped 5 catches in a somewhat lack lustre fielding performance. With Noakesy on 32 he drives the ball through mid wicket, John calls for a third run which they complete only to have Taylor let out the call 'ONE SHORT', unthinkable, John bird has run one short mind you he was getting close to his 50. The following over Dave drives a ball on the up straight to mid off. The 4^th Brunswick slow bowler W. Clifford takes the wicket of Dave Noakes with his tweaking leg spin. This brings returning Wanderers LEGEND Martin Malpass to the crease with John on 47 and only 20 runs needed. After knocking out a couple of singles to get John on strike for what is likely to be the first of many 50's, John cuts the ball toward the cover boundary for two for his well earned half century. John smashes a few more boundaries and gets to 60 before Martin picks up a loose leg side delivery and dispatches it over the mid wicket boundary for a 6 and end the game.

Wanderers win by 9 wickets, the perfect start for the new skipper. Overall a great day was had by all and the game was played in the right way.

The inter-club match was played in near perfect cricket conditions, nice and warm, dry and sunny! The skipper split those present into groups of 2, who then batted for 10 overs each, with a group of 2 bowlers bowling at them for those overs, everyone else was fielding. If you got out, you lost 5 points, and went to the non-strikers end and carried on until the 10 overs were completed. A great success and everybody enjoyed it!

The pavilion changing rooms were not usable, however, as the water damage was still very much in evidence. Hopefully this will be in better working condition for the first main match of the season this Sunday versus Brunswick Village.

The 2009 Season is now almost upon us, and as normal we are holding the Inter Club Day to brush off the Winter excesses and get everybody tuned for the season ahead. On that note, there are some things that you need to be aware of.

The Plumpton College Pavilion

The pavilion has suffered even more than normal in the close season, and was in a very poor state. Added to the usual vandalism it also suffered from a burst pipe, which means that all the floorboards are sodden and the floor tiles need to be replaced. This has also meant that the usual pre-season repainting has been put on hold.  Thanks to our friends at RAFA and Ditching Strollers, most of the repair work has been completed, but it is still drying out (a de-humidifier is in situ) , and probably won't be fit for purpose for this coming Sunday. Indeed, RAFA will be "on site" on Sunday to continue working on it.

Please note:

Due to the state of the pavilion, it may not be possible to change there this Sunday, and we will NOT be organising any Tea (the kitchen is the worst effected area). So please bring your own food and drink, if you want anything.

Match Fees

Those of you who attended the Annual General Meeting will be aware that match fees have been increased to £6.  For this coming Sunday, will be only charging £5.00 to cover the cost of the pitch as no tea is being provided.

Fixture Cards

The 2009 Season Fixture cards have been printed and will be distributed asap.

Hertfordshire Tour

As things stand at the moment, the Hertfordshire tour is in doubt. Trying to arrange fixtures on the Saturday in that neck of the woods is a challenge as everyone plays league cricket, and so it means trying to arrange a Monday fixture. As last years tour showed, it's even harder to find a fixture to match our standard. If the tour does indeed fail to materialise, we'll replace it with a normal fixture. Watch this space.