Southwick Wanderers Cricket Club

Sunday 16th May 2010

Wanderers wobble but they don’t fall down - by Jeremy Preston

The picturesque Hammerwood played host to the Wanderers on the day that England secured 20/20 World champion status!! Another fresh afternoon out in the field for the Wanderers as Hammerwood set about their task to set a target…….

Jamie and Luke opened up and both immediately found line and length, restricting the opening pair to the occasional scrambled single. It was Luke that struck for the wanderers first with a straight fast one that took out Amaya’s off stump as his lack of patience was his own undoing. He departed for 1. This brought “chatty man” Page to the crease, and it was he who began to get the score moving more quickly with some powerful blows to the boundary. As he began to score more freely and his constant “banter” became more annoying, it was apparent that the Wanderers needed to remove Page, sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, Hicks held up the other end driving some text book shots to the fielders without ever being a concern. He eventually went the same way as Amaya, being bowled by Luke with a perfect delivery, eluding Hicks’ forward defensive for 4. A short interlude as Richard “Chuckles” O’Neill adjusted his twins in Page’s eye line before the best opportunity was fashioned. Luke bowled a riser that caught Page’s leading edge, popping up an easy caught and bowled and 45-3……..wait Luke dropped it!!! Incredibly, it was put down as Page had resigned himself to a stroll back to the pavilion and everyone else was celebrating his demise……but it wasn’t to be. Luke was to be instrumental for Page’s departure in far greater style later in the innings.

Richard lost his fight for survival succumbing to a Luke delivery bowling yet another victim. Page the prize man, however was still at “large”. Darren Radford came on for Jamie and bowled a very tidy but ultimately luckless spell. Mark Scholfield meanwhile, once again lived up to his tag of “golden arm” by taking 4 wickets, the first of which was Page with a full toss that was bludgeoned to the long on boundary. Luke moved swiftly to his right to cling on to a pearler of a catch that had all his teammates in raptures. Page departed for a creditable 63.

The youngster Robin showed some class during his innings with some incredibly straight batting. Ali clearly didn’t want to hang around and showed his intentions early, dancing down the wicket to Mark Scholfield with an aggressive swipe and miss and in a blink of an eye John whipped off the bails with just 5 to his name. Three further wickets fell in quick succession. Jamie had seen enough of Robin and snaffled a sharp caught and bowled opportunity seeing the youngster shuffle back to the pavilion with 33 to his name.

He took the next wicket bowling Ray for a duck. The next over saw Mark get his fourth and Hammerwood’s last wicket with Mark B pulling straight into Jez’s grateful hands. There were notable performances in the field by Gemma who looked sharp and by Richard in the deep making some tumbling stops.

122 all out and tea……….

Southwick’s opening pair of John Bird and Tony Preston strode to wicket to begin the response. John dispatched his third ball over square leg for 6 and followed that up with a 4 and he and Tony were looking comfortable early on keeping the scoreboard ticking over. John on 12, however pushed forward at a delivery from Spencer which evaded the outside edge and tickled the off stump. This brought Dave “Errol” Noakes to the crease who immediately set about the Hammerwood attack with some ferocious power hitting. He and Tony settled into a lucrative partnership (60) and looked like they would complete the job for the Wanderers, but Dave was bowled for 38 as he began to tire.

Richard O’Neill joined Tony in the middle understandably nervous ahead of his first match for the Wanderers. His second ball was powerfully cut and as the spectators were expecting to see the bushes rustling on the far side of the ground, Richard reached down and picked the ball up from between his legs. He was bowled the next over by a good, full Ali ball, sadly without troubling the scorer. Jez joined his Dad at 79-3 and settled down after a shaky start with a couple of tickled singles. The pair had accelerated the scoring by another 50 runs and to within 2 of victory and then the wobble………..

Tony was undone by Page as he attempted a tickle around the corner as he was trapped LBW, departing for a very well crafted and welcome 42. Darren Radford followed next ball as he attempted to finish things off in style. He was stranded down the track and was stumped for 0. Mark Scholfield couldn’t have been relishing the prospect of facing hatrick ball with just 2 runs required for victory, but he confidently blocked his first ball and calmly cut the next ball for the winning runs.

The game typified an early season encounter, but ended in comfortable victory for the Wanderers.

Hammerwood Innings

SWCC Innings

FoW 18 Bird-12: 78 Noakes-38: 79 O'Neill-0: 129 T Preston-42: 129 Radford-0