Southwick Wanderers Cricket Club

Match report – Southwick Wanderers vs. Brighton and Hove Crescent

On a sun-drenched afternoon at Plumpton, the scene was set for an entertaining day’s play, and it wasn’t to disappoint……………..

The Wanderers were invited to field first as the sun’s rays were at their most potent, but feeling buoyed from last weeks win at Brunswick Village, Paul tossed the ball to Jamie in anticipation. He steamed in with real purpose and almost removed their number 1, first ball with a fizzler that just missed off stump and thumped into debutant Gavin’s gloves behind the sticks.Jamie had him jumping around and playing and missing with regularity in his first two or three overs aided at times by the inconsistent bounce of the Plumpton wicket. Luke at the other end bowled beautifully, finding line and length straight away forcing their openers to be patient. Crescent’s number two, an altogether more assured bat forced away the occasional boundary timing some cracking shots and led their charge to 50 without loss.

It was in Jamie’s 5^th over that the Wanderer’s got the breakthrough when he deservedly got the scalp of number 1, all be it with a rank long hop. The ball before saw him deliciously spear the ball through extra cover for four, but he was probably still seeing that shot the next ball when he top edged up and down for Gavin to swallow it up.

Luke finished off his spell of 6 overs, 2 maidens, 0 wickets for 12 runs shortly after. He would prove to be the stingiest of our bowling attack.Paul Lincoln and Barry Hawkins came into the attack and both bowled well, but by now the number 2 bat was starting to take the attack to us, thumping some glorious straight drives to the boundary. This, having survived a sharp catching opportunity in the slip cordon first flying to Barry and ricocheting down for Paul Breslin to spill a difficult diving chance. At the other end Barry too was unfortunate when a firmly struck cut was put down at point.

The Wanderers stuck at it though and after Paul’s spell of 6 overs, 0 maidens, 0 wickets for 36 runs and Barry’s 5 overs, 1 maiden, 0 wickets for 21 runs, Paul turned to Mark Scholfield and Dave Field, both of whom found their line and length immediately. It was Mark who out-witted the number 3 bat with his variation in length who struck first, bowling him as he came down the wicket. Mark had set that wicket up brilliantly and finished with figures of 5 overs, 1 maiden, 1 wicket for 18 runs. Dave continued to trundle in at the other end and picked up the valuable wicket of Crescent’s classy number two, who succumbed in the nervous nineties finishing on 91.

Dave finished his bowling with 9 overs, 1 maiden, 1 wicket for 33 runs.Jamie took a further two wickets before the interval with a clean bowled and a smart catch at midwicket taken by Mark Scholfield above his head. Jamie’s figures were 9 overs, 1 maiden, 3 wickets for 40 runs. Crescent reached tea with 181 for 5 wkts no doubt feeling satisfied with a sizeable total in the bank. The Wanderer’s on the other hand had to bat well to achieve an unlikely win.

Keith “Beefy” Ballam and Mark Scholfield opened after the break and immediately took the attack to Crescent, with Keith powering his way to 28 with some thumping shots to the boundary and Mark playing a more measured attacking game which included a pull for 6 over square leg. Keith was bowled when driving a full ball, but got the Wanderer’s off to a great start. This brought Jez Preston to the crease joining Mark who unfortunately got trapped on the back foot LBW when attempting another pull shot. He departed for 15. Barry Hawkins was in next and straight away showed his assured class by driving his first ball for a single. It was shortly after that he received the horror grass cutter ball that struck him on the ankle roll to be adjudged LBW for 1. Kim Aspindale joined Jez at the crease to try and bring some stability to the middle order, and slowly but surely the score ticked on with singles and the occasional four being taken.The pair had taken the Wanderers to beyond 100 before Kim lost his wicket on 20.

Jamie purposefully took to the crease and after sound advise from Jez of “just have a look, Jamie”, arrowed his second delivery through the cover region for four. He followed that up with a further 3 tremendous strikes to the cover, long on and mid wicket boundaries respectively. Jez was happy to give the strike to Jamie where possible, however lost his fight for survival when the dreaded straight ball tickled the off bail from the stumps. He contributed 25.

Paul Breslin in next, and with a real sense that a win was possible he and Jamie began to run riot. Paul, incredibly was out scoring Jamie with some thunderous blows to the boundary losing 3 balls in one devastating over of 4’s and 6’s which brought the Wanderers to within 3 runs of victory and Paul to within 2 runs of his first half century for the club. He played and missed a scooter that brought about a groan of anxiety from the gathering crowds, but kept his head to drive for 2 to bring the scores level and Paul to reach his maiden fifty. The next ball was firmly dispatched to the square leg boundary enabling the Wanderers to record their second victory from two matches. Paul finished on 54 no and Jamie 35 no.

This was a truly spirited team performance with outstanding contributions from Gavin behind the stumps on his first of hopefully many performances for the club, Jamie with both bat and ball and of course Paul with that blistering 54 that took just 36 minutes to achieve.

Well done Wanderers!!