Southwick Wanderers Cricket Club

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.