Southwick Wanderers Cricket Club

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

SWCC Debut - Gemma Manvell

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