Welcome to Wizzy News for this week – our weekly roundup of news and events at Wisborough Green Cricket Club.

A few games to report on this week with some really outstanding performances to celebrate.

Friday evening training

Just a quick reminder that all age groups are training on Friday night. The weather however is looking rather suspect and we’ll be doing a ground inspection on Friday afternoon at 3:30 ish . Coaches/admins will message their various age groups to confirm if training is going ahead and we will also post messages on our main web page https://www.wisboroughgreencc.co.uk with updates throughout the afternoon.

Parking

Just a quick reminder to park away from the village playground, Wyatt Close and Butts Meadow . Car parking spaces are available at the Village Hall car park where there are 10 spaces and Songhurst Meadow car park where there are 14 spaces.

If it is possible to walk or share lifts to the Green then please do.

RunWisborough – Sunday 8 June at 9:30

Good luck to all the runners who are taking part in the annual RunWisborough fun run on Sunday

Runners in previous years have always commented on how warm and welcoming the village is and we hope that everyone will get into the spirit of the event again this previous year.

Please be aware that there will be road closures on the day and the organisers have written to residents outlining the plans for the race. Please click here for a copy of the letter to residents . Thank you in advance for your patience.

School Summer Fair – Saturday 14 June

Just a quick reminder that the Wisborough Green Summer School fair is on the Green on Saturday 14 June (no cricket on the Green on the day) – please come along and support the school in what promises to be a fantastic afternoon with a wild west twist ..

Honours Boards

Always good to see a Wisborough name on the county wide Honours board . Congratulations to Will Crombie for a fantastic performance against West Chiltington 👏👏👏

Congratulations to all those who have made it onto the club’s Honours Board this week

Upcoming Fixtures

Hard copies of the Fixture Card are available in the Pavilion – please click here for an electronic version of the fixture card

All of our age group fixtures are available on the ECB’s Playcricket website – please click here

Another busy week on fixtures ahead :

• First X1 are at home to Worthing at 1pm on Saturday
• Second X1 are away to Kiln Vale at 1pm on Saturday
• Under 14’s are away to Rudgwick on Sunday morning
• Under 13 girls are at home to Ifield on Tuesday evening
• Under 11’s are away to Lindfield on Tuesday evening
• Under 10’s are at home to Balcombe on Saturday morning

Please come along and support our players if you can – they really do appreciate seeing familiar faces

Team selections

Team selections for this week:

Date for your diaries

Presidents Day – Sunday 29 June

Plans are well under way for our Presidents Day on 29 June – please do make a note in your diary for our annual event which promises to another great afternoon on the Green.

The day starts with drinks at 12pm followed by lunch at 1pm and the much anticipated Presidents vs Chairman’s 30 over match which starts at 2pm.

There will be lots of prizes on offer during the afternoon so please do try and come along if you can

Match reports

First X1 vs West Chiltington

Crombie’s All-Round Heroics Not Enough as Wisborough Green Fall Just Short in Thriller

Wisborough Green CC came agonisingly close to defending a competitive total of 254. Despite the narrow defeat, Wisborough Green put in a gutsy all-round performance—led by the outstanding Will Crombie—and came within touching distance of an unlikely win thanks to disciplined bowling and sharp fielding in the second half of the innings.

Crombie’s Class Anchors the Innings

After being asked to bat, Wisborough Green were in early trouble at 50 for 3, but opener Will Crombie produced a masterful innings that held everything together. Carrying his bat through the innings, Crombie struck a magnificent 131 not out from 112 balls, peppering the boundary with 18 fours and 3 sixes. It was a knock full of timing, patience, and authority.
Crombie found support in Ollie Warmington, who played a vital anchoring role with a gritty 62 off 98 balls. Together, the pair added a crucial 171-run partnership for the fourth wicket, steering the team from a precarious position to a strong total. Finishing on 254/4 from 40 overs, Wisborough Green looked well-placed to defend their score, aided by a healthy 32 runs in extras.

Early Onslaught, Then a Spirited Fightback

West Chiltington came out swinging in their reply, with their opener Alex Tatchell with a brutal counterattack, hammering 95 off just 35 balls, including 9 sixes in a impressive display of hitting. Hugo March and Wolfie Finger baring the brunt. (An unfortunate day for Hugo who went on to lose at pool and fall in a ditch during the evening activities).

Tatchell’s innings looked to have taken the game away from Wisborough Green entirely.
However, credit must go to the Wisborough Green bowlers and fielders for refusing to roll over. With Tatchell’s dismissal at 138, the momentum slowly began to shift. Will Crombie, continuing his remarkable day, turned the game on its head with the ball, picking up 4 for 37 from his 8 overs, including key middle-order wickets that suddenly opened the door.

Dave Griffiths and James Rainford chipped in with a wicket each, and the fielding unit came alive in the latter stages—Rainford’s sharp throw for a run-out and tidy catching by Ollie Warmington and Dave Griffiths brought the crowd back into the contest.
From a dominant 138-1, West Chiltington slid to 242-8, and Wisborough Green sensed an opportunity to pull off a remarkable turnaround. With pressure mounting, the bowlers tightened the screws, but eventually West Chiltington made it over the line with just 2 wickets remaining.

Proud Effort from the Green

Despite the loss, Wisborough Green CC will take great pride in their performance. From Crombie’s sensational century and four-wicket haul, to Warmington’s crucial support with the bat and the team’s spirited display in the field, it was a match full of heart and quality. A little more luck, the comeback could have been complete. Special mention to 16 year old Nick Reed making his 1st XI debut and Josh Raper stepping up with boundless enthusiam. Almost the perfect day with a great bunch of lads.

Please click here for the full scorecard

James Rainford – Captain

Second X1 vs Crawley

A super afternoon’s cricket on the Green for the Second XI. Some standout performances, great atmosphere and spirit between the two teams which was lovely to see. Pipped to the post in the end in a game that we might look back on and ask ourselves how we lost.

Toss lost. Into the field. Their opener smashed his way to 100 with some brutal power hitting. No-one else really made an indent till the last pair who got away with a stand of about 45 in the last few overs. 5 wickets for Phil Maggs – for all the selfless hard work he puts in, this was a great reward. Great catches from Watts and Hartley, sitter of a stumping missed by the captain. Again. Crawley finish on 266.

Great tea in the sunshine shared with our opposition who LOVE coming to the Green and playing us. Tommy Colbran should be commended for his enthusiastic cheering of the team all afternoon with the rest of the football lads. It was great to see the great village spirit shining though as the noise level barely dropped below “loud” all afternoon.

Into bat. Great to see SCS (Steve Calder Smith) at the crease for some time after injury. He did all the hard work to see off the ferocious new ball then fell. There’s a big score coming for Steve very soon, we can all feel it. Watts batted beautifully, and when joined by Palmer in the middle, there didn’t seem to be much to worry about. They kept with the rate with a lengthy stand. Both fell to silly shots, should have known better and will have asked themselves some uncomfortable questions for the rest of the afternoon. Wattsy should be congratulated on his knock of 88 – some ferocious hitting. Wickets continued to fall till Harry Hunter came and bashed a chanceless 61 not out to get us uncomfortably close to winning. WGCC close on 245 in the 40.

Hard to take, but hard to fault the team who played hard in the best spirit all afternoon. 15 bonus points better than a kick in the teeth. Back to winning ways this week we hope. Congrats to Phil, Matt and Harry for exceptional performances this week.

Please click here for the full scorecard

Tim Palmer – Captain

Women’s Softball vs Fernurst

The women are back in action! With Petworth conceding our first fixture and giving us the win, and rain postponing the 2nd fixture, we were raring to play our first softball league match on Sunday.

On a sunny Wisborough green, the tea table was loaded, spectator seats were filling up and the scene was set. Hosting Fernhurst, we settled into the task.

The brief: trust all the practice we’ve being doing in winter nets and summer training and compete for every ball. Winning the toss, we elected to field first.

Maggie (left-handed, medium pace) opened the bowling, and it took a while for the batters to even hit a ball! A solid start. Nat was next, and nerves were soon put aside after taking two wickets in her first over. One bowled, and the other caught by Maggie at mid-wicket. Then followed Ann and Hannah W, showing no mercy and keeping runs to a minimum. Their 1st pair picked up 13 runs.

The oppo’s 2nd pair of batters saw Jilly and Bex joining the bowling line up. It was great to see our fielding was tight. Sarah on deep square leg and Nat on fine leg, were kept busy. Ann mid-on and Jilly at mid-on, both had parts to play. Tess covered everything on the offside. Everyone was reading the bowling well, and backing up, and Hannah secured another wicket with a run out. The 2nd pair left with 9 runs.

Fernhurst were loosening up and their 3rd pair started to hit boundaries, though curbed slightly by my erratic bowling, taking two lucky wickets (caught and bowled) in one over. Collectively they made 20 runs. With room for improvement, the oppo’s final pair were on a mission to score! Worth mentioning at this point however, that Maggie bowled brilliantly, difficult to hit, and would have racked up 2 or 3 wickets had she known LBW is an option this year (as it was last year 😊). We didn’t appeal! Our umpire quite rightly couldn’t give it out (though next time feel free to quietly remind us between overs, Wolfie!). That aside, the pair put on a respectable 45 runs, landing Fernhurst on a total of 315 runs.

A quick break, then our turn to bat. Sarah and Ann opened and set the tone with great placement and decent running. Sarah, showing her signature style, was hitting boundaries and marking a decent wagon wheel! With 17 runs adding to Ann’s 7, we were off to a great start.

Next pair Maggie and Jilly faced some accurate full-length bowling, making it harder to score. Tess and Hannah followed, and picking up the pace again put on another 21 runs between them. Though we batted well, it left a lot to make up for 4th pair Nat and Bex. Managing 41 runs, including the first 6 of the season (and on the offside!), we were still short of the target by 9 runs.

It was a good start to the match season, and our batting, bowling and fielding have all improved. Generally, our game play is better too. But we’re missing out on the win by small margins. Back to the brief and competing for every ball.

No small margins in the hospitality rankings. We (mainly Sarah) crush a match tea! Both teams and the barmy army (thanks for your support!) enjoyed fizz and a feast, in the Sunday sunshine.

Thank you to Jenny for scoring, and Wolfie and Mark who very kindly stepped in to umpire. To the next match…

Bex Samuelson – captain

Under 13 Girls Vs Horsham

A home game on a slippery surface against a formidable Horsham side which included a number of Pathway players .

Horsham won the toss (or to put it more accurately which hand was the chestnut leaf in because nobody had a coin..) and elected to bat

Highlights of the game :

• Early wicket for Lucy Ross-Hurst by bowling the Horsham skipper for 13
• Runfest for Horsham as their classy batters piled on the runs with boundaries a plenty
• Credit to the Wisborough players for sticking to the task diligently and fighting back
• Great teamwork with fantastic throw from the boundary by Margot to runout Horsham batter who was just getting going
• Fantastic work behind the stumps by keeper Lola Cato for not letting a single ball go past her
• Impressive fielding from Eva Thornhill stopping many fours
• Alice Graham-Cloete opens the batting to face the onslaught from the Horsham speedsters and shows her class with some great cover drives
• Molly Jones continues to impress with the bat with a fantastic hook shot for 4
• Ciara Braddock makes her debut for the team after bravely stepping up in the last minute and holding her own against a formidable bowling attack
• Skipper Joanna Nicholls nominated as Wisborough’s stand out player by Horsham
• Team congratulated for a spirited performance by all the players who did themselves proud against a very strong team

A lovely touch by the Under 13 girls who presented a birthday cake and a gift for coach and head of Women’s cricket Sarah Meurer

Under 10 vs West Chiltington

Match report by Cooper Standing (age 10) – Captain

We were really lucky with the sunny weather Saturday. We played against West Chiltington who we had played before so we knew they had some Sussex players and were a good team.

They won the coin toss and asked us to bat first.

Barnaby, Henry, Cooper and Isaac all played well scoring fours, whilst George fielded well against the opposition and caught a few of their players out by catching the ball. Leo was an excellent wicket keeper and Asher fielded well on the boundary lines. Seth and Alex were a great team and worked well with communication whilst Gus was a brilliant bowler.

This week we played well and our fielding had improved a lot. As the captain I learnt that I needed to change our positions for different batters as some were better than others and could hit them further, communication as a team was important.

After our batting time had finished, we had lots of biscuits and drinks, which was great because we were hot. Sadly, we lost but it doesn’t matter as we played as a team and really well, even taking eight wickets.

At the end of each game the captain of each team chooses who they think played well and this week Leo was chosen by West Chiltington and he was really pleased.

Every week we improve and to top it off we had great fun.

Cooper Standing -Captain

…and finally – spotted out and about …

Spotted on the Green

Joshy Dixon in his Sussex kit taking on a coaching role with the youngsters …

Spotted at a nearby cricket ground

Nothing better than watching a cricket match on a Sunday morning from a neigh-bouring field..

That’s it for this week.

If there is anything we need to know you know where to find us

Have a great cricketing week 🏏😊

Cheers

Wizzy