Pre-amble

During the week your scribe had spent an idle hour trawling the depths of the play-cricket archives to try to answer a simple question. Of the current playing members of the Wick, who has the longest history with the club? Sadly the archives are far from complete, so the list below will be wrong but nevertheless instructive.

Ben Stephens – debut in 1987

Tom Crowther – debut in 1999

Matty Davies – debut in 2002

Ted Goodwin – debut in 2002

Keith Nicholls – debut in 2004

Phil Linter – debut in 2005

Richard Cole – debut in 2006

That the 5th XI included two members of this illustrious list of legendary Wickmen was a great pleasure. Ted Goodwin has been a stall-wart in the 5s since regular 5s matches started, along his daughters Paige and Erin. By contrast, Ben Stephens was making his 5s debut, completing appearances for the full set of Wick Saturday teams. Prior to the match Ben also corrected the archives – his Wick adult debut was in 1983!

Rose Cottage had been covered overnight – many thaanks to Ben Houghton for organising this upgrade to our facilities – and the wicket was playable but a bit tacky as the teams gathered for a 2pm start. Hampton Hill were a young looking side and upon winning the toss the Hill skipper unsurprisingly chose to field.

Wick openers Steve Hursell and Rob Ritchie faced an opening pair who bowled very straight, very full and extracted some movement from the surface. Ritchie (0) fell to an unlucky dismissal as a leg-side delivery somehow managed to hit the stumps after connecting with his leg which was 2 feet down the leg side. Hursell (5) looked comfortable before a ball stopped in the surface and his checked drive spooned to mid-off. The 5s senior batsmen were now at the crease as Phil Miles joined Ben Stephens. With a combined age in excess of 100 the Wick batters were circumspect against the very accurate Hampton Hill bowling. Stephens in particular faced deliveries that moved sharply past his outside edge. Runs started to flow as both got ‘in’ and the drying playing surface became flatter once the sun came out.

Stephens (53) played some glorious drives in reaching his half century before falling after an excellent stand of 99. Dan Masucci (1) was next in and was unfortunate to fall to a diving catch at slip. Euan Cole (8) was caught as the Wick increased the scoring rate. Miles brought (50*) up a second well-made half century of the season and immediately retired. Erin Goodwin hit a 6 from her first ball and had to retire due to the ‘six and retire’ rule on Rose Cottage. Nick Dunmore (14) and Ted Goodwin (10*) took the 5s to a challenging total of 169 from the 35 overs.

The Goodwin sisters Paige and Erin opened the attack after an al-fresco tea in the sunshine. The previous week had seen the Goodwin family take 8 of the 9 wickets to fall and something similar looked on the cards when Paige (6-1-24-2) claimed 2 wickets in an excellent opening spell. Erin (6-1-22-1) switched ends to bowl from the Cottage End and her first delivery claimed a scalp. Ragu Iyer entered the attack and began weaving his magic with sharply turning leg-spin. Iyer’s spell of 6-4-5-4 put the match beyond Hampton Hill as he claimed his best return for the Wick. Erin Goodwin’s direct hit run out was one of the highlights in the field and she conned the batter into thinking she had mis-fielded before throwing the stumps down from mid-off. Euan Cole (7-1-13-1) bowled a tidy spell without any luck. Dan Masucci took 2 good carches.

The latter stages of the innings saw a remarkable serious of catches grassed by the 5s. With slow bowlers Cole, Dunmore and Ted Goodwin operating against two young Hampton Hill batters there were 5 or 6 chances put down, mostly from the bowling of the unlucky Cole. These chances were not easy (except one) and many involved diving fielders or well hit shots. Needless to say, the fielders involved were frustrated to let the chances slip. The Hampton Hill innings concluded on 85-9 and a comfortable victory for the 5s.

Next week the 5s travel to Sanderstead to play on a new artificial surface.