HWRCC 1xi vs Kingstonian

HWRCC 1XI lost to Kingstonian 1XI by 5 runs - by Matty D

Im not afraid to say it - I bloody love Britain's Got Talent. I used to hate these reality talent shows but now they are brilliant. ITV Player was made for these programmes. Tonight I've been watching a loan of grannies rap, a farmer play the xylophone, a camp german singing whilst wearing a 30ft golden cape and a woman wrap her feet behind her back, over her shoulders and under her pits. Now that’s talent!

The Wick this season has its own conveyor belt of talent coming through and there will be lots of new names for regular readers to get used to. This week it was the turn of young Alex Dare to make a belated adult debut - straight in at the deep end for the 1XI opening league fixture of 2012! Beyond Alex there have been a steady stream of really talented youngsters breaking through into the adult setup. I won’t name them here – they will get their turn soon enough no doubt.

This was the first game of the season and it showed. There was plenty of rustiness in the field and some dropped catches to boot. The bowling was no more than OK and the batting lacked some conviction. But there were also positives. The game was competitive, Kingstonian came 4th last year (we should have won quite easily really) and a young gun showed he has some real bottle.

The game was 35 overs and we made a good start in the field taking an early wicket. But thereafter things didn't go our way. A few dropped catches and maybe some nieve field placing mean't the ball fell in the gaps too often. The bowling was also too short and the pressure wasn't always kept up when it needed to be. Tongy and Fahad bowled OK without reward. The conditions were never going to suit Daisy’s pace and Noman operated off a short run up (yet despite the figures was perhaps the best bowler on the day). Kam also bowled poorly by his standards. But the story has to be young Alex Dare who making his senior debut in an cricket took the fight to the batsmen. At around 100-1 I asked him to lob it up there and give it a rip (he's a leggie btw) and they took the bait. Four great catches by 1XI debutant Finbar (cow), Kam (long off), Alex himself and Boney (behind the sticks) and Alex had taken 4-25 from 7 on debut! A quite magical performance and the balcony crew let us all know about it! Ks ended up 163ao which included some run outs towards the end.

As I said before, this was an OK performance, but on another day Ks could have been 100ao we could have knocked them off for 2 in no time. But cricket is about fine lines and our bating response was perhaps a wake up call for the season.

Davies fell early playing a nothing shot to a nothing ball Daisy and Ali set out building a response – easily keeping up with the rate without any alarms. Then Alex failed to mow a half tracker and skied one to the in field. Kammy joined Nom at the perfect time and they also put on another 50 runs easily, going at 4s or 5s. Kam went for a walk and then Nom didn’t walk fast enough. Wickets started to fall but we should have got home needing about 50 from 12 overs. We didn’t and a combination of poor shot selection, some inexperience and some silly run outs mean’t we finished up 5 short. Given the number of nieve mistakes we made all day the fact we only lost by 5 runs says it all.

If Im being crude MoM should really be Noman but the star of the show was obviously Alex, whose outwardly nerveless display defied his 14 years! However I’ll give the WoM to a combination of Alison Whitcher and Carol Dare. Alison taming her demons to score in the face of a howling wind and AJ, and Carol for being the latest Wick recruit on the balcony supporting the boys (and putting up with AJ). We lost but all things considered there are plenty of positives, considering that everyone can do lots better (and indeed did so all last season). That’s the challenge – and Im looking to the likes of Alex and Finber to keep us all on our toes.