3s Season to Date - Warning... long... By Nate

One of the best things about captaining the 3s last season was the opportunity to select a team, which was made up of some established Wick members, some exciting new players and some future club stars. Last season we saw Robbie Oliver and Matt Rudolph make the step up to senior cricket and new recruits Ilyas, Byrne and Clements playing instrumental roles in our promotion. This season these players have all moved on but despite a change in personnel I am pleased to say that the 3s are still as strong as last year thanks to a fruitful recruitment drive, an improving colts setup and some standout performances from familiar Wick faces.

Match 1 vs Old Rutlishians
Rained off

Match 2 vs Walton on Thames (H)
Hampton Wick: 191 for 8 dec (50.5 overs) – S. Kemp 61
Walton: 53 for 6 (50 overs)
Result: Winning Draw

Our first league game of the season was against Walton on Thames and the Wick put out a side, which contained two Wick debutants (Charith Cabraal and Gayan Karunanayak)along with one U16 (Jamie Craddock) and two U15s (Dan Kemp and Johnny Mcmullan) who were making their first senior appearances. The Wick won the toss and decided to have a bat. It was a formula that had worked well in the past and on the first dry Saturday of the summer it seemed like a good option. However, a lack of middle practice started to show as the Wick were 60 for 4. This brought Sam Kemp out to the middle to join Harry Copeland. Both players batted in their own way, Harry (37) trying to nurdle the singles and Sam (61), playing a typically Kemp like innings punished Walton’s slower bowlers. This helped the Wick to 191 for 8 declared.

Whilst tucking into the first DBW offerings of the summer we were delighted with the batting recovery but were unaware that we had scored about 100 runs too many if we had wanted to make a contest of this game. Walton (who claimed they went for it at the start) responded with a score of 53 for 6 from their allotted 50 overs. Ultimately we had an inexperienced bowling attack, which was not able to finish Walton off. However, it was great to see Mcmullan (J), Craddock and Kemp (D) all take their first senior wickets and to get a glimpse of what could easily be a 2s attack in the near future.

Match 3 vs. Chessington (H)
Hampton Wick: 206 for 8 dec (50.5 overs) – Collier 70
Chessington: 98 all out (35 overs) – Cabraal 7 for 19
Result: Win by 108 runs

Our second game brought Chessington to the Kingsfield. This was our first test against a team that was established in Division 1. Chessington won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Wick lost an early wicket after Risman was bowled by the Chessington opener but recovered well thanks to a 70 run second wicket partnership between Goldy and Ian Collier. This stand came to an end when Goldy (38) mistimed a back foot cut shot and was caught. Ian carried on to make 70 and was supported by Copeland who made 44 not out, which took us to 206 for 8 declared.

With the memories of Walton still fresh in the memory we were determined to avoid the same result as the previous week. Thankfully this time the pitch was offering much more for the bowlers and using the old ball we were able to strike early with Charith Cabraal taking his first wicket by bowling Kendall with the score on 19 and then removing the other opener with the visitors on 22. Chessington then began to fight back putting together a third wicket stand of 40 until this partnership was broken by Gayan who had their captain caught behind with the new ball. Charith Cabraal then returned for a second spell and with an excellent display of consistent line and length bowling from Charith and some full quick bowling from Junaid Illyas at the other end, we managed to bowl Chessington out for 98 and win convincingly. The man of the match was Charith Cabraal who ended with figures of 7 for 19 from 12.

Match 4 vs Cheam (A)
Cheam: 301 for 5 dec (52.5 overs)
Hampton Wick: 228 all out (43 overs)
Result: Loss by 73 runs

After our first win of the season we were on our travels to play Cheam, on a batting track with small boundaries. Unfortunately we were missing a lot of players from our previous game and knew that this would be tough. The Wick started well and before coming off due to an injury, Unsworth managed to make the breakthrough in the 4th over. Cheam’s batsmen were capitalising on any bad balls but with 1 wicket from Junaid Illyas and 1 from Gayan we were happy to get to drinks conceding at a rate of 4 an over. When Junaid struck early after the break we started to feel on top with the opposition 120 for 4. Sadly this feeling was short lived. Henry came in and after surviving an extremely close LBW shout went on to make 100 and get Cheam to 300 for 5 declared.

To the credit of the Wick we decided to make a game of it and with a boundary off the first ball we attacked the target getting off to a flying start until Singh fell for 48 with the score on 56. Unfortunately the middle order couldn’t follow on from this until a 7th wicket stand of 100 between Ratnage (49) and Unsworth (41) kept us up with the run rate and made us believe that a winning draw was on the cards. However, once these guys were out the tail was unable to hold on for the draw and we were bowled out for 230 with 2 overs to go. This was a good effort against a team who were top of the league.

Match 5 vs East Molesley (A)
East Molesley: 142 all out (42 overs)
Hampton Wick: 143 for 9 (40.2 overs) – Singh 67
Result: Win by 1 wicket

The following game against East Molesley was the complete opposite to the Cheam match. Molesley were bottom of the league and Wick availability was so good that the 3s were awarded the luxury of picking Fudgy. Hampton Wick won the toss and elected to field first. Some poor fielding allowed East Molesley to race to 40 after giving a life to each of the openers. A bowling change then brought Fudge into the attack who picked up two wickets in his first over (both caught behind). Apart from their number three who stayed in for far too long and could only hit a tame drive to mid on or mid off, East Molesley put up little resistance. Fudgy picked up another two wickets, Lownsy bowled beautifully (15 overs 4 for 44) and Charlton and Bal finished with 1 wicket each.

With a seemingly easy target of 143 the Wick started positively again and when Singh was bowled (67) we were in a strong position of 80 for 2 with Collier and Fudgy at the crease. Collier followed soon after, run out for 11 and Fudge along Ratnage looked like they would steer us home to a 7 wicket win until another Wick collapse struck and from a position of 133 for 3 and needing 10 runs to win, we slumped to 141 for 9. After refusing to get his whites on a couple of overs earlier this brought Lownsy to the crease as the rest of the 3s looked on behind nail less fingers. Gifted with a low full toss the tension was relieved as Lownsy pulled it for 4 past the short fine leg and we could celebrate a deserved victory.

Match 6 vs Guildford (H)
Hampton Wick: 61 all out (34.2 overs)
Guildford: 63 for 5 (31.4 overs)
Result: Loss by 5 wickets

In the 6th game of the season Guildford 3rd XI , who were sitting at the top of the table made the trip up to the Wick. This was going to be a big challenge but with the likes of Sayce, High and Soppitt returning to the 3rd XI for the first time in at least 2 years we felt that we had a good chance of getting something from the game.
Guildford won the toss and decided to bowl first. The pitch was soft due to the rain and with sunny weather forecast and a good chance that it would get better to bat on as the day went on, it was a good toss to win. The Wick started well moving to 30 before Sayce was given out LBW. Singh fell soon afterwards for 27 and then, due to a lack of concentration that was required on a difficult wicket and some tight bowling from Guildford, the Wick slumped to 61 all out from 34.2 overs.

Despite the terrible batting performance we decided to come out fighting. When Cabraal removed their opening batsman in the first over we started to apply some pressure. Cabraal, Donnelley, Charlton and Craddock all bowled full lengths and some excellent fielding meant that Guildford had to work for every run. With a wicket to each of the bowler’s names and a run out, Guildford eventually won by 5 wickets in the 32nd over. This was a good come back by the Wick and in the end it seemed that we were only twenty or thirty runs short of potentially winning this match against a strong opposition.

Match 7 vs Oxted and Limpsfield (H)
Oxted and Limpsfield: 89 all out (38.5 overs)
Hampton Wick: 93 for 5 (26.3 overs)
Result: Win by 5 wickets

We took our bowling form into the game against Oxted and Limpsfield. This was another match where, due to the rain on the kingsfield the toss would be important. The Oxted skipper did the first bit, winning the toss, but decided to bat first, much to the relief of the Wick captain. The Oxted openers were looking to get off to a flyer but they were driving at balls that weren’t there to be hit and after some tight bowling down the hill from Lown he deservedly removed the Oxted captain, caught behind for 16. This wicket was followed up soon afterwards with an identical delivery that felled the number 3.

At the other end Junaid Ilyas was bowling with some good pace and striving to find a full length. His hard work paid off when he had the other opening batsman caught at point as Oxted were 45 for 3. Ilyas was replaced by Dan Kemp who bowled a great spell picking up numbers 4 and 7 in a 5 over spell that went for 9 runs. Junaid then returned and took another 3 wickets taking his tally to 4 for the match. Whilst this was going on, Cabraal was bowling a 12 over spell down the hill. This spell yielded two wickets and only conceded 7 runs as a result of some extremely consistent line and length bowling, which the Oxted batsmen could not get away. Oxted were all out for 89 runs with 13 runs coming from the miserly bowling of Lown and Cabraal down the slope.

The Wick went about the run chase in positive fashion again and were looking comfortable until the 7th over of the game when a bowling change at the top end saw the score go from 20 for 0 to 20 for 3 with all three batsmen caught behind. This gave Oxted a sniff but Jo Hirsch (27 not out) joined Sayce (35) at the crease. Both men dug in, waited for the bad balls and were able to see us home to a comfortable victory, which now leaves us 5th in the league.

In summary it has been a good start to life in Division 1. The 3s are fifth in the table having played the top two teams in the league. With only two teams going up to the premier league, promotion will be a tough challenge but if availability remains good a top 5 finish would be an excellent achievement and will be something that we can build upon.