18th August 2024
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…….
Oh ok a couple of weeks ago and in Bridgend.
The gallant match reporter forgot what the knot in his piece of string was for and so here, better late than never, is the match report for Wick v Bridgend:
The 12 (yes 12) Action men of Wick travelled the short distance to Newbridge playing fields to take on Wayne and his team from Bridgend CC. With all Eagle eyes upon the travelling Wick players – would Kenny be turning out for his home village or had he seen a better offer from elsewhere. No worries Bridgend have a bar so Kenny was on-board (albeit in a blue Vale top for good measure).
No Russ, who was still recovering from his century the previous week, it was left to the joint captains of Dicky and Andy to guide the Wick ensemble, which included as many Dixons as we could fit in – Dicky, Tubsy, Gutsy and Colin. Everyone else changed their name for the day to make the scorer’s job easier. Bowled DIXON caught DIXON is just easier..
Toss won bowling first – First problem for the joint captains how many overs each to bowl – Colin was keeping and Chris DIXON-Day opted to give the other team a chance and not show them up by bowling his 95mph toe crushers. So divide 40 by 10? Oh no not that easy, some only wanted to bowl 3 others 5, some 7. Anyway, after Dicky helped Andy put his socks back on all was good and a plan formed.
So Gutsy Police House Express from one end and Owen DIXON-Thomas from the other to start. To be fair to Gutsy he has been the best bowler all season and has bowled with real pace unfortunately no wickets again but 5 overs for just 6 runs speaks volumes. Owzio on the other hand bowled with variability but 4 overs 20 runs and 1 wicket (good catch by Steve Collins-DIXON in the gully region). Kenny “Sweet Like a Chicken” (another DIXON-Thomas) next on to bowl replacing his brother Owzio. For those having a bet your money was safe as of course Kenny took a wicket – bowled. He was also unlucky that the Wick CC catching practice session had been postponed due to Hurricane Violet in the Caribbean (why we have no idea) because he also had 2 catches dropped – not saying who by but it was one of the 12 Dixons in the team. Kenny 5 overs for 11 runs and a wicket. Iestyn Jones-DIXON on next, offering the batsman confusion with his brand of wide, wide wicket. It worked again bagging him a plum LBW. 4 overs 25 runs 1 wicket. A rare sight these days but Dicky DIXON on next with his brand of spin – which lasted for about 2 balls until the batsman got him angry and he started bowling decent fast medium – he was unlucky ending 3 overs no wicket for 23 runs. Ian Wakefield-DIXON on next for a little turn of the arm which led to him taking his first wicket for the club – a good catch by Tubsy Dixon.
Andy Ellis-DIXON and Neal DIXON-Worster on next with a wicket apiece (Andy 4 overs for 11 runs and 1 wicket (bowled), Neal 3 overs for 15 runs and a wicket (catch by Dicky Dixon). Tubs and Steve Collins-DIXON on next to finish off the Bridgend innings.
Tubsy striking with his first ball (Gutsy fuming) and again a little later and Steve with his last ball (Tubsy 5 overs 10 runs and 2 wickets) Steve 5 overs 20 runs and 1 wicket. Tubsy also stopping one with his knee in the field off Steve’s bowling and then pretending it hurt 🙂
A decent effort on the field with the exception of a couple of dropped catches (again). Bridgend finished on 162 for 8.
We are not saying who is leading the statistics for dropped catches but it could be one of the most contested categories for end of season awards with several players battling to take the trophy home (Sponsored by Butter Fingers).
Halftime brought that rare event these days a proper cricket tea, which we tucked into heartily (maybe a little bit too much).
Onto the batting, with the plan to cram the Dixons in up front to blow the opposition away.
Steve and Chris opened, Dicky in at 3, Tubsy 4, Gutsy 5, Colin 6, Owzio 7, Ian 8, Iestyn 9, Kenny 10, Andy 11 and Neal 12.
To say that it has taken longer to type that than most of our innings lasted is not that big of an exaggeration with the exception of Mr Reliable Dicky Dixon who got to 50 and retired (as agreed before game) and then was back in relatively soon as wickets fell faster than us dropping cricket balls.
Steve got 3, Chris 2, Dicky 60 odd, Tubsy 6, Gutsy 7, Colin Quack, Owzio 5. We then got to Ian who did well getting to 8 (lovely 4 down the ground) and at one time threatening double figures before succumbing. Iestyn got the crowd excited again by reaching 9, Kenny unluckily got caught by Wayne off a good shot for a quack, Andy again got the crowd excited before nicking one behind on 9. This left Neal and a returning Dicky to finish our innings, Neal playing some nice shots including 2 fours and with the massive crowd now baying for someone to reach double figures left them hanging by falling for 9 again.
Mr E Xtras did put in a decent performance reaching 15 but ran out of partners. We finished on 134.
Thanks to Wayne and the Bridgend team for a good game of cricket and a nice tea.
Some things for the committee to consider at their next meeting:
- Should we plant evidence in Iestyn social media accounts to stop him moving to Canada and us being a player short next year?
- Should Chris and Amal start working on a new shirt sponsorship deal for next season as we haven’t won a game in our new shirts yet?
- Should we all permanently change our names to Dixon?
- Are rumours that Kelly’s Delis have gone bankrupt and that Leo has fled the country with all the pension money true? Or should we contact the police and file a missing person report as no one has heard from him in weeks?
-Andy Ellis
