Friday 7th July 2023
Wick were the welcome visitors to Colwinston on a glorious sunny Friday night for a T20 match. Wick were put in to bat first, not that Russ had won the toss, more the case of players arriving late due to work commitments/finding the ground.
Wick CC - 137 for 4 (20.0): Tom Dixon 25*, Kenny Thomas 25*, Russ Milne 25* Colwinston - 138 for 4 (18.1): S.Sheppard 25*, H.Lougher 30*
Following on from his 6 hitting exploits in his previous batting outing and his confidence sky high, Kenny was opening the batting alongside Steve. Things started steadily enough with Steve picking up runs and Kenny picking up where he left off from his previous innings, finding the boundary on a regular basis. However disaster struck when Kenny hit one to the boundary when the 4 was brilliantly denied by a flying Horty on the boundary, Steve went to run a second but was sent back by Kenny leaving Steve too far out and run out (at time of writing this I am unsure as to if Kenny did buy Steve a pint for running him out).
Next in was Tubsy who almost fell early to the unique Colwinston ground rule of 6 and out if hit over hedge but thankfully the hedge came to rescue and saved his skin. The boundaries kept flowing for Kenny and after reaching the magical mark of 25 he retired out. Next in was Skipper Russ and he continued where Kenny left off finding the boundary at ease and easing to 25 in quick time. Feeling the need to up the run rate Tubsy finally found the middle of the bat and hit consecutive boundaries to also join Kenny & Russ in the 25 club. Iestyn was next up and going down swinging. With the overs quickly ticking by, Wick had another run out with Chris & Amal attempting a second run sadly Chris was run out. Amal & Darren did their bit to up the run rate and ended up bringing Wick home after 20 overs to 137.
Onto the Colwinston Innings and not one to hang around Colwinston, opener Andy went full on Bazball. Another quirk of playing in Colwinston is the 6 and out rule, if you hit the ball into the next field over your going out in a blaze of glory, which happened to Andy much to the frustration of the skipper. Owen opened the bowling and bowled beautifully picking up a deserved wicket.
Iestyn came onto bowl and bowled his best spell for the club and was unlucky not to pick up a wicket. One of the issues facing skipper Russ when going out to field was who was gonna be Wicket-keeper as our 2 regular keepers weren’t playing. Leo straightaway put his hand up despite never doing it before. Russ was reluctant considering Leo is an outstanding fielder and we could have done with him on the boundary, however Leo took the gloves and then proceeded to take a catch Jonny Bairstow can only wish he could take, leaping like a salmon taking an edge off Steve’s bowling.
Wick however couldn’t stem the Colwinston Run-rate. There was a close call with a run-out which was given not out much to the dismay of Leo, however he got his run out a couple of overs later appealing with ‘how is that one’?!. Unusually for a Wick cricket match, Kenny didn’t pick up a wicket, then proceeded to say ‘I save my wickets for the Vale’! Despite excellent bowling spells from Amal and Darran, both unlucky not to pick up any wickets, Colwinston reached the target with 2 overs to spare.
Onto the post match drinks at the Sycamore where the discussion was had about the match report and who will do it as our roving reporter was not playing. Then Iestyn dropped the bombshell that he has a degree in Sports Journalism but wouldn’t touch doing this write up with a bargepole … far too much pressure!!
Big thanks to Colwinston for an excellent game played in great spirit, we look forward to welcoming them to the Village Green at the end of the month, and the biggest thanks to the Sycamore for the post match Sausage & Chips.
-Rob Dixon
