Wick CC v F Troop @ the Village Green

Wednesday 17th July 2024

Cricket is usually a game of highs and lows. Wick cricket is a club of very highs and very lows. We started off the season incredibly, as I’m sure you’re all aware. Winning 6 or 7 games on the bounce, with some genuinely excellent team and individual performances. The last two games have been a humbling experience to say the least. We could put last week’s game vs Lisvane down to them just being a much better, much younger, and definitely much more competitive side, however we could not blame the opposition on Wednesday as we will freely admit, it wasn’t our finest performance as you will find out.

Last Wednesday Wick welcomed our biggest rivals F Troop to the village green for some more midweek T20 action.

There was no Kenny this week, South Wales’ most prolific wicket for hire was doing what he does best for his 11th favourite team Llancarfan (Wick are somewhere in the Top 5 we hope). This meant we could make room for Wick legend Matthew Williams in the starting line up for his midweek season debut. We also welcomed Chris and Andy back into the fold after a very brief hiatus for the Lisvane match (good choice gents). The maths was a little off this week, we had 9 players on Tuesday evening, and through some ringing around the houses and persistent messages from skipper Russ, we managed to somehow rock up to the green with 12?! After a brief discussion and the use of some fingers and toes, we came to the agreement with F Troop that we would play with 12 players each as they also couldn’t count and brought along a spare.

Wick batted first so Russ sent out Steve to take up his usual role as opening batsman with Matt. It would appear Steve took last week’s comments about second fiddles to heart as he began to farm the strike very nicely, making sure to sneak a quick single towards the end of the over, although one ball too soon it would appear in this particular over. With one ball to face, Matt knocked one away from his legs and set off, to Steve’s surprise, who was already picking out where he was placing his next shot. He realised a moment too late and was run out by Matthew (not for the first time) at the far end. Our first wicket fell.

Russ came in next, and him and Matthew, as you would imagine, set off ticking the runs over nicely, considering the pitch was very difficult to play and some seriously consistent bowling from the opposition. Not long into the partnership Matthew was caught at midwicket by some safe hands and in he went to face the wrath of Steve. Good luck Matt.

Andy was in next and was quickly out again. Owz and Chris were in at 5 and 6 and both fell quickly too. Pretty soon you will start to see a pattern if you haven’t already…

Iestyn then came in at 6, hoping to break the streak. He was met by Russ in the middle who told him very calmly, clearly and with the slightest hint of frustrated passion “take your time, play straight, don’t get out”. Sure enough, 0 out of 3 of those were executed. The first two balls he faced were outswingers, that he happily left to slide on past as they were no danger to him. We then found out that Iestyn doesn’t only like to leave the wider balls, but also the straight ones. The ball was pinged into him on the stumps, and funnily enough, the stumps it hit. Iestyn walked to the boundary quoting Ex-captain Rob Williams, “ball of the century and swung a mile” (middle stump to middle and leg).

Amal was in next, who batted well with Russ. He assisted Russ in getting to the retirement requirement of 25. Before being bowled himself just after young Sam joined him in the middle, replacing Russ. Sam started off steady but he too fell to the impressive F Troop bowling on 3 runs. Sam was mildly annoyed by his seemingly meagre total, that was until he was reminded that he had more than Andy, Iestyn, Owen and Steve combined. If you can’t see where this is going yet, then I can’t help you.

Gutsy and Simon came in next to see us out, for the last over or so. Simon decided he was leaving with something so went to work swinging at absolutely everything. He hit his first runs for Wick to a huge cheer from the crowd of jealous and disappointed Wick batsmen. Before he was bowled a full toss and his happy swinging wasn’t quite so happy and the ball dropped down onto his stumps on the final ball of the innings. Leaving F Troop with a huge target to catch of 72… Top tier stuff really…

Wick went into the second innings knowing they were up against it, and that anything other than an F Troop win was almost unimaginable.

Gutsy and Amal continued their rivalry of who was the quicker bowler (and latest arriver) as they opened the bowling as a pair. First ball of the innings from Amal was a wide… which normally wouldn’t be worth a mention if it wasn’t for our last minute stand in keeper Owz. Who tactically missed the ball, and the batsmen fell for it, hook, line and sinker. They ran the byes up without a worry in the world. Unbeknownst to the F Troop batsmen, we had a ringer at the sticks. Owz, while on the turn threw the ball and hit a direct hit leaving the batsman, the fielders, himself and anyone who saw it in genuine disbelief. Great start. 0 for 1 off 1 ball… Could the come back really be on?

The following over, Gutsy replied with a wicket of his own, the other opening batsman found the safest pair of hands in the field, (obviously not Gutsy himself) but our resident Californian Simon, who was even a little surprised himself, as he did try his hardest to not be underneath the ball. 2 wickets in the first 2 overs for not many runs. Crazy scenes.

Batsmen 3 and 4 then went to work for F Troop, one retiring at the 25 run threshold, and the other being caught deep by Andy off Sam’s bowling on 19 which meant the remaining batsmen needed 28 runs from 13 overs, with still 8 wickets left. So what I’m saying is, there’s a chance…
Only joking. The remaining order hit the rest fairly comfortably despite some excellent bowling from Matthew, Simon and Steve. And huge shoutout to Neal who put his body and pride on the line with an excellent diving attempt which was so close to coming off, if only Jordan Pickford was watching eh Neal ??? And finally, a massive shoutout to Owen Thomas for stepping into Dicky’s size 15 shoes, and crouching in as Wicket keeper, you may have hands like a sieve, but that run out will go down in Wick history. Great work mate, village cricket at its finest.

Ultimately, we left ourselves with too much to do following our batting performance and F Troop deserved the win. Maybe next year then I guess… Congrats gents. Thank you for the game.

F Troop win the game by 4 wickets.

After the game both sides headed over to our new HQ The Star Inn, Wick, where Emily and her amazing team saw to it we were well watered and fed, with some cold beer and spicy curry.

We have a short break from Cricket, with Wick’s next game being away at the Vale in Corntown on Sunday 4th August. We hope to see you there. 

– Iestyn Jones