Sunday 17th August 2025
Archaeological evidence suggests that there was settlement in Wick from around 1600BC when a small proto-Celtic community may have developed, since then the village has seen several interesting events; from being a focus for Viking invasions on the South Wales Coast to being the first community in the UK to switch over to British Telecom’s advanced high speed broadband network in 2006 it has never been far from the forefront of world culture and heritage.
These, however, pale into insignificance compared to the events of August 17, 2025, as Wick CC welcomed The Wales Over 50s (Friendly) XI team to the village green in a landmark event for the club. We even had a gazebo…but it was too windy to put up.
With availability at an all time high, Captain Russell had the luxury of announcing a ‘select XI’ for Wick and was faced with several tough selection choices with several wick stalwarts and young talent missing out (the two are very much mutually exclusive) Much of the chat pre-match was around two things; what Wick would do if we won the toss and Russ finally receiving a sample of the new Wick jumpers. The jumpers looked good and in what was surely a good omen for the day, Russ won the toss and Wick were fielding first.
Wales Over 50's - 202 for 8 (40.0): David Hopkins 26, Math Williams 3-14, Kenny Thomas 2-41
Wick CC - 204 for 2 (32.2): Russ Milne 83*, Steve Collins 60, Math Williams 26
SCORECARD
On such a historic day for the club and with a slightly earlier 1pm start you’d imagine the team would be there in good time to soak up the occasion and enjoy the day. And they were, on the most part, even Amal was on time. Gutsy however, had seemingly not gotten the memo about the earlier start and when called at 1:05pm was nowhere near the ground. This meant that Chris, guest appearing for the Wales side, fielded the first few overs for Wick until our 11th player arrived.
With Gutsy late and now declaring himself a batter instead of a bowler it was down to Amal and Tubsy to open the bowling. Whilst both remained wicketless in their spells, some excellent tight bowling restricted the scoring of the Wales openers and increased the pressure on the two as they struggled to get the scoreboard moving. Captain Russ, keen to continue the good work by the opening pair brought on Andy ‘The Metronome’ Ellis and Math to bowl next. With Andy bowling with his trademark consistency, it allowed Math to make the breakthrough at the other end. The Welsh batters struggled with Math’s accurate bowling – so did Owen behind the stumps – and he managed to take three Wickets in his seven-over spell, tearing through the Wales top order for only 17 runs and taking a nice collection of wickets; one lbw, one hit wicket and one superbly caught over his head by a back-tracking Steve.
Whilst Mathew was the one to take the wickets, the consistent bowling from the Wick attack restricted the Wales side to around 67 from the first twenty overs, a score that meant Wick were firmly in the contest. The solid bowling attack continued after drinks with Gutsy and Kenny not allowing the Welsh batters to get going. Gutsy continued his good form taking two wickets, picking up an LBW and one caught by Amal who looked to defy physics to get to a ball that looked nowhere near him.
Those of you with any knowledge of cricket will know Kenny and will know that he’s a big game player that takes big game wickets, and this game was no different. With two Vale CC players in the Wales XI, Kenny had set his stall out on the Whatsapp group prior to the game that at least one of them was his. As Vale first team regular Darren Upham walked out to bat it was Kenny stood holding the ball and destiny looked to be manifesting itself. A few balls later the familiar sound of the ball crashing into the stumps was swiftly followed by the refrain of ‘sweet like a chicken’ resonated around the green.
The Wick Nostradamus fulfilled his own destiny…and no one would ever stop hearing about it again.
Kenny managed to pick up another wicket in his spell and with Steve also picking up a scalp it left the Wales side 202/8 from their 40 overs.
Special mention should also go to Colin, fielding in the slips came within millimetres of taking a fantastic one-handed diving catch that would’ve more than rivalled the slip catch taken by Chris vs Blaengarw but unfortunately the ball didn’t quite carry. Still a fantastic piece of fielding worth mentioning.
One thing that’s to be commended on is the sharpness of the Wick fielding this season, our ability to shell catches alongside our Benny Hill fielding has become legendary in recent years but after putting that right with a 15min fielding training session at the beginning of the season there’s been a notable improvement across the board which has been the foundation for such a successful year for the club, that and Russell scoring 600 odd runs, but still…
Such was the depth of batting in the Wick side it was declared at tea that we in fact had no tail to speak of, oddly this mostly came from those players who had been dropped down the order and was in no way a pathetic attempt to make themselves feel better.
No one was more vocal in criticising the captain’s decision that Owen, this was mostly down to him being in a duel with Steve for the (non-Russell) most runs trophy for the 2025 season and with Steve opening and him batting 8 it was not looking good for the young upstart.
Steve and Math got the Wick chase off to a flying start, with the two putting on a 50 partnership before Matthew was caught behind for 26. This bought Russell to the crease as he worked through his full repertoire of shots, both hockey and cricket to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Combined with Steve quietly going about his business at the other end it proved to be a calm, controlled and uneventful run chase for Wick, with Steve batting superbly to bring up his long-overdue maiden Wick half century before eventually getting out on 60 and with Wick on 195 needing just 8 runs for a famous victory.
This brought the eldest Dixon brother to the crease. Dicky and Russ saw out the rest of the run chase finishing on 7 and 83 not out respectively and with seven overs to spare.
It was then back to the Star joined by the whole Wales team for food, drinks and for Chris to be presented with a Wales cap for his appearance – very well deserved after they had him running fine leg to fine leg for the entire innings! Much of the chat centred around kit for the new season and how gutsy is now a Bonafide batter after his half century in Blaengarw (didn’t you know, he’s had a 50 now!?)
With only one match remaining in the season – the traditional jolly boys outing to the island to visit our friends Barry West End on the 7th September – victory meant that Wick finish their season unbeaten at home in 2025 and have only lost 3 of their 14 matches played this year, with the other being a tie.
Whatever the result on the Island it’s not too early to start reflecting on a fantastic season for the club, which has seen several new members join and with more wanting to play thanks to the positive and enjoyable atmosphere within the team and we can already look forward to the 2026 season with the club in a great position.
– Owen Thomas
