1st XI update - cue D:ream, cue beatbox Ramsey Home 22nd May 2010 With Ramsey electing to bat it seemed to backfire on them in the first few overs. They were quickly 10-3 with Max removing both openers. However Ollie Webster dug in on a seaming wicket and scored a solid 36, however he was then caught of the bowling of Sissons. Ramsey were eventually bowled out for 114 with max taking 3-16(6), Matt Ansell 1-19(5), Rich Sissons 2-32 and Alex’s wobbling medium pacers collected the last three wickets (3-12). So it seemed like it would be a comfortable run chase, however McConnell got Waggi and Alex for quacks in the first over. Ally and Max then moved the score into the 20’s however Max then chipped one back to McConnell (14) and left us in big trouble. Ally made a good 15, however with wickets falling around him it was hard to get going. We ended up being all out for 60, very very embarrassing. Simply not playing straight on grass wickets is always going to get you in bother with 8 out of the 10 wickets bowled or lbw. St Johns Home 29th May 2010 With Max missing due to hand injury it meant Alex would captain the side. We elected to bat first against a weak St Johns side, however once again we lost wickets at regular intervals. Alex 17, Waggi 4, Ally 1 were the first 3 to fall, but Mike Hebden then came to the crease and played an excellent cameo of 38. Some excellent shots especially straight proving it is shot selection over the wicket playing up. Ryan ‘Bumble’ Burns recorded his 3^rd duck in a row however there were a few runs down the order with Jas 16 and Zaeem 16. Adam Killa produced an excellent knock of 30 batting at 8 which gave us a decent score to bowl at. St Johns would need 165 to win. Matty Ansell made a fantastic start to the bowling, removing both openers Greg and Dan Hawke. Russell Miller made a quick fire 28, but was then trapped lbw to Ansell. With only 3 more recognised batsmen to come, Cronkbourne just needed a few more wickets until they could get into the tail, however IOM player Phil Littlejohns hit a superb 67 not out and was ably supported by Peter Lewis 54 not out. So this was the 3^rd loss in the league and has put us joint bottom with Crosby. It is important we win our next game away to Crosby, otherwise our season suddenly looks bleak.
......a Skipper's view On a pleasant day down at Tromode, Max won the toss and decided to bat on which looked quite a flat wicket. Unfortunately we got off to a poor start with Adam Killa going for a quack, caught brilliantly by Picken at mid on. Max and Alex then put on a decent partnership and took us to 60-1. Then Picken bowled Max for 29, however Ally helped to rebuild the innings with a controlled 27. Alex went for 32 after getting a good nut from A Brown. There were a couple of cameo's at the end of our innings from D Christopher(17) and Z Jafri(10) which helped us reach a modest total of 188. The wicket had played quite slow however and therefore put us in a good position to win the game, with runs on the board. D Quayle was the pick of Crosby's bowlers with 4-14, with R Berry and A brown also picking 2 up each. In reply Crosby decided to open with R Berry with Watto, however Berry who was out to take advantage of the powerplay overs was caught by Burns at cover off the bowling of Max. Then at the other end M Ansell bowling for the first time in the 1st team this year, took 3 early wickets to leave Crosby 16-4. This included the wicket of Watson, and was a great spell of swing bowling. Max then got rid of A Brown and Quayle to leave Crosby looking at a massive defeat. A Stokoe then removed Bannister for 3. A Vels, only 13, then came on to take the last 3 wickets, and was excellent to see our youngsters starting to stand up at 1st team level. Improvements in the batting could still be made going into our big game v Castletown next week, however it was a fantastic bowling and fielding display by everyone. Massive game next week lads, so let's got to KWC and get back on top of league!
Good weekend for A and B sides Our 1st XI bounced back to easily see off Crosby at Tromode. We scored 188 with Alex Stokoe cracking 32, Max Stokoe 29 and Ally Slack 27. Best of the bowlers was David Quayle with 4 -14 while Andy Brown had 2 -29 and Ross Berry 2 -30. Crosby were then dismissed for 46 with Max Stokoe, Matt Ansell and Andy Vells taking three wickets each. All the Marown batsmen struggled against the Tromode attack with Jack Rowlands top scoring with nine. This was a splendid win for what was once again a very young side. Cronkbourne 188 (Alex Stokoe 32, Max Stokoe 29, Ally Slack 27 : David Quayle 4 -14, Andy Brown 2 -29); Crosby 46 (Max Stokoe 3 -13, Matthew Ansell 3-10, Andy Vels 3 -6). Cronkbourne won by 142 runs. Our B Team then followed this up on Sunday by beating Valkyres in a close encounter at KWC. Having scored over 300 due to a splendid 130 from opener Mike Hebden we looked to have the game in the bag but some big hitting from the Valkyres batsmen kept them up with the run chase until the final overs when they came up about 15 runs short. Also weighing in with some useful runs were Adam Killey 35, Will Warwick 54 and Tom Richards 16.
Cricket Facilities update April 10 As some of you may already been aware the Club has taken delivery of a 1.5 tonne wicket roller. This is a huge step forward for the Club and will hopefully help us prepare truly first class grass strips for our home weekend fixtures. The machine is a reconditioned unit and was sourced down in the south of England which has meant the cost of purchasing and bringing it to the IOM has almost emptied the cricket coffers. However we now have all the machinery we need to hopefully continue with the improvement in our playing facilities. Those of you who are especially vigilant will also have noticed we have acquired a steel container which now sits on the old hockey pavilion base. This is being used for storage and hopefully will alleviate the pressure on the Clubhouse Garage for available space. There is still a bit of tidying up/re-organising required in order to maximise the benefit that having this brings. Taking the Scoreboard, covers, sightscreens, roller, container, practice nets etc into account we have enjoyed considerable improvements to our cricketing facilities over the last 5 or so years. However there are still other improvements that the Committee would like to see, such as provision of dedicated scorer and umpire facilities, tea room, wheeled covers, tractor, boundary ropes etc etc and hence the continued support of our members will be instrumental in determining whether we are ultimately able to achieve all, some or none of these.
First X1 give good account of themselves in season opener With a very young team taking to the field at Mullen E Cloe, Cronkbourne started well by taking two early wickets, with Max removing both openers, Norrington and G Hawke. Nic Hawke(48) and Littlejohns (81) then put on an excellent partnership to put St Johns in a strong position to kick on. Zaeem picked up 3 wickets in the middle overs, which was a good effort considering St Johns were going at over 6 an over. Alex Williamson struck a cameo half century towards the end of the innings to leave Cronkbourne chasing 318. Richard Sissons and Ally Slack bowled well towards the back end of the 1st innings, picking up a few wickets each. With a big run chase in prospect Cronkbourne had to get of to a quick start, and did so moving onto 60-3 off 11 overs. Max made a good start putting away some poor bowling. Ryan Burns (27) and Carl Wagstaffe (17) helped maintain the required runrate however with the continued loss of wickets, St Johns were always in control of the game. Cronkbournes hopes were ended when Max was given out contreversially (89), and were eventually all out for 202. Despite the fact it was quite a heavy defeat there were definitely some positives to come out of the game with some of out junior players showing maturity and proving they can now do it at senior level. On Sunday an even younger side took the field against Vagabonds in the opening Championship fixture. Batting first Vagabonds scored 161 which, given the start enjoyed by their openers, was an excellent achievement by our lads who stuck manfully to the task. Sam Walker and Ally Slack each took 3 wickets and were ably supported by some good support bowling from Andrew Vels, Ben Crookall and Phil Richardson. In reply, despite an opening partnership of 50 between Adam MacAuley and Karl Wagstaffe, we fell some 40 runs short. Top scorers were Adam with a splendid 21 and skipper Ally Slack who made the same score. Andrew Vels was the not out batsman with an extremely composed innings which had our other batsmen managed to emulate would have surely resulted in victory.
Thank you Work Party Sat 3rd April Many thanks to all members who turned out on Saturday to work on the Clubhouse/surrounds/playing field. A big thanks is due to the fifteen or so who gave of their time to perform the sundry tasks needed to give the place a tidy up. Particular mentions in despatches are due to Stewey Cook and his pressure washer for creating a new outdoor shower area and Mark Bregazzi who diligently chipped away at the rust and corrosion on the balcony metalwork in preparation for painting. It is difficult to look at the railings now without hearing him "chink chinking" away in the background. A great job was done by all. Some pictures of what everyone got up to are in the Cricket Gallery section. Many thanks again to everyone who helped.
Chairman's appeal Click here for the Chairman's appeal to members. Please respond - remember it is YOUR Club.
Captain's message Click here for the Captain's message to players
Chairman's message Click here for the Chairman's spring message. (Cue the National Anthem)
A new season/era dawns Right you lot out there. It is a time we got a bit more input from you the members. In fact any input at all would be an improvement. Remember the Club web site belongs to you to post anything relevant, or even irrelevant, to you and the great sport of cricket (obviously provided it is within the bounds of reasonable taste). Our new Club coach and 1st XI captain is going to be making a regular posting on Club issues and anyone else who has anything whatsoever they want posted should just send it to stokoe@manx.net or dwscricket@hotmail.co.uk or any other Committee member. Remember there is also a notice board/chat room at the back of this site where members can abuse/exchange views/complain/demolish reputations in fact anything the site janitor deems will not subject us to libelous proceedings. So get contributing!
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