After all of the miserable weather during the early part of 2024, Chelmarsh Cricket Club got their division 7 season underway on the 11th May away to Chirk 2nd XI.
We could only muster 10 players and so we were able to loan a Chirk youngster, Harry Lunt, for the day to complete our XI.
Making their Chelmarsh debut, at the age of 13, were Jacob Burton and Olly Burtenshaw. Jacob is the son of Chelmarsh player Rob Burton. Olly is step son of Chelmarsh stalwart Andy Unitt
Matt Walford was the 3rd debutant on the day
For the second time in a row Wobbler lost the toss and the Chirk captain, Dale Randall, decided he wanted to bat.
Chelmarsh takes the field
For the second week running Henry Rollings opened the bowling with his dad, Rob.
Henry bowled with a pace and confidence that belies his age and regularly beat the bat whilst Rob bowled his usual nagging line and length that was hard to get away.
For the second week running it was the dad that ended up with a quantity in the wicket column with Andy Jones caught at mid-on by Matt Walford. This brought Dale Randall to the crease.
Buoyant from his 96 the previous week against Cae Glas, Dale was keen to get the scoreboard ticking over at a good rate.
Wobbler made a double bowling change. Rob and Jacob Burton became the second father and son duo to bowl in tandem on the day.
Jacob started off nervously with two wides, then, on his first legal delivery in competitive cricket, like, ever, he bowled Chirk’s captain, Dale Randall. The perfect start for the young man.
Chirk were struggling, Chelmarsh were going well. Now, could they take another wicket?
Chirk’s 3rd wicket partnership dug in and then, as they settled down, started to increase the scoring rate. Rob and Jacob bowled 8 overs combined for the 1 wicket for 58 runs.
Wobbler then decided to make a further double change bringing debutants Matt Walford and Olly Burtenshaw onto bowl.
Both bowled well, Chirk couldn’t get away but we couldn’t take wickets either.
Finally Matt ‘Wally’ Walford got the opener, Rob Williams, caught behind by Matthew Ellis behind the stumps for 56. Wally was surprised he got a wicket. He was nowhere near as surprised as everyone else that Mellis held onto one.
Chirk press on
A further double bowling change saw Joey Price and Harry Lunt each bowl four overs. Joey Price didn’t bowl at his based and went for virtually 10 runs per over whilst Harry Lunt took 1 wicket for 18 runs from his 4 overs. A very tidy spell.
Harry will never know how lucky he is to get a wicket. the chelmarsh players do. Connor Dyke was caught at Mid Off by Wobbler who dived forward to catch the ball. I will write that again, Wobbler not only caught a ball but he moved and dived forward to catch it. This is a site seen as often as Hailey’s Comet
Chirk finshed on 250-4 from their 40 overs wirth Gary Bailey remaining not out on 95. Would the 250 be enough?
Chelmarsh reply with the bat
Chelmarsh’s opening partnership, brothers Lea and Robert Burton, knew that the 250 was going to be a tough ask but settled in well and started to tick the scoreboard over before we lost our first wicket with Rob falling for 10.
Matt Walford went in at 3 and hit a lovely 4 before being bowled shortly after. This brought Matthew Ellis to the crease.
Lea and Matt put together a nice steady partnership of nearly 50 runs before Nigel Davies bowled Lea for 28. Harry Lunt came in at 5 but he never troubled the score which brought the skipper out to the middle.
The mission now was to try and score has many batting points as possible.
Chelmarsh collapse
Mellis soon got a snorter from Nigel Davies, the ball pitched on middle on a full length but hit the top of off stump for 22. Joey Price strode out to join his big brother in the middle.
Wobbler told Joey to take his time, do not take any chances and lets see how many overs we could bat out. Wobbler’s mind cast back to last year where joey hit the ball to mid wicket and ran which resulted in Wobbler being run out. With the game lost we could just take our time, use the day for good batting practice.
To Me – To You
Joey obviously took notice of what was said to him as on his 3rd delivery he pushed the ball to short cover and ran. Wobbler called him back, the chuckle brothers had done it again. Joey was run out.
Jacob was the next man in. Wobbler sprinted a quick single when Jacob tickled the ball down to fine leg and Jacob had score his first runs for Chelmarsh. His first runs in competitive cricket. Rob was showing off his proud dad face.
Jacob was bowled having scored 2 runs which brought Henry out. Henry batted with a confidence of a 13 year old and soon overtook Wobbler in the runs department. Henry may have still been there at the end but for a fantastic diving catch at silly mid off. Dale Randall dived to his right and caught it behind his body with his right hand.
Wobbler was the next man to go. He attempted to guide a good length ball down the leg side but the ball shot across at ankle height and bowled him.
This left our last pair, Rob Rollings and Olly Burtenshaw, to score the 10 runs we need to get to 100 and score 1 batting point.
Once again our 3rd 13 year old batted like he had been playing for years. He had scored 4 runs in a very nice manner when Rob was bowled for 5.
Chelmarsh finished on 97 all out to lose to Chirk by 153 runs.
Captain’s Summary
It is easy to look at the 153 run loss and say it was a bad game for Chelmarsh. However, the truth is never that simple.
Our 13 teenagers all played well and crucially all of them batted and bowled. Matt Walford looked sharp with the ball and Lea and Mellis both scored runs with the bat. Rob and Henry look a good opening bowling partnership and Rob Burton got some bowling time to loosen up for the season ahead.
The skipper, while not making many runs, got time at the crease with the debutants. He also looked more mobile in the field than he has for decades. Hopefully that will last. The team, as a whole, were very good in the field.
In short there were far more positives than negatives for a side where the philosophy of giving everyone a game is more important than the result. This is how players improve, especially those that are young and just starting with their career.
If you have read this and are interested in joining us at the marsh then please contact Andy at [email protected], everyone is welcome and we would love to have you aboard.
