1st X1

Carlisle wished their Imran Khan could have performed as well as the ex-Pakistan and Surrey Star!

April 21st
WIGTON v Carlisle

Wigton lost the toss and were put into bat on a chilly afternoon at Low Moor Road. Telf(Steven Telford) and Gilly(Mark Gillespie) walked out to bat to begin Wigton's first game in the Premier Division. It didnt look too good when we were 3 down with not even 20 on the board and our young star Bobby Sherlock back in the hutch without scoring, however he will have many a times to come. We had our most favoured two players at the crease in a time like this, Benji(Steven Benjamin) and Monky(Graham Monkhouse). They put a great partnership on recovering us from a nightmare position, it was slow but needed. Benji got 12 but spent valuable time at the crease of about an hour, he will have got used to the slow pitch and batting in the cold which can only be good. Monky kept going and got the side's top score of 24 in another long innings that was so vital to the side. Danny Braithwaite dug in and got a good 10 and we managed to get the score up to 98 that was difficult but easily in range for Carlisle.
However they couldn't get the runs from the brilliant bowling and fielding, Bobby Sherlock saved us many runs and proved a brilliant asset in the field. Their pro wasn't as succesfull as ours, the case was more of Imran Khan't than Imran Khan, he was run out for two, him not knowing any English could prove costly for Carlisle this year. However a worry for us was when Murdy(Steven Murdoch) our young athlete injured his shoulder diving at gully, that ended his Saturday night out as well as any more overs on the pitch.
Danny the un-song hero chipped in nicely with the ball bowling very tightly giving nothing away, his efforts in the field by keeping the side going was also noted, c'mon Benji, bowling Benji.........
Then the duo of the day won the game for us Benji and Monky provided us with overs of extremely talented and clever spin bowling. I saw Benji practice all day Friday and his time and effort has paid off as he came away with 5 wickets on his Wigton debut! I'm sure he will pat Telf on the back for the effort he put in on the boundary even though he put two diving catches down. Monky also bowled with great skill picking up wickets while giving nothing away. We saw days of when he was with Workington Reds in the slips you could easily have mistaken him for a cat! Monky grapped the last wicket that was controversial as the Carlisle bunch believed it came of the thigh, however Paul Bradbury pulled off a super catch reaching out at full arms length. Wigton the underdogs from the 1st division started their campaign in the Premier League in superb fashion and all the players seemed delighted with the win, I bet even Murdy managed a smile through the pain, they all deserved the win congratulations and lets hope they continue their winning ways against Whitehaven who finished below Carlisle last year but have a new Indian pro this year.

Wigton play Carlisle on the first day of the season(APR.21) at home. In a warm-up friendly on the 15th Wigton looked good defeating Carlisle at Edenside. Bobby Sherlock looked promising with a 50, starting from were he leaft off last season.