WESTBURY played host to Devizes in the opening fixture of the 2024 cricket league season.
Coming off the back of a very disappointing league campaign in 2023, which resulted in Westbury being relegated from the West of England Premier League Wiltshire Division, the team, under new leadership, with new captain Kane Scott and new 1st team coach Nick Whiting were hoping to get a positive result on the opening day of their Wiltshire County Cricket League Division 1 season.
On what was a very cold and wet day, Westbury were delighted when Kane won the toss and chose to bowl. Westbury had three players making their league debut for the club and these were Adam Alger, Hobie Vipond-Western, and Barbadian overseas Shakeem Boyce.
Even with several changes for the new season, it was still the ever present and dependable opening bowling partnership of Oakley and Carroll that opened the bowling for Westbury. After several tight overs from the pair, it was in the sixth over where Oakley struck with a double wicket maiden.
First he removed the dangerous Devizes opening batsman Rome England, bowled Oakley and caught by Gill in the deep and then two balls later trapping the Devizes number three batsman LBW in a classic Oakley dismissal. It was in the 14th over that we got to see the first glimpse of the skill of Westbury’s overseas player Boyce when the Devizes batters decided to take a risky single and in swooped Boyce with a one handed pick up and throw which resulted in a direct hit of the stumps and the Devizes batsman been given run out by the umpire.
Westbury continued to take regular wickets, finally bowling Devizes all out for just 135 off 35.1 overs, with the pick of the bowlers being Rich Oakley with figures of nine overs four wickets for just 17 runs and Adam Alger with figures of 4.1 overs, two wickets for 12 runs on league debut.
With Westbury needing just 136 runs to win, this would normally be quite a straight forward run chase on a normal Westbury wicket but due to the conditions, the Westbury batters knew that this might not be the case.
Westbury opened the batting with a new opening partnership of Ben Whiting and Rich Oakley. The Westbury score had reached 15 for no wicket when Whiting was given out LBW for seven runs. This brought Barbadian Shakeen Boyce to the crease along with his several layers of jumpers. Shakeem had only arrived in England the day before the match where he had left behind 32 degrees in Barbados and had swapped it for playing cricket in Westbury in a balmy 10 degrees.
Shakeem showed in his innings of 28 runs off 44 balls that he is going to bring a lot of West Indian flair to the Westbury batting line up this season. Once Shakeem was out Westbury lost three quick wickets and were threatening a Westbury batting collapse until club chairman Matt Greatley came to the crease and took control of the innings. Scoring 53 not out from just 35 balls, including six four’s and three sixes Matt guided Westbury to a relatively comfortable four wicket victory with 17 overs remaining.
This was a promising start to the season in what Westbury hopes will be a promotion push. If you are interested in either wanting to come and watch the cricket or just be part of the club atmosphere, the cricket club bar is open every Friday evening from 6pm and from 12 o’clock onwards on a Saturday afternoon throughout the summer where everyone is welcome.
New players of all ages, abilities and genders are welcome and if you are interested in playing cricket or even if you would like to try umpiring or scoring, please contact us either through one of our social media channels or by coming up to the clubhouse where you will always find a friendly face who is happy to talk all things cricket.
Upcoming 1st team fixtures:
• Sat 11th May Bear Flat CC (H) 1pm League
• Sat 18th May Swindon Nalgo CC (A) 1pm League
• Sat 25th May Swindon CC 2’s (H) 1pm League
