Dear Friends and Members of Portsmouth Cricket Club

Welcome to newsletter number 4 of the 2019 season.

We start this newsletter with a plea for help. We would like the newsletter to reflect all of the wide-ranging activities that take place in our busy club; however, it can be tricky as we are a club that plays fixtures all over the region, on different days and times with everybody involved volunteering their time freely - this places a restriction on what can be done.

Therefore, our plea is to you for any contribution of news, facts, forthcoming events etc.

You do not need to provide the latest gossip from England's dressing room or be able to write in the style of Shakespeare.

The rules are simple – do not speak badly of any person, team or club. Please give it go and any work published will be credited to you personally.

Send all contributions to the Club email address Portsmouthcc@hotmail.co.uk 

PCC Newsletter Edited by Paul Kooner-Evans

Marston wants Portsmouth to sharpen up after missed chance

KEVIN RICKETTS Email Published: Thursday 16 May 2019

Read more at: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/other-sport/marston-wants-portsmouth-to-sharpen-up-after-missed-chances-1-8929789

Jack Marston is calling on Portsmouth to sharpen up their act ahead of Saturday's Southern League division one meeting with Rowledge at St Helens.

The captain felt his side were their own worst enemies in their thumping 190-run defeat at Hook & Newnham Basics.

They got themselves into a good position at the start but sloppy fielding let their hosts off the hook. He said: ‘We must have dropped six or seven catches and that wasn’t good enough. Hook were on the rack at 40 for three but ended up scoring more than 300 runs. That is the sort of total you only chase down once or twice a season. We lost early wickets and were never in it. Our fielding was so bad and could only have been down to a lack of concentration. Once a couple went down we became very tense and negative which just amplified the situation. It was out of character because we are a young side and normally pretty good in the field. Hopefully the defeat will act as a kick up the backside for us and spur us back into action. It is important we return to our usual standards because Rowledge won’t be easy. They have won their first two games and we won’t be underestimating them.’

The home side are boosted by the return of three key players, Alex Hammond, Sam Collings-Wells and Jed Whitecross.

‘Having wicket-keeper Hammond back in the side should help with the fielding. He is travelling back from Cardiff University and his presence will be a big boost to the squad’

Top order batsman Collings-Wells is also journeying back from his university studies in Cambridge. Whitecross returns after spending 18 months on the sidelines with a back problem. The strike bowler had an outing with the second team last weekend and showed no signs of trouble afterwards.

Marston said: ‘This is probably our strongest line-up so far. We know if we want to challenge at the top we can’t afford to lose too many games. It is crucial we bounce back to winning ways.

‘Being back at St Helens should help because we feel very comfortable playing at home.’

STEEP THINKERS

View From Silly Point by Jamie (Mitch) Mitchell

The red carpet was dusted off and rolled out at St Helens, for the premiere of Pompey 2s Hampshire League Division 2 season - local and global media opted to give the event the widest of berths. 

League newbies, Steep, were 2019's opening visitors to the seaside, who's skipper guessed correctly at the toss, and invited the south coast's star cast to bat first.

From ball one, captain Nicky Wyatt - stung by perceived mistreatment with the 1s last week - played Pompey's leading man, with a belligerent, Prozezky-esque 131, with supporting turns from Jamie Mitchell (32), and Will Smitherman (38). Jed Whitecross (18 not out) and Lee Hungerford (13 not out) provided a late-innings cameo (word up) to help the hosts' total to 276 for 6.

With all movie-themed metaphors exhausted, Pompey wanted to make scoring difficult in the early overs, and the returning Jed Whitecross - who needed a couple of sight-adjusting overs, in tandem with Andy van der Chapman (tenuous reference to his windmill bowling action) duly delivered, reducing the visitors to 36 for 2 after the first 10 overs - both returning figures of 1 for 27. 

Comfortably ahead of the game, Wyatt introduced spin to proceedings (then scarpered for his son's birthday party), and what followed was a Hungerford Passive-Aggressive-Note rather than Massacre, as brothers Lee (3 for 38 from 9) and Paul (4 for 35 from 6, including his 5th league hat trick - allegedly) to scythe through the visitors' lineup.

Debutant Oscar Davis bowled tidily, and was rewarded by pegging back Steep's top scorer's off pole with a stunning delivery, to continue the 1 for 27 trend among Pompey's seamers - a fitting denouement to an opening day triumph as rare as a Farage truth bomb, by a margin of 103 runs.

Next up is the trepidation-filled journey to Ferndown, where a team score of over 70 is likely to be viewed positively. 

 Fixtures

All fixtures can found on the Portsmouth Cricket Club website

either at

https://portsmouth.hitscricket.com/default.aspx

for all upcoming fixtures or if you want to filter by teams you can use

https://portsmouth.hitscricket.com/fixtures/default.aspx

There is a Senior League Game played at St Helen's every Saturday of the season and the clubhouse is open 

PCC kit is available from

https://teamwear.nxt-sports.com/shop/portsmouth-cricket-club

As per usual training for u9's and younger is on this Friday evening, with '#TCIF Social' including BBQ when all are welcome!!

Thank you for your continued support

Portsmouth Cricket Club