This was the historic occasion for Wexford 3rds first ever Leinster league match…
Wexford won the toss and bowled first. U16 youths Eoin Sheridan-Pope and Matty Vuyk opened the bowling in tandem. With controlled good line and length, some early inroads were made with 4 wickets being captured.
Sami Ullah and Steven Vuyk kept the pressure up with the ball. But Sandyford steadied their ship.
With the score on 50 for 4 after 17 overs, 13-year-old Ahnaf Adib made an immediate breakthrough. Backed up with excellent out fielding, 3 more wickets fell to his change of pace bowling.
However, some late hitting from the Sandyford captain pushed their score along. The return of Sami Ullah, backed up by Steven Vuyk, limited the home team to 88 all out.
in reply, Wexford lost both openers cheaply but Paul Massette and Matty Vuyk settled the nerves and wore down the bowling for Steven Vuyk to take centre stage.
With 5 wickets down for just 30 runs, Steven Vuyk counter-attacked any loose ball and smashed 5 boundaries including 2 maximums in a 50 run partnership with Herbie Honohan.
With victory in sight, it was fittingly left to club stalwart Herbie Honohan to hit the winning boundary. Wexford won by 3 wickets.
Matty Vuyk, Ahnaf Adib, Eoin and Aaron Sheridan-Pope were all youth stars in the field that set up this victorious opportunity. While Steven Vuyk with 35 runs and Herbie with 18 not out were the seniors that secured victory.
Unfortunately, cricket was the loser as WWCC 2nds travelled to Adamstown on Easter Saturday. With a poor weather forecast looming, the umpires insisted on reducing the match length – 25 over innings was agreed with the Adamstown captain.
Wexford lost the toss and we were put in to bat. Sean Dunk and Aaron Murphy were the nominated Openers. Dunk got the innings going with a lovely 4 through deep point. Murphy looked solid enough only to be given out LBW on about 7, from a ball that looked to be going over the stumps but alas, that was the umpires’ call.
Brendan Orsmond then took a couple of overs to get his eye in. He managed to survive being clean bowled on a ball that was called ‘dead ball’ by the umpire. After this event, Orsmond went into a higher gear and proceeded with his trademark 6, 4, 6, 4 batting. He hit 27 runs off the one over. With Dunk also getting his eye in at the other end they moved the score along to 90 odd for 1 after 10 overs.
Orsmond was out for 45 caught right on the Boundary trying to hit another 6 which left him just short of another half-century. Ultan Quirke was then bowled for 2 off a skidding ball that stayed low. At this stage, the rain was coming down and the pitch was quite greasy.
Capitan Attila Stahlut now joined Dunk in the middle. Dunk now with lovely timing, started upping the ante again with a nice 4, and then a HUGE six over long-on clearing the big tree by a long way.
The umpires then decided it was too wet to continue and we went off for a rain delay. Dunk was on 45*, and Stahlut on 2*. The score was 3 for 114 off 16 overs at this point, with Wexford well on track to post a mammoth score of 180+ from their 25 overs.
Unfortunately, this was the last action of the day as the rain never stopped. The game was called off around 3:30 pm. Dunk missing out on what was most likely going to be a brilliant half-century. The game ended as a draw, meaning a split of the points, 12.5 each.
