“WE don’t have much margin for error.’’
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So said Wingham captain Matt Essery as his side looks to recover from a disastrous start in their first innings of the Manning first grade cricket clash against Taree West at Johnny Martin Oval.
After limiting Taree West to 235 following a late collapse sparked by spin bowler Brad Staff, Wingham’s top order crumbled. They’ll resume at 4/16 tomorrow.
Staff (6) and Hayden Essery (0) are the not out batsmen. Essery scored 182 for Wingham High in a mid-week Davidson Shield clash against Gloucester at Central Park, Wingham.
“I hope he can repeat that on Saturday,’’ his dad smiled.
Matt Essery missed last Saturday’s play. He pointed out there is a bit of batting to come. Ben Scowen is in next with Essery and Mick Stinson will follow.
“But we can’t afford to lose too many wickets early,’’ Essery said.
Wingham lost Josh Davis first ball, however, Essery pointed out that as he won’t be playing tomorrow he went out blazing.
“I didn’t expect that we'd lose the other three though,’’ he said.
Essery agreed a loss to Taree West and an outright to United over Old Bar will end Wingham’s minor premiership hopes.
Taree West can do no better than third but will be looking to build some momentum going into the playoffs.
Under 19 representative Naden Moriarty has 2/5 for Taree West, Sean Carr 1/6 and Brian Levi 1/0.
United chase early wickets
UNITED will look to make early inroads into Old Bar’s second innings when play resumes tomorrow in the clash at Chatham Park.
Skipper Ricky Campbell said before the match he wouldn’t settle for anything less than an outright win. United looked on track to achieve this for much of the opening day, limiting Old Bar to 93 in their innings before Campbell declared at 6/170 in reply.
However, Old Bar’s makeshift openers Rhys Whitton and Dave Rees took to United’s attack in the second innings, finishing at 0/90 from 12 overs. Rees resumes at 52 tomorrow.
Campbell is still confident United will snare outright points and so take a stranglehold on the minor premiership, particularly if Wingham stumbles in the clash against Taree West at Johnny Martin Oval. Wingham captain Matt Essery agrees with this assessment.
However, Campbell is wary of the big hitting Rees while Ben Cole is just about overdue for a score.