Wetherby skipper wary of wounded Keswick
WETHERBY host struggling East Keswick tomorrow, but captain Neil Thomas is warning against complacency as his players look to build on Saturday's impressive win against Barwick.
Thomas' men lie eighth in Wetherby League Division One after the weekend's 105-run victory.
The match was lit by stellar knocks from Warren Else (82) and teenager Richard Gandy (57), who displayed real maturity to bat for 33 overs and stamp his authority on the game, before Majid Rafique ripped through Barwick's order with a magical five-wicket haul.
Now it's a case of delivering more of the same, against a team who've taken just two points from their 13 games so far.
"It was a fantastic performance against Barwick," Thomas said.
"We have been threatening to do that for a few weeks and everything just came together.
"East Keswick are struggling a bit, but they are always capable of scoring runs and are potentially dangerous, so it's not something we are taking lightly."
Thomas said Rafique was "a good player to have around" and he was pleased by the player's contribution with the ball, building on a tight first 10 overs from the bowling unit.
But Wetherby go into their next game without the bowler, while Andy Twitchen is also an injury worry.
"We will be relying on other people who have been doing well for the last couple of weeks and we're hopeful that we can get the win," Thomas said.
The skipper was particularly effusive in his praise of Gandy after Saturday's match.
"He has been part of our second team for the past couple of years and we decided to give him a first team game at the start of the season, but it didn't pan out the way we would have liked," Thomas said.
"He was just back from holiday this time, but we had a couple of people unavailable, so we stuck him in at four and he batted for 33 overs, getting his first half-century for the first team, which was a credit to him.
"He's good to watch and we are looking for a few runs from him again this weekend."
SCARCROFT were the latest side to put East Keswick to the sword on Saturday, as they too were boosted by a standout performance from a young batter.
Will Taylor (32no) provided sterling support for skipper Damian Aston (61no) as Scarcroft beat the bottom side with eight wickets to spare.
Afterwards, Aston said he had been impressed by Taylor, with whom he shared a match-winning century stand.
"He is a star of the future," Aston said.
"We promoted him from the second team and he is just a youngster, but he stuck his hand up and said he wanted to bat three - that he didn't care if the pitch was a bit dodgy, he wanted to do the business.
"Now we're expecting big things from him for the rest of the year.
"If he continues to perform like that, he will be batting in our top five for many years to come."
But the captain was not so enthusiastic about the playing surface, telling the Wetherby News that that "someone could literally have been killed on that wicket".
"It was a very dangerous pitch, bordering on the ridiculous," he said.
"We turned up there with every intention of batting first, but we changed our mind.
"Carl Shaw bowled a ball very early on in the match and it bounced three feet over the batsman's head and went for four.
"It was absolutely crazy."
Aston said he had been impressed by East Keswick's resilience, as they put on more than 40 for the 10th wicket, but that he was pleased his players had put in the hard work needed to get the win.
"They bowled well early on and had us in a bit of trouble at 28-2 - there were certainly parts of the game when they were on top - but our lads did a job."
Scarcroft receive a visit from Great Preston tomorrow, who Aston describes as "a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde team".
He is targeting a win and says that his side - currently fifth - still have a shot at the league title.
"We finished strongly last year and if we win a few in a row, who knows where that leaves us," Aston said.
"The teams in second to fifth are all bunched up together and if Old Mods lose one or two games, we might be in with a chance of winning the league.
"If not, we will just do as well as we can."
Aston has a full squad for tomorrow's game, excepting bowler Chris Oldfield.
"We have a bit of depth there, so it shouldn't be a massive loss," the captain said.
"We back ourselves to win the game."
SHADWELL welcome Kirk Deighton tomorrow, as SPOFFORTH receive Leeds Police and WALTON host Barwick.
Division Two leaders CHURCH FENTON are at second-placed GARFORTH PARISH CHURCH in a crucial top-of-the-table clash.
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Weather for Wetherby
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -9 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South
