4^th Team Captain’s Report Season 2008: Robin Surtees.

After 3 years of hanging on to Premier League status by the skin of our teeth, the 4ths were finally relegated.

In a tough season 2 games were won, 11 lost and 6 drawn, to leave Sefton 4’s second from bottom, but 37 points from safety.

The success of the 3rds in many ways was, quite rightly, to the detriment of the 4’s. In previous seasons we had been able to strengthen the 4’s to stave off relegation, particularly with Vince Abel switching to the 4’s. With the 3’s chasing the title this didn’t happen this year. Significantly the two games we did win were as a result of magnificent performances from Vince.

More galling was the appalling availability of players higher up the club, particularly the second team, which led to frustrating Friday nights and Saturday mornings for myself and Jamie Bowman as we scrapped around for players.

As always we played with great spirit, a smile on our faces and with a ban on heckling and use of clichés such as ‘Catch it.’ We were frequently excellent in the field, but just lacked the bit of class needed to win tight games against teams often littered with players with first team experience. We seem to be alone as a club in not being able to entice good players to discover the joys of cricket at this level. Try it you might enjoy it!

A pivotal game in the season was at Wavertree on an uncharacteristically hot day when we almost chased 203 ending up 4 runs short with 7 wickets down, with James Baird scoring a maiden 50 and Jakob Surtees-Smith also getting 50. However at the beginning of a wonderful spell of bowling Peter Hazlehurst collapsed with a dreadful knee injury, leaving us short of class bowling.

Batting was a struggle for many cricketers this summer due to damp pitches. The leading run scorers for the 4’s were:

James Baird 316 runs @ 24.31

Robin Surtees 224 runs @ 17.23

Vince Abel 219 runs @ 54.75 in only 4 games!

Nev Bann 173 runs @ 14.42

Jakob Surtees-Smith 170 @ 17.00

Williams, Walton D, Lomas, Cordner, SMC all scored over 100 runs.

Two bowlers took more than 10 wickets:

Surtees 20 @ 25.65

Abel 15 @ 10.73

Awards.

Batting: James Baird, a pleasure in having had some input into his development as a cricketer. Will be sadly missed in the 4’s, good luck.

Bowling: Rob Kelly 9 wickets @ 37.00 may not look great on paper, but he improved all season and his attitude was fantastic.

Fielding: Close between Iwan Williams and Stuart Lomas, just edged by Lomas, 100% commitment and a great pair of hands.

Performance: not of the season, but a lifetime! Vince Abel v Liverpool, a 100 runs and 5/61 including finishing the match off with a hat trick. What more can you say?

Thanks:

To all ground staff for great effort in a difficult year for weather

Youth development, esp Howie Baird and Ted Williams, we now have a stream of talented youth coming through the club.

All captains; Robbie, Peter, James, James and Mark. We all get on and have the best interests of the club in our hearts.

Parents who give up their time and energy to support their children and the club. You know who you are!

Joe, Marilyn, Tracey and Dave C for making us the friendliest club in the league.

Bob Paisley for running the best club web site in the competition.

My wife for going halves on the phone bills.

Robin Surtees Feb 09