Captain hopes Ragley can build on positive star
ALCESTER & Ragley won their Cotswold Hills League Premier Division derby clash with Exhall & Wixford by four wickets thanks to a dazzling display from Australian all-rounder Tom Kingsley.
The Wizard of Oz claimed four wickets and then hit an unbeaten 100 off 89 balls to see his side over the line and skipper Paul Dipple is hoping that his overseas ace can help keep the Ragley Park side in the top flight.
Fellow Australian Rohan Campbell starred for the team last season, helping them clinch the Division One title in style and his decision to stay in the UK provided an opening for another player from Down Under.
Kingsley and Campbell played junior cricket together in Perth, Western Australia, and the new addition to Ragley’s ranks has quickly settled into his stride.
In the opening match of the season he scored an unbeaten 103 to steer his side to victory over visitors Lapworth and another century knock along with his four-wicket haul racked up another win at the weekend.
Chris Dawson and David Stokes had the Exhall batsmen in trouble throughout with the exception of skipper Sam Smith 92 of his side’s 168 runs before they were skittled out in the 37th over.
Dawson took 2-43 from his ten overs with Stokes claiming 3-21 from his ten. Kingsley then took centre stage, mopping up another four wickets for 32 runs.
In reply, Ragley lost openers Campbell and Stokes cheaply but Kingsley then hit 100 off 89 balls including six 6s to steer his team to 173-6 with plenty of overs in hand.
Dipple said: “It was a good spell of bowling from Dave Stokes with his inswingers and Chris Dawson from the other end. Then we had Tom coming on to pick up wickets towards the end.
“We went into our innings very confident having kept them to a low total especially with Exhall being a Prem club for so long. I thought that 168 was a small target but then we lose Dave Stokes first over and we go and lose Rohan early doors - with the quality of a bowler like Will Green then you expect to lose wickets because he had the ball moving both ways and very quick with it.
“TK [Tom Kingsley] has ridden his luck a little, dropped twice, but went on to win us the game.
“The one thing we said about this season was with us gaining promotion as champions for the first time in 35 years we said we needed to build on our squad from last year. We think we are a Premier League club and want to stay there.
“Talking to Rohan at the end of last season he said that he was staying in the UK over the winter to travel which meant that we could then have another overseas because Rohan would become a category one player rather than a category three overseas.
“They played junior cricket together so we reached out to TK and so far it has gone very well.
“We have the junior section coming through and although we lost young Charlie Taylor to the Birmingham League but we have other players coming through the youth system, we are building towards a bright future and hopefully one in the Premier.
“We have four or five girls in the Warwickshire set-up and some boys in the Worcester set-up so it is looking promising. Our juniors started on Friday night and we had 180 kids there - the place was packed.”
Tanworth & Camp Hill remain top of the Premier Division after they beat Kineton by six wickets, Martin Perfect hitting an unbeaten 61 for the league leaders.
Kineton batted first and were in real trouble at 2-1 until Thomas Husselby and Sam Cooper put on 71 for the third wicket.
Cooper top scored with 42 before being caught behind off the bowling of Tanworth skipper Andy Turnbull and the visitors were dismissed for 158. The pick of the bowlers were Joel Ithier (3-19) and Oscar Newell (3-21).
In reply, progress was steady with Perfect leading the way with Ithier also there at the close on 13 not out as the home side reached 160/4 in the 43rd over.
Elsewhere in the top division there were defeats for Wellesbourne and Shipston.
Wellesbourne went down 81 runs at Bretforton after being skittled out for 147 chasing a total of 228/9.
Skipper David Barnett hit 47 on a disappointing afternoon for the visitors who lost their first two wickets without a run on the board.
Of Wellesbourne’s bowlers, Greg Ricketts took 3-39 from his ten overs and there were two wickets apiece for Barnett and Ben Linfield.
Shipston also had a disappointing day with the bat, slumping to 124 all out after they had dismissed hosts Leek Wootton for 146.
Marcus Ireland, Harry Radley, Jonty Harvey and Alan Horsford all took two wickets only for the batsmen to let the side down with the exception of Harvey (52) and Jamie Shurmer (35).
