News: Lord of the wickets (October 2006)
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| The unstoppable wicket machine, James F Chidgey |
It may have gone largely unnoticed but, when 1st XI 'trojan horse' J F Chidgey took his 16th league wicket during his team promotion campaign, he became the very first YMCA cricketer to reach 500 wickets in Bristol & District League competition. The news of Chidgey's record surfaced this week as the updated Overall League Bowling Averages are published showing every league wicket taken by a YM bowler during the club's league status dating back to 1973.
The popular clubman, who revels in the affectionate title of 'Lord Chidgey of Golden Hill', has been a 20 wicket-a-season man for over two decades and has played almost his entire barn-storming career in the first team alongside his loyal skipper Simon White, the legendary Keith Milsom and the second highest wicket-taker of all-time, Phil Dowle. However, whilst Chidgey will be delighted with this highly impressive milestone, he has, for some years, had his sights set on the bigger target of reaching one thousand senior wickets (which includes friendly matches). Once he has achieved his goal his should overtake the late, great Ron Davies who remains the only player to take 1000 plus wickets - albeit in the days prior to league cricket.
Meanwhile, the latest list of top wicket takers (see below) shows that nine of the top twenty bowlers are part of the current set up at Golden Hill. And it will not go unnoticed by the studious Dr. Andrew H Spicer that he only requires six wickets to overtake former star turn Grant Reed and move into 5th place in the table. Would-be first team skipper, John Colley, meanwhile, can boast his inclusion as the youngest cricketer to make the top 20.
| TOP 20 LEAGUE WICKET TAKERS (1973-2006) | |||||
| NAME | OVERS |
MDNS |
RUNS |
WKTS |
AVE |
| J.F.CHIDGEY | 3262.1 | 814 | 10246 | 512 | 20.01 |
| P.A.DOWLE | 2863.3 | 818 | 7224 | 433 | 16.68 |
| H.SHAH | 2194.0 | 404 | 7924 | 394 | 20.11 |
| S.J.WHITE | 1845.1 | 329 | 6582 | 379 | 17.37 |
| G.W.REED | 1419.4 | 250 | 4098 | 307 | 13.35 |
| A.H.SPICER | 1543.6 | 378 | 4297 | 302 | 14.23 |
| J.P.IRELAND | 1093.1 | 232 | 3025 | 219 | 13.81 |
| A.P.HERBERT | 1113.2 | 280 | 2629 | 217 | 12.12 |
| A.E.WILCOX | 917.0 | 186 | 3202 | 211 | 15.18 |
| J.W.MACHIN | 1245.4 | 284 | 3816 | 201 | 18.99 |
| K.W.SAWYER | 1017.4 | 192 | 3221 | 186 | 17.32 |
| P.BASTERRECHEA | 1027.1 | 237 | 2872 | 185 | 15.52 |
| M.J.WHALE | 1166.1 | 284 | 3313 | 185 | 17.91 |
| P.A.WALKER | 1112.2 | 297 | 2641 | 171 | 15.44 |
| A.S.HUSZLICSKA | 764.3 | 147 | 2591 | 166 | 15.61 |
| D.G.WILLIAMS | 854.2 | 148 | 2683 | 160 | 16.77 |
| S.P.PARKER | 632.0 | 77 | 2368 | 152 | 15.58 |
| B.L.DURY | 441.0 | 40 | 1850 | 128 | 14.45 |
| J.R.COLLEY | 546.2 | 97 | 1797 | 121 | 14.85 |
| C.HUTTON | 524.1 | 95 | 1666 | 110 | 15.15 |
