WI local: Spin's A team skittle schools

Esa Field Pickwick caused some surprise by batting on at Deighton Griffith yesterday, suggesting they accorded their opponents more respect than they deserved.

It seemed an overly defensive tactic but the extra minutes really didn't matter in the end as CHIC Schools South were spun out in a mere 47.4 overs.

As they fell away with hardly a fight, the question was raised, once again, in this writer's mind, of just what would make a team scrap through a whole day's play to gain one measly point.

Perhaps that was uppermost in Pickwick's mind when the second innings was extended from 84-1 even though they already had an imposing lead of 225.

By setting Schools South a victory target of 260 in 54 overs, Pickwick effectively put the match out of the reach of the schoolboys.

And they didn't even need much of a contribution from their former West Indies fast medium-pacer Vasbert Drakes.

He bowled four overs and hinted that he may have been carrying an injury.

The stars for the new leaders of the Courts Suzuki Division 1 were their spin duo of Camilus Alexander and Ryan Austin.

Alexander, the Grenadian and West Indies Under-19 leg-spinner on his second stint with the Kensington Oval club, took a wicket off his fourth ball, dismissing Dwayne Smith, the topscorer for 26.

Smith was bowled as he missed an ungainly slog to end a second-wicket partnership with Rohan Thompson that promised more.

The resistance just about ended there as Alexander took four for 50 and off-spinner Austin three for 29.

Ryan Hinds took the wicket of No. 8 Ryan Wiggins whose 51-ball knock was the longest of the innings.