Ipswich Logan Hornets coach sends SOS for seasoned bats
THE call has gone out for Ipswich's experienced batsmen to reinforce the floundering Ipswich Logan Hornets.
The premier grade and second division teams were scuttled in the Brisbane Grade Cricket competitions on Saturday with coach Brad Wigney calling it "a day to forget".
In the first grade, Ipswich Logan, chasing a target of 324 set by Sandgate-Redcliffe, struggled from the outset before being bowled out for 121 off only 33 overs.
Chasing 264 against Sandgate-Redcliffe, the Hornets reserve grade side was bowled out for only 74.
Wigney said the failure of the second grade batsmen made it difficult for him to promote players to help the struggling first grade team.
He hoped some of Ipswich's more experienced batsmen would make themselves available.
Mitchell Weatherhead and Jarrod Bichel were the only established Ipswich and West Moreton Cricket Association first graders to make the leap across to the new Queensland Cricket Association Premier Grade club in this its debut season.
"It'd be great to have some of the more experienced batsmen getting around the Ipswich comp put their hands up for us," Wigney said.
We're crying out for batsmen at the moment so we would really love a couple of the older guys from the Ipswich league.
"We're crying out for batsmen at the moment so we would really love a couple of the older guys from the Ipswich league."
Wigney said the current Ipswich-based players in the two squads had struggled alongside the Logan-based players.
"Mitch Weatherhead bowled well but missed out with the bat," the former South Australian fast bowler said.
"Jarrod Bichel had bowled well, and Brent Potbury missed out with the bat as well, but he wasn't alone in that."
Wigney said while the teams were playing well in the two-day format of the game, they were struggling in limited-overs competitions.
"We're a young team so the expectations aren't really there yet," he said.
"We're playing well in the two-day competitions ... we're only just out of the four in both grades.
"But we're not having the success in the shorter forms."
The Hornets sit sixth in the first grade two-day competition and seventh in second grade.
However, they are last or second last in both grades in one-day and Twenty20 competitions.
They train and play at Dauth Park in Beenleigh, the home of the former Beenleigh Logan club.
But Wigney pointed to more of an Ipswich-based future for the club, predicting games will be played at the recently-renovated Ivor Marsden complex at Amberley.
"(Playing in Ipswich) is the future, there's no doubt about it," he said.
